It occurred to me the other day that every fantasy book I have ever read was North Hemisphere-centric, regardless of whether it was set on Earth or an alternate-Earth. I tried to imagine doing my fantasy novel as if it were set in the Southern Hemisphere, with the ice/cold to the south and the deserts to the north. I bet if I did that many readers would be confused!
I thought about all the fantasy maps I have seen in my life, and in every case the cold and ice was to the north. In one sense this is logical, since our European medieval life (upon which most fantasy is based) was based in the north, and most fantasy readers also live in the north (the major exception being Australians). However, there is nothing to say that a different world would similarly be north-centric.
How about you, have you any thoughts on this? Have you read any fantasy books that were set in the Southern Hemisphere?
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A Crumby Deal
9 hours ago
I don't read fantasy, but that's an interesting idea you've come up with. How weird would it be to say, "Birds fly north for the winter"? Yeah, that's strange.
ReplyDelete~JD
Interesting post, Ted. I have actually given this a bit of thought, since I'm trying to decide where I want to set the novel I'm planning for NaNoWriMo. Although I'm sure I'll end up using the Northern Hemisphere, largely because that's the one with which I am most familiar.
ReplyDeleteIf you consider that most of our land mass is north of the equator, I suppose it's not really that surprising. And if a story were set in the Southern Hemisphere, there would be no snow, unless it fell on a good-sized mountain. If it were on our Earth, that is. Another Earth could be anything you want, couldn't it? You could make up cardinal directions, as long as you explained it. Sounds like a fun playground to me. :)
Now that you mention it, I can't think of any. Unless it was part of a D&D module.
ReplyDeleteI think there was a Southern colony in the Pern series.
ReplyDeleteYep, most of Earth's land mass is in the north, but that doesn't explain all those novels set in their own worlds.
ReplyDeleteSandra, I started the Pern series and didn't get caught up in it, so I stopped. I really should give it another chance some time.
Interesting point, good sir! It's rare for fantasy lands to range widely enough to cover a whole globe, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteNow I want to write a southern-hemisphere fantasy novel.... :)
Believe it or not, my novel takes place in a country that is "in the southern hemisphere". Rivers run south to north, with warmer weather up north and colder weather down south. It wasn't intentional - when I drew the original map of the country years ago, that's just how I did it. It is hard sometimes keeping the two straight, being so used to north=cold and south=warm.
ReplyDeleteI never really gave thought to the north hemisphere bias - great observation.
Excellent, Liz. When I drew my own map it never entered my mind to do it any other way than with the cold in the north. Next I should post about how most fantasy maps tend to have the ocean on the west side, just like Europe (and Middle Earth!).
ReplyDeleteOh, I tried to put the ocean on the other side, and I kept confusing it myself during writing. At some point it became so annoying I sighed and gave up.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad, really, especially since my work involves sailing across said ocean to discover a new culture, and the inversion would've been nice. At least the places they discover are more technology-advanced, which is contrary to Earth's history (for the most part).
oh wow! that's so true! i never noticed!
ReplyDeletethe earths north pole is actually a south magnetic field pole. Hmmm. . .
ReplyDeleteUnless we're talking about Warhammer fiction, I've not read any fantasy set in the southern hemisphere. Although in my WIP, the lay of the land is skewed so the sun rises in the south (at least to the perspective of the people in the story).
ReplyDeleteJamie, with mine the man from Earth arrived at the time when the local humans were still in an unevolved state, thus having no understanding of directions. So the men fro Earth would have just looked at where the sun rose and named the directions from that.
ReplyDeleteI have a story where there is only one world continent and two enemy nations face each other across an inner sea. One has seasons at the reverse time of year than the other.
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