World building involves creating a fictional world with its own rules, environments, and cultures, drawing inspiration from our own world and its history to imagine different societies and cultures.
World building requires a deep understanding of disciplines like geography, sociology, and anthropology, as well as creative imagination to construct a coherent and believable fictional world.
Power dynamics within societies is an important aspect of world-building, involving the understanding of sociological power and the influence of rituals and performances in maintaining power structures and hierarchies.
Deep dives
World building in science fiction and fantasy
World building is a unique aspect of science fiction and fantasy writing. It involves creating a fictional world that is different from our own, with its own set of rules, environments, and cultures. World building is the process that writers use to develop this world before they start writing their story. It includes creating the physical aspects of the world such as geography, climate, and ecosystems, as well as the sociological elements like language, religion, and societal structures. Writers often draw inspiration from our own world and its history to imagine how different societies and cultures might develop in this fictional world. World building requires a deep understanding of various disciplines like geography, sociology, and anthropology, as well as creative imagination.
Creating a Desert Society with Unique Adaptations
In this world building exercise, the focus is on creating a desert-dwelling society with unique adaptations. The society lives in a desert region with distinct features like alkaline dust, cracked ground, and occasional dust storms. The people have prehensile tails, which suggests a history of climbing environments like forests or rock formations. They inhabit giant rock formations, creating beautiful cities within them. As a society, they are economically disadvantaged compared to coastal cities. They rely on trading in order to survive, traveling through the desert and exchanging resources with the wealthier coastal cities. However, they face stigmatization and blame for the dwindling water resources, which leads to power dynamics and potential displacement. These desert dwellers have societal distinctions like their communal culture, standards of beauty based on sun resistance, and roles within society. They are traders who often defy their lower status by adopting behaviors typically associated with higher status individuals in the coastal cities.
Understanding and Applying Models in World Building
World building involves understanding and applying models to create a coherent and believable fictional world. These models are based on an understanding of our own world and how it works, including its physical, sociological, and historical aspects. By analyzing different disciplines like geography, sociology, anthropology, and history, writers develop a framework to construct a fictional world that aligns with its own rules and unique elements. The process involves considering the impact of environment, history, and cultural factors on the societies within the world. Additionally, world building requires imagination and creativity to extrapolate how these fictitious societies and cultures might differ from our own. It is a process of building a robust model of the world and its inhabitants, allowing the writer to create realistic and engaging stories within this fictional setting.
Building Societies Based on Expertise and Survival Techniques
In this podcast episode, the speaker discusses how certain societies, under difficult conditions, have developed their own unique ways of living and interacting. These societies function as builders, focusing on expertise in creating durable dwellings and withstanding harsh climates. The speaker gives an example of ancient Anasazi settlements in Arizona, built in cliffs as an example of advanced architecture in challenging environments. The speaker suggests that these cultures could offer their expertise in building design to other societies. Additionally, the speaker explores how a desert culture adapted to water scarcity could provide valuable knowledge in water reclamation techniques to other regions facing similar challenges.
Power Dynamics and Societal Inequality
The podcast delves into the concept of power dynamics within societies. It highlights how individuals or groups with physical power may still be subjugated by sociological power. The speaker draws parallels from real-world examples, such as the oppression of individuals with tremendous abilities in the Broken Earth trilogy and the experiences of different groups cohabiting in history, like Vikings and Inuits in Greenland. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding power dynamics when world-building and acknowledges the realities of power dynamics in our own society. Furthermore, it is discussed how it is crucial to be aware of the influence of rituals and performances in maintaining power structures and hierarchies, and how immersing oneself in different cultures can shed light on one's own societal norms and behaviors.
I’m just going to say it. This may be the most fun I’ve ever had on a podcast. Nora Jemisin — better known by her pen name, N.K. Jemisin — just won the Hugo Award for best novel for the third year in a row. No one had ever done that before. Jemisin is also the first author to have every book in a single series win the Hugo for best novel, and the first black author to win a Hugo for best novel. She’s a badass. What makes Jemisin’s work so remarkable is the power and detail of the worlds she builds for her characters, and her readers, to inhabit. In this podcast, she shows us how she does it: Jemisin teaches a world-building seminar for sci-fi and fantasy authors, and here, she leads me through that exercise live. It’s a master class not only in building a new world but in understanding our own. You don’t want to miss this. Recommended books: The Murderbot Diaries series from Martha Wells Unexpected Stories by Octavia Butler
