La Voz de Galicia – February 1, 2026 →
“Suspension of disbelief” is an expression by the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge that refers to the way we engage with works of literature, theater, or cinema; setting aside our critical thinking so that we can enjoy or inhabit the work without questioning whether it is believable or not. Our brain understands that what we are seeing or reading is not real, but somehow, during this suspension of our disbelief, we accept it as if it were real and become emotionally invested in, for example, Superman or Star Wars, without doubting whether that story could actually happen in our reality.
I’ve been thinking a lot about this idea lately. I suppose it’s because, sometimes, when I hear, watch, or read the news about what is happening in many cities in the United States, I tend not to want to believe what I’m reading, not wanting to accept that it’s not a movie, that it’s not a work of fiction. And I keep watching the news as if what they’re showing isn’t happening right next door. In my own neighborhood. As if those who are threatened, who are taken away, weren’t neighbors, friends, or acquaintances, with their incredibly complex survival stories. And suddenly, the disbelief dissipates, everything becomes real, and one finds oneself plunged into an existential dilemma… And now what?
It’s hard to imagine where we are headed—not just in the United States, but globally. It’s hard not to imagine the worst possible scenario. But it’s also hard to act. Fear is powerful, and it has the ability to take over everything. Will there be anyone capable of confronting King Lear? Will there be anyone capable of deciphering whether we are in the prologue or the exodus of this contemporary tragedy? Would anyone be able to tell me where the button is to stop all this, to stop this movie?
