Winter of Zombie 2015
Suspension of disbelief
One of the issues we horror writers often deal with is the readers willingness to suspend disbelief. What exactly is this magical turn of phrase? It was coined in 1817 by Samuel Taylor Coleridge who suggested if a writer could infuse a “human interest and a semblance of truth” into a fictional (and fantastical) tale, the reader would suspend judgment concerning the believability of the circumstances in the story.
This is something every reader of zombie horror fully understands. The problem, however, lies in just how much the reader is willing to suspend. Consider this:
You’re reading a novel about the apocalypse, one where humans have died and come back to life as brain/flesh eating machines of love and grace (or hate and indecency, depending on your bent). That is the big suspension. Why? As of this moment, the human creature, once dead…
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