Imaginary world

The imaginary worlds are a recurring Thème in the Imaginaire of the men and this for a multitude of reasons: to try to include/understand the world which surrounds it, Critique R this world, from of to escape, the to flee, or for simple the Plaisir of creating, to modify, etc

Broad topics of the imaginary worlds

Displacements at very high speed

The methods of displacement in works of science fiction often draw their origins from scientific dreams.

One of the most known methods is the voyage at speed of light . The example more speaking is in the Star Wars where the cruisers move with speed of light. It is scientifically impossible because only the objects without mass can move at such a speed according to the laws of physics.

Supra-luminic speeds are proposed in Star Trek.

To fold up space . It is what is proposed in the novel Dune. This principle is based on the physical laws stated by Albert Einstein: the increase in the mass of an object is enough so that space around this one is folded up and that the distances become négligables. The movement without displacement!

In the eternal War, one proposes to us jumps collapsars between extinct suns: a vessel entering a field collapsar with a certain speed and under a certain angle arises in another collapsar according to the angle taken at the beginning, this in a very short amount of time. One approaches the voyage at speed of light here.

While passing in another universe . Warhammer 40,000, to move one enters a parallel universe called the warp where space is definitely shorter but also more dangerous.

Douglas Adams describes in the Guide of the galactic traveller a spaceship equipped with a generating of infinite improbability . This generator makes it possible the vessel to be in the most improbable places and thus to move more quickly than the light. However, this generator created at the same time of other improbable situations, even rather awkward.

Other methods, the such teleportation , are evoked in many fantastic novels.

Displacements in time

The Voyage in time is a topic which is very often found in works of science fiction. This type of voyage indeed makes it possible to see or modify its past, its present and its future. It is done thanks to a machine (the Machine to explore time, the Army of the twelve monkeys, Code Quantum). It can be carried out thanks to particular human capacities (the Effect butterfly, Some share in time). Other means are describe to carry out the temporal voyage, like the use of cryogenics, the caesuras space-time, supra-luminic speed, etc

Fantastic creatures

Reflections on this topic

The lapse of memory of reality: danger or catharsis?

Cathartic and metaphorical role

The imaginary universes, while making it possible to project its phantasms, make it possible to release the tensions and “to purge passions”. This cathartic role contributes to social peace.

In addition, just as the Fountain used the animals to criticize the company of the men, just as the philosophical of the Lights used the remote countries as metaphor of the French company (to circumvent the censure), the imaginary world S can be metaphors of our world and our company; one can quote Micromégas of Voltaire. The authors can also show the dangers of our lifestyles by showing a company which would push them to the extreme. One can thus quote 1984 of George Orwell, Brave New World of Aldous Huxley, the Caves of steel of Isaac Asimov (the racism towards the robots, and in a general way its reflection on the artificial intelligence in its cycle of the robots), All in Zanzibar of John Brunner, the Lord of the Rings of J.R.R. Tolkien (which wants to be a representation in the form of tale of the “truth”)…

Duality well/badly and order/chaos

The imaginary universes, and in manner general works of fiction, often emphasize one or more dualities. Most traditional is the duality well/badly, but it also appears very often a duality law/chaos.

This is not valid only for the world S of fiction (in particular of Heroic fantasy ), but also for the majority of the Mythologie S. The Egyptian of Antiquity, just like some medieval-fantastic roleplays , are not interested in a duality, but in two .

To caricature, the good (Horus) against the evil (Seth) and the order (Maât) against chaos (Apophis). Thus, one sees sometimes Seth joining Horus to it to fight Apophis. It is the set of themes of the “necessary evil” (the war for example, penal sorrows…), of the “happy medium” (the neutral-neutral of Keeps and Dragons ) and the incompatibility between “good” and “law”. They opposed Maât (at the same time order, base, justice and victory) and the whole of the chaotic forces which threatened the world.

Generally, much of civilizations saw themselves like small islands of order encircled by chaotic forces (to read Barbare). But, whereas this fight between two paradoxical principles were for these people a manner of including/understanding the risks of the existence (good harvests were due to a victory of the principle of order, the years of food shortage to that of the opposite principle), it became in the modern world S imaginary the principle which makes the history possible.

The modern writer who truly proposed the duality order/chaos is undoubtedly Michael Moorcock, integrating it in his concepts of Multivers and Champion eternal.

Classification of the imaginary worlds

By supports

Compared to reality

World
parallel Worlds

By families

By times

imaginary Worlds of old Greece

Some imaginary worlds

Battlestar Galactica

Star Wars

Startrek

Stargate

Warhammer

References

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