March 29, 2006

Geofiction. The recent article about Urville reminded me of the phenomenon of Geofiction, or Geofantasy. These are worlds, not created as backdrops for books or movies, but just for the fun of it.

The more modest ones are just maps. More elaborate ones have a history, languages or even musical instruments. Sometimes they even take the form of scale models. This is where geofiction starts to cross into micronations, which have more presence in reality, like the Republic of Kugelmugel in Vienna.

  • Ah yes. D&D without the Ds.
  • State Og! This is pretty cool. I can imagine people getting very into this. But is it because the real world isn't perfect? Nickdanger: D&D?
  • Autiztralia ?
  • The Bronte children (in this case particularly Emily & Anne, but I believe Charlotte & Branwell participated) created an entire world, called Gondal, and wrote series of epic poems about them. I guess I suck for google-fu cause I have yet to find the poems online, just lots of general history/lit sites talking about them... This book can tell you all about it (The Brontes Web of Childhood) and this is some of the poems (by Emily) the Brontes are fascinating, in part because of the originality and power of their individual imaginations, more striking in light of the degree of isolation in which they were raised/lived in.
  • Also, I am sort of doing this myself, but I can't tell you about it cause its a secret but once I've finished (har) writing my novel I'll um...post it on that self-link thread....yeah!
  • Another favorite Geofictionist. Didn't turn out so well.