We are all familiar with the term suspension of disbelief. At a guess, less of us know secondary belief. It’s a Tolkienism that he used in a way quite similar to how we use suspension of disbelief – that we look at all the impossibilities and instead of laughing, think “well that’s just how it works here”. For Tolkien, the difference is that secondary belief is what is just happens, and suspension of disbelief is what happens when secondary disbelief fails and the reader has to make a conscious decision whether to keep acting like it’s there.
SECONDARY BELIEF VS SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF
An important point here about worlds.
We don’t suspend our disbelief when we enter an online/virtual world. We are invited to belive in them.
If anyone is interested in further reading on Tolkien and his position on secondary belief and world building, the opening chapters of Building Imaginary WorldsThe Theory and History of Subcreation by Mark J.P. Wolf is a good place to start.
