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亘賳丕亍 丕賱毓賵丕賱賲 丕賱禺賷丕賱賷丞: 賳馗乇賷丞 禺賱賯 丕賱毓賵丕賱賲 丕賱賮乇毓賷丞 賵鬲丕乇賷禺賴丕
賷賯丿賲 賱賳丕 賲丕乇賰 噩賷 亘賷 賵賵賱賮 賮賷 丿乇丕爻鬲賴 賱賱毓賵丕賱賲 丕賱禺賷丕賱賷丞 賳馗乇賷鬲賴 丨賵賱 亘賳丕亍 丕賱毓賵丕賱賲 丿丕禺賱 丕賱賵爻丕卅胤 賵毓亘乇賴丕貙 亘賲丕 賮賷 匕賱賰 丕賱兀丿亘 賵丕賱賯氐氐 丕賱賲氐賵乇丞 賵丕賱兀毓賲丕賱 丕賱廿匕丕毓賷丞 賵丕賱鬲賱賮夭賷賵賳賷丞 賵兀賱毓丕亘 丕賱胤丕賵賱丞 賵兀賱毓丕亘 丕賱賮賷丿賷賵 賵卮亘賰丞 丕賱廿賳鬲乇賳鬲 賵睾賷乇賴丕 丕賱賰孬賷乇. 賷禺鬲賱賮 賴匕丕 丕賱賰鬲丕亘 賮賷 鬲賳丕賵賱賴 賱賱賲賵囟賵毓 毓賳 丕賱丿乇丕爻丕鬲 丕賱爻丕亘賯丞 廿賱賶 乇賰夭鬲 亘卮賰賱 兀爻丕爻賷 毓賱賶 丕賱爻乇丿 兀賵 丕賱賵爻賷胤 兀賵 丕賱氐賳賮 丕賱兀丿亘賷貙 賵賴匕丕 賱兀賳賴 賷毓鬲乇 丕賱毓丕賱賲 丕賱禺賷丕賱賷 賰賷丕賳丕 丿賷賳丕賲賷賰賷丕 賮賷 匕丕鬲賴.
496 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
29 people are currently reading
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About the author
Mark J.P. Wolf
27听books12听followersMark J. P. Wolf is Professor in the Communication Department at Concordia University Wisconsin.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 4, 2019
This is not a how-to writing book, but rather an academic overview of created worlds and the elements that go into creating these worlds. It covers a wide variety of material from classical literature, fantasy, science fiction, and pop culture. If you're doing any research in the areas of fantasy or science fiction, then this book would be a useful one to have in your library. Of particular interest to me was the chapter on secondary world infrastructures. Using the ideas from that chapter would make it easy to describe why a fictional world feels real.
August 12, 2013
Building Imaginary Worlds is a valuable entry into the study of fictive and transmedial worlds - provided one sees it as occupying a particular place on the shelf of key works.
Both the "building" and "theory" in the title and subtitle are a bit misleading. The book is of only secondary utility for someone interested in building an imaginary world: it is definitely not a how-to worldbuilding guide, though its extensive schemas of categorization and classification may spark ideas in a creator.
It is also not particularly theoretical, though it makes an important contribution in rejecting, and explaining exhaustively reasons for rejecting, narratology as a theoretical tool for studying worlds. In this sense, its utility can't be overstressed: to the extent that narratologists still reign, they tend to see good worldbuilding as flawed narrative, missing the point.
The book's great strength is in its exhaustive history of worldbuilding up to about 1995: what in many books is canned history (Plato blah blah blah Sir Thomas More blah blah Burroughs blah blah blah) here is both more exhaustive and more engaging.
I would have preferred a work more heavily weighted to the present era, but that goes back to my opening point: Wolf is no Henry Jenkins, and this book should be read along with Jenkins' Convergence Culture and Saler's As If, as Wolf skews towards older examples and to a tight focus on authorial worlds, rather than fan/audience co-creation, in part because of his theological perspective of worldbuilding as an example of Man being created in God's image.
Mostly Wolf's biases are matters of selection and focus, and thus position his work as a useful companion to Jenkins and Saler. However, his relative ignorance of games and MMOs can lead to some flat-out errors, as repeated misstatements about MMOs indicate. Wolf mostly sticks to his turf and does well with it; off that turf, he can mis-step.
In all, well worth reading for humanities students of worldbuilding, if taken with counterbalancing works; possibly thought-provoking for creators in any medium.
Both the "building" and "theory" in the title and subtitle are a bit misleading. The book is of only secondary utility for someone interested in building an imaginary world: it is definitely not a how-to worldbuilding guide, though its extensive schemas of categorization and classification may spark ideas in a creator.
It is also not particularly theoretical, though it makes an important contribution in rejecting, and explaining exhaustively reasons for rejecting, narratology as a theoretical tool for studying worlds. In this sense, its utility can't be overstressed: to the extent that narratologists still reign, they tend to see good worldbuilding as flawed narrative, missing the point.
The book's great strength is in its exhaustive history of worldbuilding up to about 1995: what in many books is canned history (Plato blah blah blah Sir Thomas More blah blah Burroughs blah blah blah) here is both more exhaustive and more engaging.
I would have preferred a work more heavily weighted to the present era, but that goes back to my opening point: Wolf is no Henry Jenkins, and this book should be read along with Jenkins' Convergence Culture and Saler's As If, as Wolf skews towards older examples and to a tight focus on authorial worlds, rather than fan/audience co-creation, in part because of his theological perspective of worldbuilding as an example of Man being created in God's image.
Mostly Wolf's biases are matters of selection and focus, and thus position his work as a useful companion to Jenkins and Saler. However, his relative ignorance of games and MMOs can lead to some flat-out errors, as repeated misstatements about MMOs indicate. Wolf mostly sticks to his turf and does well with it; off that turf, he can mis-step.
In all, well worth reading for humanities students of worldbuilding, if taken with counterbalancing works; possibly thought-provoking for creators in any medium.
February 3, 2022
An academic take on how fictional worlds are (sub)created by their authors. It's not a guide on how to write a book but rather how to read fiction and how fantasy worlds are connected to the real world.
I liked this one for two reasons. It's a good book on history if you're interested in works of human imagination through time. The second reason is that it contains a lot of references to many works of fiction and captures the essence of what's fascinating about each one of them.
I liked this one for two reasons. It's a good book on history if you're interested in works of human imagination through time. The second reason is that it contains a lot of references to many works of fiction and captures the essence of what's fascinating about each one of them.
September 9, 2018
In this book, Mark J.P. Wolf creates a study of imaginary worlds. He theorizes world-building within and across media, including literature, comics, 铿乴m, radio, television, board games, video games, the Internet, and more. Wolf argues that imaginary worlds which are often transnarrative, transmedial, and transauthorial in nature are compelling objects of inquiry for Media Studies.
April 21, 2022
Loved the amount of references to literally hundreds of fictional settings to help illustrate points on worldbuilding concepts. Even complex ideas were explained clearly and effectively. Defo the go-to textbook on contemporary worldbuilding. Served as the backbone of my undergrad thesis.
December 1, 2021
Really happy to have bought this book, since it gave me some clues on how to build an imaginary world for my thesis and plus all the references regarding world building. Huge help!
May 12, 2022
This book had some interesting stuff about subcreation but got weird and over the top with the god stuff at the end
July 25, 2016
An excellent entry to the theorisation on imaginary worlds, very well researched and supported. The best comes from following an approach based in environments instead of based in narrative, but also the worst comes from that side also, because investing all in the environments makes you forget about characters.
Wolf is well known for his pioneer work on video games, this time it goes more in depth and presents a book that serves not only games, but also virtual worlds, and more than that all the new transmedia and cross-media projects that keep inundating the media landscape. Thus the book is highly sound and relevant for the current state of research in all the domains of storytelling.
I would prefer a less theoretical book, not based in software also, but more visual, able to show and present the overall relevant concepts, instead of the in depth textual descriptions.
Wolf is well known for his pioneer work on video games, this time it goes more in depth and presents a book that serves not only games, but also virtual worlds, and more than that all the new transmedia and cross-media projects that keep inundating the media landscape. Thus the book is highly sound and relevant for the current state of research in all the domains of storytelling.
I would prefer a less theoretical book, not based in software also, but more visual, able to show and present the overall relevant concepts, instead of the in depth textual descriptions.
January 17, 2014
While I did find the book as a whole a very good read, especially the first two sections, I think it misses out a little bit on thinking beyond a simple descriptive categorization of world-building. Since the examples of Wolf's narrative and authorial categories are usually drawn from a small number of worlds (mostly Middle-Earth, Star Wars and Myst), the book does little to explain what all these categories do with the material, what effect they have on the audience. Maybe this was not what the book set out to do, but I certainly had hoped for it after the promising introduction. It will now fall to other writers to use Wolf's categories to interpret worlds in meaningful ways.
January 2, 2014
Useful but overly reliant on literature, especially Tolkien, for examples (not to in any way disparage Tolkien). Wished there was much greater emphasis on modern gaming worlds which, IMHO, are pushing quality and variety of "imaginary worlds" into new, exciting directions.
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February 3, 2015It's a nice introduction to the concept, yet a bit too academic for my practical/pragmatic taste (nothing wrong with being academic, just not my thing)
January 18, 2015
Excellent, comprehensive book on this subject. As someone who would like to "subcreate," I found this very useful and inspiring.
May 29, 2016
One of the most well researched books on and best tools for world building I've come across. This book inspired many stories from me. I look forward to more from Mr. Wolf.
January 3, 2024
Great read if you're interested in how one shapes and builds imaginary worlds
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