: Re: How do you handle it when a controversial philosophy is an essential part of your story? What do I mean? Well, teleporters: "Every room resets. Remember I told you that? Every room reverts

@Cugini967

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The 'philosophical concept' underpinning the story is not the same as the set of physical or temporal assumptions a reader needs to make in suspending disbelief while reading a work of horror/ fantasy/ alternate history/ science fiction. In other words, it is not essential to the reader's experience to agree with your philosophy in the same way as, for example, willfully deciding to believe in vampires (at least for the duration) is necessary to properly feel the visceral thrill of Dracula.

The greatest illusion is that there is a self which is unique and cannot be replaced. Bollocks, the universe is not your wish-fulfilling fairy. There is no one to protect us, no God, no Richard Dawkins, no Soul. And you know what, I don't give a fiddle about it.

As the earlier answers noted, you cannot make the reader immediately accept it, does the writer ever actually have that much influence over the reader? If you want to spell it out, you can either state that philosophy out loud as the 'omniscient narrator' or put it into the mouth of a character, to make it respectively explicit or implicit to the reader that that's the philosophical framework upon which you are basing your story.

But the best authors don't often do it that way. They usually show, not tell. The philosophical base is built up incrementally over several pages through the converging and diverging actions and opinions of multiple characters, the manner of description of events, the tone and tenor of the writing, and commentary that illustrates (rather than spells out) the author's world view.

Famous examples of this approach in 20th century novels:

"Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy [philosophical base: the Old West was amoral];

"Island" by Aldous Huxley [personal growth through Eastern spirituality and pacifism];

"Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut [senselessness of war].

The reader will understand the philosophical concept as he goes along, and his agreement with your ideas is not necessary for his enjoyment of your written work, as also noted by @sudowoodo in comments.

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