Table of Contents
About the Contributors xi
Acknowledgments xxi
Foreword Rick Carter xxiii
Introduction Mark J. P. Wolf xxv
Worlds on the Rise 1
1 Why Worlds Now? Marie-Laure Ryan 3
2 Fictional World-Building as Ritual, Drama, and Medium Lily Alexander 14
3 The Past as an Imaginary World: The Case of Medievalism Dimitra Fimi 46
Structure 67
4 The Subcreation of J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth and How It Became Transmedial Culture Lars Konzack 69
5 Secondary World Infrastructures and Tabletop Fantasy Role-Playing Games Neal Baker 83
6 Battlestar Galactica and Caprica: Using Religion to Create Imagined Worlds Erica Hurwitz Andrus 96
7 Religious Impulse in Video Games: Implications for World-Building Edward Castronova 116
8 Minecraft: Transitional Objects and Transformational Experiences in an Imaginary World Lori Landay 127
Practice 149
9 L. Frank Baum's A New Wonderland: The Beginning of It All Michael O. Riley 151
10 "All Over the Map": Building (and Rebuilding) Oz Henry Jenkins 172
11 Discovering the Planiverse A. K. Dewdney 192
12 A Thousand Stories in a Day: Building Rilao and Reimagining Lagos Laura Cechanowicz Brian Cantrell Geoffrey Long Alex McDowell Jeff Watson Ann Pendleton Jullian 201
Reception 219
13 'The First Step into a Smaller World': The Transmedia Economy of Star Wars William Proctor Matthew Freeman 221
14 The Enchantment of Visiting Imaginary Worlds and 'Being There': Brand Fandom and the Tertiary World of Media Tourism Matt Hills 244
15 The Importance of Overflow and Chunking in World-Building and the Experiencing of Imaginary Worlds Mark J. P. Wolf 264
16 Language Makes and Breaks Worlds: China Miéville's Embassytown Gerard Hynes 276
17 Destroying Arcadia: The Construction and Deconstruction of Earth in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Jennifer Harwood-Smith 294
18 Bookland: Building England in a Time Travel Universe in Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog Helen Conrad-O'Briain 310
19 Blocks and Buildings: Virtual Tangibility in Video Game Secondary Worlds Kevin Schut 331
Appendix 348
Worlds Apart: Toward a Canon of Imaginary Worlds Mark J. P. Wolf 348
Index 363
