3 ms·

What about religious text? They were always very much concerned with other planes of existence. Places outside of the real world. Nonetheless, I don't think it

What about religious text? They were always very much concerned with other planes of existence. Places outside of the real world. Nonetheless, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to have stories set in their own worlds, separated from reality. Maybe it is inevitable. In previous centuries, the world itself was largely unknown. Most people never left the city they were born in until they died. Reading something set in a different real place was in many ways the only way to experience it. What is the first noteworthy piece of fiction set in a fictional land? "Alice in Wonderland", perhaps? Maybe in a world that was becoming a tad less mysterious (we already had telegraphs, trains, steam ships and so on), some started to look toward fantastical, fictional world to have the illusion of an unknown world.

A_D_E_P_T 2y ago
People used to take the Bible and other religious texts very seriously, and they believed in their literal truth -- far more than they believed in the truth of the Iliad or Charlemagne's Paladins. What's more, the Bible mostly presents something like a historical account with supernatural effects. So I'm not sure what we can draw from this. > What is the first noteworthy piece of fiction set in a fictional land? "Alice in Wonderland", perhaps? Maybe Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene? Its connection to our real world is tenuous at best, I'd say.
- surgical_fire 2y ago
  > People used to take the Bible and other religious texts very seriously, and they believed in their literal truth I don't disagree. But in a world where even reality was very much a mystery (so you had myths of ancient lost civilizations, cities of gold, etc and so forth), maybe religion, as literal as it was taken, was enough to satisfy the common people with its otherworldly descriptions of places. My point is that I think it is natural that as the world becomes less mysterious and religion becomes increasingly seen as allegorical, the craving for fictional worlds where not all is known becomes more appealing. > Maybe Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene? Its connection to our real world is tenuous at best, I'd say. Maybe the oldes I can think of is the land of Avalon in Athurian legend? Still would have a tenuous connection to the real world.
tsimionescu 2y ago
At least aspects of fiction in fictional lands are much older. Plato's (admittedly very short) mentions of Atlantis in his dialogues are a good candidate.
mrob 2y ago
>What is the first noteworthy piece of fiction set in a fictional land? Earliest I know of set in an entirely fictional land with no connection to the real world is Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott, from 1884.

A_D_E_P_T 2y ago

People used to take the Bible and other religious texts very seriously, and they believed in their literal truth -- far more than they believed in the truth of the Iliad or Charlemagne's Paladins. What's more, the Bible mostly presents something like a historical account with supernatural effects. So I'm not sure what we can draw from this. > What is the first noteworthy piece of fiction set in a fictional land? "Alice in Wonderland", perhaps? Maybe Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene? Its connection to our real world is tenuous at best, I'd say.

surgical_fire 2y ago
> People used to take the Bible and other religious texts very seriously, and they believed in their literal truth I don't disagree. But in a world where even reality was very much a mystery (so you had myths of ancient lost civilizations, cities of gold, etc and so forth), maybe religion, as literal as it was taken, was enough to satisfy the common people with its otherworldly descriptions of places. My point is that I think it is natural that as the world becomes less mysterious and religion becomes increasingly seen as allegorical, the craving for fictional worlds where not all is known becomes more appealing. > Maybe Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene? Its connection to our real world is tenuous at best, I'd say. Maybe the oldes I can think of is the land of Avalon in Athurian legend? Still would have a tenuous connection to the real world.

tsimionescu 2y ago

At least aspects of fiction in fictional lands are much older. Plato's (admittedly very short) mentions of Atlantis in his dialogues are a good candidate.

mrob 2y ago

>What is the first noteworthy piece of fiction set in a fictional land? Earliest I know of set in an entirely fictional land with no connection to the real world is Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott, from 1884.