The willing suspension of disbelief

[Carol]

Carol earlier:
> > The moment we accept that Wizards and magic exist, that a
green-lit spell can kill anyone it hits except the Boy who Lived,
we've suspended our disbelief, whether we like the way the series
ended or not. Just discussing the WW and Dumbledore as if they were
real (all the while knowing in some part of our minds that it's all
just words on paper and the result of readers' minds interacting with
the author's imagination in its paper incarnation) involves the
willing suspension of disbelief, as does admiring or liking or
criticizing the characters as people (as opposed to analyzing them as,
say <snip>
> 
Potioncat:
> For me it was before DD even showed up, when Harry was even able to
string words into a sentence in spite of his treatment by the 
Dursleys. I wasn't able to do that on my first attempt at HP, but 
once I did at a second attempt, I enjoyed the ride. <snip>

Carol responds:
I chose DD showing up on Privet Drive because, aside from the owls and
the mysterious cat, he's the first example of magic in the books. Both
his sudden appearance (along with the Putter-Outer) and the next
unambiguous example, McGonagall's transformation from a cat into a
woman, occur before Harry appears on the scene as a fifteen-month-old
baby fast asleep in Hagrid's arms. And Hagrid himself, a "giant"
astride a flying motorcycle, requires the willing suspension of
disbelief. If you've gotten that far, you've accepted the WW as
"real," and you're ready for Killing Curses and Fidelius Charms and
accidental magic and all the rest of it (in particular Harry's scar
and its peculiar powers).

Believing that Harry can be okay despite the Dursleys is, I suppose,
willing suspension of disbelief of another sort, but it's not what
Coleridge had in mind when he invented the concept.

> > Carol, not sure whether Coleridge and his sometime-friend
Wordsworth belonged on the main list or not and deciding it was best
to post about them here
> 
> Potioncat:
> So suspended is my disbelief, that I thought you wrote that you 
didn't know if they belonged "to" the main list, so you posted here 
so they would see it. <snip>

Carol:

LOL! Considering that they died, respectively, in 1834 (Coleridge) and
1850 (Wordsworth), thinking that they were HPfGu list members
certainly would require the willing suspension of disbelief!

Carol, thinking that Coleridge would feel right at home on the main
list (though his pedantic style might annoy the other list members)
but Wordsworth would be out of his element (he'd want to leave his
books and go listen to "the sounding cataract")