Writer's Block: Boldly going

[readingredhead]

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It depends if by "world" you mean a particular planet, or a particular universe. If I'm choosing between different planets/planet-like spaces/planar domains and dimensions, the first one that comes to mind is Narnia -- to live in a land where animals talk and children rule as kings and queens. Ever since The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe I've been longing for a meeting with Aslan.

But if we're talking about comprehensive fictional universes, I have to say that I'd most want to visit our mirror or neighbor universe (or is it really our universe and I haven't caught on yet?) as portrayed in Diane Duane's Young Wizards books and associated stories. Not because it has wizards, or at least, not just because it has wizards. In fact, I have a feeling that if I did go there, I wouldn't be one of those people who gets offered a chance to take the Wizard's Oath and take up a role in the great fight against entropy alongside Life Itself (because though I'm almost a "grown-up," a part of me believes or wants to believe that she's just describing the world as it really is, but as I can't see it -- and if this world really is her world, then I would have been offered the Wizard's Oath by now if there were any chance of that ever happening, because the world always needs more wizards...). But for whatever reason, Duane answers the questions of metaphysical cosmology for her universe in a way that appeals to me. Possibly this is because I first began reading her books in a moment when I was asking these same kinds of questions of my real universe, and failing to develop adequate answers. Possibly it's just another sign of the human dependency upon answers to fight off the darkness. Still, if I could head out to any of the strange and wonderful fictional worlds out there, I'd most like to find myself in a New York suburb eating dinner with the Rodriguezes and the Callahans (and perhaps, if I'm lucky, some alien visitors).

Comments

[aarivale.livejournal.com]

Ha! I KNEW you were going to do this one the second I saw the prompt... :)

[readingredhead.livejournal.com]

Yes, but did you know what my answer was going to be? :)

[aarivale.livejournal.com]

I did not anticipate the Narnia bit, but the Young Wizards answer was pretty obvious.

Hope, with a capital "H"

[(Anonymous)]

For me, the beauty and temptation of Duane's universe (universe_s_, actually, since the ethos is very similar in her Star Trek writings) is the certainty that Things Are Getting Better, that while death is inevitable, _suffering_ can be, and is being, defeated. It's really a messianic view, of sorts. And yes, I would much rather be in her world than the here that I know of.