Constructed Worlds
Further information: Constructed worldFantasy worlds created through a process called world building are known as a constructed world. Constructed worlds elaborate and make self-consistent the setting of a fantasy work. World building often relies on materials and concepts taken from the real world.
Despite the use of magic or other fantastic elements such as dragons, the world is normally presented as one that would function normally, one in which people could actually live, making economic, historical, and ecological sense. It is considered a flaw to have, for example, pirates living in lands far from trade routes, or to assign prices for a night's stay in an inn that would equate to several years' income for a farmer.
Furthermore, the fantastic elements should ideally operate according to self-consistent rules of their own; for example, if wizards' spells sap their strength, a wizard who does not appear to suffer this must either be putting up a facade, or have an alternative explanation. This distinguishes fantasy worlds from surrealism and even from such dream worlds as are found in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.
Read more about this topic: Fantasy World
Famous quotes containing the words constructed and/or worlds:
“The analogy between the mind and a computer fails for many reasons. The brain is constructed by principles that assure diversity and degeneracy. Unlike a computer, it has no replicative memory. It is historical and value driven. It forms categories by internal criteria and by constraints acting at many scales, not by means of a syntactically constructed program. The world with which the brain interacts is not unequivocally made up of classical categories.”
—Gerald M. Edelman (b. 1928)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)