Editing Hand-waving (section)

==In literary criticism==
{{anchor|Literary criticism}}
By extension, handwaving is used in [[Literary criticism|literary, film and other media criticism]] of [[speculative fiction]] to refer to a [[plot device]] (e.g., a scientific discovery, a political development, or rules governing the behavior of a fictional creature) that is left unexplained or sloppily explained because it is convenient to the story, with the implication that the writer is aware of the logical weakness but hopes the audience will not notice or will [[Suspension of disbelief|suspend disbelief]] regarding such a [[macguffin]], ''[[deus ex machina]]'', [[continuity error]] or [[plot hole]].

The fictional material "[[handwavium]]" (a.k.a. "unobtainium", among other humorous names) is sometimes referred to in situations where the plot requires access to a substance of great value and properties that cannot be explained by real-world science, but is convenient to solving, or central to creating, a problem for the characters in the story. Perhaps the best known example is the [[Melange (fictional drug)|spice melange]], a fictional drug with supernatural properties, in [[Frank Herbert]]'s far-future [[science-fantasy]] epic, ''[[Dune (franchise)|Dune]]''.

''Hand-waving'' has come to be used in [[role-playing games]] to describe actions and conversations that are quickly glossed over, rather than acted out in full according to the rules. This may be done to keep from bogging down the play of the game with time-consuming but minor details.