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#34744
Complete Question Explanation
(See the complete passage discussion here: lsat/viewtopic.php?t=12785)

The correct answer choice is (B)

The author discusses the suspension of disbelief in the second paragraph to contrast narrative photographs, including Cameron’s fancy-subject pictures, with narrative paintings and theatrical productions. While the suspension of disbelief is possible in narrative paintings and theatrical productions, it can never be achieved in narrative photographs, which “can never escape being pictures of actors.” Our prephrase is that the author discusses the suspension of disbelief to describe this contrast.

Answer choice (A): This answer choice is incorrect because Cameron’s pictures are not a case study used to support a broader argument about the difference between narrative photography and narrative paintings or theatrical productions.

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice because it properly describes the author’s purpose in discussing the suspension of disbelief. Since we cannot suspend our disbelief when looking at photographs of actors, a doubleness characterizes Cameron’s work and contributes to the author’s view of her work as “treasures of photography of an unfathomably peculiar sort.” (Lines 44-45).

Answer choice (C): Here, the answer choice is inconsistent with the passage because the author did not have a negative appraisal of narrative photography.

Answer choice (D): Although the inability of narrative photographs to effect a suspension of disbelief in the viewer could be viewed as a criticism of the art form, the passage does not present a criticism of Cameron’s fancy-subject pictures to which the author responds.

Answer choice (E): It is true that the author uses the idea of suspension of disbelief to introduce a contrast, as described in the prephrase and in relation to answer choice (B). However, this answer choice is incorrect because it misstates the contrast drawn by the author. Further, the author does not conclude that the fancy-subject pictures are more like narrative paintings than they are like dramas.
 medialaw111516
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#71959
The phrase "our response" threw me off here. I felt like it was a trap and should be "peoples' responses" or something about people who have viewed the paintings. Am I way off or was this a little odd?
 James Finch
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#71992
Hi Media Law,

Yes, it is an odd phrasing, as we'd usually use "the author's response" or something similar. However, it does comport with the first-person plural "we" and "us" used in the passage itself. Lines 34-40 exemplify this usage. So in a passage that uses a collective "we," especially in an art-related passage, it's entirely possible to see that same usage reflected in an answer choice.

Hope this clears things up!
 medialaw111516
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#72001
Yup, but I still don't like it. :) Thanks James!
 menkenj
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#83504
I chose the right answer, yay! But in review I almost fell for answer choice A so I'd like to dig a bit deeper. I ended up ruling out A because the suspension of disbelief was not the main point of the passage. Is there more that we can say about why A is wrong?
 Adam Tyson
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#84734
There doesn't need to be more than that, menkenj! Answer A is wrong because it's not true, and that is enough reason to eliminate it. BUT, if you want more, there IS more! Cameron's pictures aren't a case study used to illustrate some broader idea. They are the main subject of the passage!

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