Articles in Imaginary Geography
Geography and Science Fiction: the Creation of Realistic Alternative Worlds
(Note to readers: As GeoCurrents is technically on vacation, it seems like a good time to explore an issue that falls outside of the blog’s basic field of concern. For the next week, posts will focus on speculative fiction, culminating with the free release of my own science fiction novel, Terranova: The Black Petaltail, on this website. Regular GeoCurrents posts …
The Elaborate and Curious Geographies of Frank Herbert and J. R. R. Tolkien
According to most sources, the best-selling science fiction novel of all time is Frank Herbert’s Dune. When it comes to fantasy literature, nothing compares with J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Both works build intricate worlds, giving obsessive attention to detail. Such elaboration proves compelling to many readers, providing what seem to be fully realized alternatives to …
Speculative fiction and language
While the alter-worlds of the sci-fi literature and film may not always be geographically accurate, if not “positively simple-minded”, as Martin Lewis puts it, they do a little bit better from the linguistic perspective. In older (American) series everyone on all planets spoke idiomatic English, and American English at that! (And in sci-fi films produced in other countries, alien creatures …
How to create an “exotic” language: Na’vi and Dothraki
Although Klingon is by far the best known example of a “sci-fi language”, it is not the only one. Two more recent examples of languages artificially created for sci-fi films include Na’vi, the language of the aliens in the film Avatar, and Dothraki, a language created for HBO’s adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy tale, A Game of Thrones. …
Speculative Fiction, Imagined Geographies, and Social Alternatives
People are drawn to history and geography for various reasons. For myself, the major appeals have always been variety and complexity. I find variations in physical environments, social organizations, and belief systems intrinsically interesting. Obscure cultures, places, and times have particular appeal, as they help break the spell of the commonplace. It is all too easy to assume that one’s …
Afterword to Terranova: The Black Petaltail; Imagining an Alternative World
(Note: Regular GeoCurrents posts will begin again on Wednesday, January 11.)
Note: The full text of my science fiction novel Terranova: The Black Petaltail can now be downloaded here, and will remain freely available on this website. This long post is designed as an afterword to the novel, explaining the manner in which I have constructed an alternative world and crafted …
Visualizing California’s Soggy Past
A previous GeoNote highlighted a collaborative effort to map historical changes in California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin RiverDelta. In a similar spirit, the fantasy satellite map shown at left, created by Central Valley geographer Mark Clark and noted by Frank Jacobs, imagines what the entire state might have looked like in 1851. Perhaps the map’s most salient feature is massive Tulare Lake, …
Maps as an Instrument of Propaganda, Part 1
Maps are ideally supposed to be objective depictions of reality, but they can also be used as an instrument of propaganda, portraying the world not as it is but as it is imagined by the cartographer. A recent post on the Russian historical website Diletant.ru includes a collection of such maps (posted also on the Propaganda History website), referred to as “symbolic maps”.
Some Strange Fantasy Maps
The world of science fiction and fantasy is an excellent place to find strange maps, and few are stranger than the Drenai map posted here. David Gemmell’s Drenai series has prompted a number of fans to map the world depicted in the novels. Most are rather straightforward pictures of the author’s fantasy realm. One amateur cartographer, however, decided to map …
Terranova: The Black Petaltail - A Novel
Diversity Amid Globalization: World Regions, Environment, Development (5th Edition)
Globalization and Diversity: Geography of a Changing World (3rd Edition)
