So, as I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve been working my way through Angel on DVD. I never watched the series when it was on (shame on me–I also never watched Firefly when it was on the air and now it’s one of my favorites–sorry, Joss). I always knew I should, since everyone I know loved the series and it’s pretty well up my alley–vampires, yeah, but demon, hell yeah.

And I am totally enjoying the hell (heh) out of watching it*, but it brings to the forefront a very funny quirk of mine–the fact that I need everything to be logical all the time or it really bugs me.

This quirk is funny, considering what a fan girl I am and the fact that I write SFF. To be a fan and a maker of SFF, there’s a certain amount of suspension of disbelief that is immediately required above and beyond the usual suspension of disbelief required by other forms of entertainment. And my ability to suspend disbelief pivots precariously on a precipice of logic…
…which Angel consistently picks at with its inconsistency.

What I mean is, I don’t care of the rules of a world are real. Or possible. Or even probable. But goddamit, you’ve got to lay out the rules and obey them.

Like this: OK, he’s a vampire with a soul. Cool. But he’s still a vampire, right, so he’s dead, or rather undead, yes? He has no heartbeat, which means blood just isn’t pumping through his fine, brooding body. So, why does he bleed when he’s cut? And how in any reality does he get an erection? Or ejaculate live sperm which can impregnate a human and give him a son?

Magic? OK. But see, sometimes he bleeds, sometimes he doesn’t, sometimes the rules are followed, and sometimes they just aren’t.
There’s a lot I can actually just dismiss as being illogical without it bugging me overmuch (like the animal blood he keeps in the fridge? It’s have to be just plasma or it would coagulate into a scabby, gloopy mess…and nowhere in his gothy little apartment do I see a centrifuge or other such equipment, but hey, OK, cool).

But this is the same issue I keep having over and over with Heroes. I know the reality keeps changing, what with Hiro taking everyone back and forth in time (but WTF on why he doesn’t just go back in time and deal with the “formula” once and for all? It’s like a supervillian telling his whole evil scheme to the hero before killing him, giving the hero time to thwart said plan), and Peter Petrelli dinking around, and Gabriel’s turn-on-a-dime change of heart, etc, etc, etc. I still watch it, get involved, love it.  But I can’t fully accept it.

This is probably why I struggle so much with some of my fledgling story kernals. I have many infant ideas that I begin to work on, but as I move forward, I see gaping holes in the logic that I can’t bridge. Rather than leave them be, I tend to scrap the story entirely (worst case) or put in back in the hopper and hope I figure out how to make it make sense later. But I’m wondering if it’s just me, as a reader and a person, that puts so much emphasis on that aspect or whether I should just go for it, a la Angel and Heroes, and hope that my readers are seduced enough by the coolness of the ideas, the drama, and the characters to just not pick at scabs like I incessantly do?

*It adds onto my list of Things-in-SFF-I-Wish-Were-Real: a karaoke bar run by a fabulously gay demon who makes you sing for your fortune/life path. I would so be there, right now.