world building
the term is everywhere these days you
can't go two pages on the internet
without hearing it
the mcu has fantastic world building the
world building in witcher 3 is amazing
we're constantly being told that stories
need world building
which is integral to any work of fiction
and it is the very core of any good
fantasy or science fiction story
what once was a term used for a certain
strain of second world fantasy fiction
has spread across cultural criticism
and is heard in university literature
classes and video game reviews in equal
measure
so what is world building as per chuck
wendig
the new york times and usa today
best-selling author of star wars
aftermath
world building is everything and
anything inside that world
money clothing territorial boundaries
tribal customs
building materials imports and exports
transportation
sex food the various types of monkeys
people possess
whether the world does or does not
contain satanic twerking rights
worldbuilding therefore is just not the
act of creating a fictional setting
a setting in which your story takes
place in it is the act of fleshing out
an imaginary world that
feels real when done correctly there
will be no question left in that work
for the reader to fill in the answer to
everything from where do superheroes get
their underwear mended the price per
liter of blue milk
would be worked out at least in the
writer's mind even if not on the screen
this is not possible but word building
expects the author to have the rules
that are logically followed to their
conclusions
the problem with world building is that
audiences have come to expect books
films and tv shows to meet a certain
standard that an author can't possibly
and probably isn't trying to meet i see
people around me encounter a story
outside of the modes of actual realism
or fall world building realism and they
don't know how to evaluate it
they believe that a different way of
seeing reality and invitations to see
reality in a new way yourself but simply
failures of world building
and that's fucking stupid at the same
time
fans and i use the term lightly of world
building works
focus not on the arc of the story the
struggles of the characters or the
aesthetic power of the fiction
the focus on the inevitable moments when
world building breaks down
my least favorite example of this is the
crazy fan theory
these normally begin on a site like
reddit and spread like a californian
wildfire across the internet
why didn't the giant eagles simply fly
photo to mount doom
well it would be a really boring story
if they did that doesn't satisfy fans
who instead
create fan theories that explain and fix
and change the way we see famous works
like the lord of the rings
these crazy fan theories exist for
basically every popular book
or movie that has been ever produced and
these crazy fan theories
the reason for every director making
genre movies having to do hundreds of
press conferences after their movie is
released explaining
every detail that hasn't been explained
in the movie
the urge to fix or explain art is one we
should always be suspect of
at the same time the appeal to realistic
portrayal of alien or magical beings
doesn't have anything to do with realism
magical creatures don't exist if aliens
exist we don't know what they're like
yet
human history doesn't illuminate the
history of fictional creatures
the call to make such races more complex
is not to make them
more true to the reality of dragons
aliens or giant eagles
it is a call to make them more human and
thus more interesting and relatable to a
human audience
to be honest i don't think that world
building in fiction is inherently bad
there's a place for all kinds of
narrative houses in the vast city of
fiction
my argument is that world building is
overrated and overused
that a concept that's useful for certain
kinds of fiction such as epic second
world fantasy or role-playing games that
require clear rules for gamers to follow
is being inappropriately applied to all
fiction genres
that expectations for world building in
all genres have become a problem
causing audiences and critics to focus
on background details while missing the
essential aspects of a story
and leading to quick dismissals of
different fictional modes
in his essay on electric literature dot
com writer lincoln michael has a term
for what i'm trying to get across in leo
for building
world consuming he says i made a
distinction between the common concept
of word building
the idea that world should have clear
rules the reader can understand
and that authors should work out the
realistic workings of the world beyond
the scope of the story
and the idea that more details equals
better fiction and what i called world
conjuring
evoking a world through the thematic and
resonant details without being overly
concerned with whether or not the world
could truly exist
world conjuring does not attempt to
construct a scale model in the reader's
bedroom
world conjuring uses hints and literary
magic to create the illusion of a world
with the reader working to fill in the
gaps
world building imposes world conjuring
collaborates
some readers say that work building
creates a more immersive world and helps
to read your slide into the story easier
different audiences need and want
different things so this is surely true
for some people
for me however i'll say that excessive
world building tends to take me out of
the story
because the world building is conveyed
unrealistically and the focus on the
word building details only highlights
how impossible world building actually
is
by conveyed unrealistically i mean that
the painful exposition where characters
explain their world to each other in a
way that nobody would ever do in real
life
if you simply tell me that someone is a
hammer that calls for lightning
and can only be picked up by who the
hammer considers to be worthy i'm there
with you baby
but if you spend 10 pages explaining how
the hammer is built off moon stones and
therefore friggin moonlight can control
the said hammer
i'm way more likely to be thinking about
how the explanation doesn't make any
sense
let me ask you this was star wars
improved by midichlorians and trade
negotiations
i noted how often fans poke holes and
massive world building works like harry
potter lord of the rings the marvel
cinematic universe or a song of ice and
fire
i also noticed plenty of holes in the
plots and worlds and it's hard not to
think that they're so glaringly precise
because the work spends
so much time world building by contrast
let's take a look at comics
you don't question how superman flies he
just does
or how batman can master all the martial
art styles in the world in just 10 years
or how does tony stark maintain that
perfect goatee comics just throws crazy
shit at you without stopping to pretend
it could really work
i never stopped to wonder about the
workings of drum patrol's world
because grant morrison wasn't asking me
to and that brings me to a movie that i
believe illustrates the point of world
conjuring the best
green lantern emerald knights is a dc
animated movie released in 2011
that tells various stories featuring
members of the green lantern corps
including abin sewer lyra kilowog and
mogu
now this is an origin story in anthology
format
and that by its very existent assumes
you know nothing about the comic book
mythology of the green lanterns
hell it doesn't even focus on the
titular green lantern hal jordan even
though he is
in the story and is the primary narrator
of five stories that make up this
overarching narrative
the movie begins with a long forgotten
foe of the universe krona
awakening from the antimatter universe
and coming to the
matter world i guess to the son of the
oba sector of space
we're told krona created the antimatter
world and was trapped there by the
guardians at the infancy of creation
the rest of the how and the water left
to us in our imagination with that said
the guardians start clearing out oba
this is how scared they are of kronor
returning in terms of context we're not
given much
but the general concept of how powerful
crona was and angulating nearly all of
creation
that he would scare the guys who run the
goddamn green lantern course
and i think that's amazing i don't need
to be told how krona created the
anti-matter universe or destroyed nearly
all of creation just that
he could his power is to be feared not
understood
the science behind the fiction is left
entirely a mystery to me
we see the world of the green lanterns
through the eyes of the rookie arishia
who is being mentored by the greatest
lantern of them all hal jordan of earth
and she is bewildered by the grand scope
of things she is now involved in
she was just a student working on maths
problem just last week after all
now she's chosen to be a part of
something much bigger than herself
as i watch this it starts to dawn on to
me how the green anthem score an
army something which is not occurred to
me before despite having core in the
name
but the more i think about how the ring
doesn't stand on ceremony the more i'm
convinced that this is a draft
once this holder dies it shoots off and
finds the next person it thinks is
worthy and the new guy has no choice
he or she has been drafted into an
intergalactic army and as deegan says so
effectively in the next story
your life is not yours anymore for the
record i know in the comics being a
standard green lantern is optional and
you can give up the ring whenever you
wish
the course does not want to force people
with great willpower to do something
they do not want
and that is not the case in the movie
though which i am viewing as a work on
its own merits
back to story time hal tells ericia of
the first lantern the first one given a
ring was not the first lantern
the first was avrah arisha hears as we
do
at the beginning of creation when there
was much imbalance in the universe with
evil reigning supreme
and so the guardians decided to forge a
weapon a ring
out of the light of willpower a weapon
to bring peace to the universe
once again the how and the why are
immaterial we aren't asking those
questions because the story is not
allowing us to we are collaborating with
the story we are accepting that
willpower is reflected in the green
light of the rings
and that will power can be forged into
rings by tiny blue floating dudes
and i think that's magical avra then in
the heat of battle
when all odds are against him does
something the guardians never intended
the ring to do at all
through sheer force of will he creates
the first construct
a giant sword he overcomes all doubts
and all fears and creates something new
not to science or technology or even
magic he creates something out of his
own will
i do not need to know what avraha's
favorite breakfast cereal was to
understand how through his amazing will
this once mixed scribe has changed the
world around him
as the story progresses we see how
kilowog became the feared drill sergeant
that he is today
we are shown how he's trained in the
harshest of environments where the
harshest of teachers
taken killog hates deegan and as we look
at the training sequences we aren't
wondering if there are other drill
sergeants out there training other
squads
we're wondering how kilowog will
overcome this and become one of the
greatest lanterns
ever deegan imparts to him the
understanding that he was tough on them
because that is the only way he knew to
teach them how to stay alive as a
soldier with his dying breath he tells
kilowog that he would never let them die
during training
and that only the best make it to being
a lantern and to believe in that means
to believe in that your life belongs to
something greater now
he passes the torch to kill a war we see
legacy being born
ideals being carried on from one hero to
the next the story then flows to lyra
it is of how one can change the destiny
by becoming more than that they were
meant to be
lyra's father a warlord despises his own
daughter for the ring to have chosen her
over him
but through a brutal fight we learn that
this is not truly about that
it is about a father's resentment of his
daughter not needing him anymore that
when she needed help she called out to
her new family the
green lanterns and not him he regains
his honor with ritual suicide and
accepts his place in the afterlife
as lyra accepts her in the world as the
true protector
of jade and as a green lantern we've
shown the vestiges of a war happening in
the background but the story chooses to
focus on the fight between a father and
a daughter
in a grand war we're just shown bits and
pieces of it because the narrative calls
for something more intimate
something closer to home something that
conjures an emotion we're all too
familiar with
the next part of the story we hear about
mogu mogo is the most powerful green
lantern
the most powerful warrior in all of the
galaxies but he doesn't like to
socialize
you wonder why well that's because he is
a fucking planet do you ask yourself
well how does a planet wear a ring
how is the planet even sentient or do
you accept it and was this planet fuck
with the would-be conqueror named
bolfanga for days before eventually
murdering him in the last story hal
jordan's predecessor abin sur
fights atrocitus an evil criminal
speaking dark prophecies
abin sul was assisted by sinestro and
capturing the alien
sinestro and abinsu then had a
conversation relating to the warnings
that atrocitus spoke of
and sinestro insisted that he did not
believe in destiny parting ways abner to
the criminal to the prison planet
yasmalt
where atrocitus again spoke of
abensour's imminent death
he also warned aben that sinestro would
rise against the green lantern
core and create his own lantern core
built on the power of fear
abin sur however refused to believe that
his friend would betray his green
lantern duties and left atrocitus
imprisoned
he believes in destiny but he believes
in his friend sinister and his willpower
even more
we don't question how atrocities knows
all this and we don't question why arbyn
sewer has this unwavering faith in his
friend
the nuance of the acting informs us that
that is just how it is
we don't focus on the details we focus
on the emotions
the final act sees the green lantern
corps defeat krona by crushing him in
between the sun and oah
the lantern home planet as mata destroys
antimatter we see thousands of lanterns
move a planet with their willpower
but not for one second do we say to
ourselves
this is impossible or this is
unrealistic because the story the
character the acting and everything else
carries
much greater weight than the world
building does because every moment of a
story must represent the triumph of
writing over world building world
building is dull world building
literalizes the urge to invent
world building gives an unnecessary
permission for acts of writing and
indeed for acts of reading world
building numbs the reader's ability to
fulfill their part of the bargain
because it believes that it has to do
everything around here if anything is
going to get done
and so a story about stories of all
kinds of aliens using their imagination
as their greatest weapon is asking you
to do the same
use your imagination and that my friends
is the true wonder of fiction thank you
for watching this long long video guys
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