In ninth grade, my teacher, Ms. Culhane assigned Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke. That book blew me away and introduced me to the intellectual beauty of world building, using our current world as foundation. I thought I’d share that experience.
Written in 1953, the basic story is one of aliens coming down to earth to steward humanity to a golden age of peace and prosperity. Known as the Overlords, they refuse to show themselves for 50 years. When they do, the look like devils. That golden age was, in fact, the next evolution of humanity, which requires evolving beyond physical bodies to merge spiritually with the Overmind.
What did that book teach me about worldbuilding?
Institutions evolve
In Childhood’s End, which was not projecting too far in the future, it had re-imagined marriages. Rather than romantic love for eternity, marriages were organized by contracts – you could choose a 5 or 10 year contract, and they were renewable. Whether you agree with it or not, the challenge of it, made me realize no institution was destined to last forever.
Culture change takes generations
Childhood’s End showed how incidents in human history can morph into deep cultural norms and fears that profoundly shape our world. The Overlords had come once before but humanity had not been ready at the time for the final evolution. So human consciousness associated the image of the devil with the end of the world, thus evil. The overlords did not show themselves until a generation grew up with them—because it takes at least that much time (two generations) to change fundamental cultural assumptions.
Fantasy can be prophecy
We assume time is linear, that we learn from history. But if time is not linear, than perhaps fantasy is a source of prophecy. In the book, human evolution releases psychic powers, which fill our history and fantasy and stories. Stories prepare to survive in society, but they also prepare for unknown futures. World building can use fantasy as an important tool for grounding culture.
Your turn. What stories (books, film, audio, tv, games) have worlds that fascinated you? Or made you question something important in your world?
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You ask the hard questions 💖. Our school library was not great for sci-fi, but it did have a few and I remember reading This Perfect Day by Ira Levin and parts of it have never left my head. I can never remember the title – have to look it up every time, but I remember the name of the computer so can always find it. It made me think about things that I had not thought of before.
Tasha 💖
Virginia’s Parlour – The Manor (Adult concepts – nothing explicit in posts)
Tasha’s Thinkings – Vampire Drabbles
I ask questions but its allows more of an exchange of ideas, which is one of the really neat things about the A to Z Challenge. And to help us all think about things in a new way. Thanks for answering them.