Arcadia:Fourth wall
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When performers (such as actors) or writers address/interact with their audience or readers, they create an imaginary "fourth wall" separating them (the "willing suspension of disbelief"), sharing information not available otherwise. This technique, known as "breaking the fourth wall"[1], was used to varying degrees since Star Trek: Arcadia's early years. Year 7 began to heavily utilize this storytelling method, with its application becoming part of Arcadia's literary approach, employed intensely through most of Year 8, continuing into Year 9.[2]
- Via this method, characters may
An OOC message, included in "The Line Begins to Blur", partly explains the rationale:
While the fourth wall angle was never intended to become the whole point, it's the only way Star Trek can make sense. There's suspension of disbelief, and then there's realistic suspension of disbelief. It's hard to believe in Hollywood's narrow vision, ignorant of the fact that we have now, or will likely have most of Star Trek's technology before this century is out, at the current rate of advance. Technology plays a large role in determining society, as for example, computers, television and nuclear warheads prove. Steam created the Industrial Revolution. The future will be very different from anything Star Trek portrays, either far more advanced, or not as advanced at all due to social trends. The only way one can accept it is by acknowledging that it's fiction, the product of imaginations in people who are interacting now, not in the future. Everyone's got a point to make, based on current lifestyles and limitations, and they do it through this medium. And that, itself, is the point.
In an Arcadia context, this should be viewed as crossing, bending, twisting or blurring the fourth wall, instead of "breaking" it, since Arcadia incorporates a real-world thematic approach as of Year 8.
- ^ Fourth wall @ Wikipedia
- ^ Nea Opsis
- ^ Escaping into the fictional world is, for many, the main attraction in reading or participating. Too much out-of-character tense jars the suspension of disbelief. Readers should never be reminded that they are reading a story. This technique should be used tastefully and only to the extent that it complements, not hinders, the story.
