Suspension of judgment?

I definitely agree with Lauren’s point about how it is the readers’ fault for falling into Bierce’s trap in “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.” With all of the clues he gave within the story, we should have expected the surprise ending. (Note to self: Take everything we read in this class with a grain of salt). I believe that as readers we blatantly ignore the truth within a story. Samuel Taylor Coleridge once said that creative fiction requires a “willing suspension of disbelief” which basically means that we purposely suspended our judgments concerning any type of implausibility. Like Minou mentioned earlier, one of the most obvious hints was the repeated use of the color gray. Gray is an obvious symbol for ambiguity and unsureness; and yet, some of us didn't recognize the clue.

I think that we tend to overlook certain things so that the story is not “ruined” for us. For example, I know that the show Pretty Little Liars is horrible. However, I willingly chose to ignore its horrendous acting and plot holes, in order to engage fully with the story. Even movies with special effects and stunts, viewers chose to believe (for the most part) that it isn’t out of the ordinary that people with guns never seem to run out of ammo or that explosions are unnaturally fiery and large.

After Thursday’s discussion and reflecting more on “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” I take full responsibility for being so easily fooled. And the worst part is that I’ll probably continue to fall into more traps as the semester continues.