Worldbuilding literalises the urge to invent. The second essay “about why storytelling must take precedence over worldbuilding,” continues and extends the argument of the first with more vehemence: At the same time it is an unashamed postmodern fiction of the heart, out of which all the values we yearn for most have been swept precisely so that we will try to put them back again (and, in that attempt, look at them afresh).

“Viriconium” is a theory about the power-structures culture is designed to hide an allegory of language, how it can only fail the statement of a philosophical (not to say ethological) despair. They were books, which means that the one thing they actually weren’t was countries with people in them.įor him, any effort to delineate geographical boundaries and the like in a work of fantasy undermines what really lies at its heart. The great modern fantasies were written out of religious, philosophical and psychological landscapes. The first, “ What It Might Be Like to Live in Viriconium,” is an attack on the effort to codify and specifiy the nature of fantasy. Harrison came to my attention from a pair of essays he wrote on the creation of fantasy. So I figured it was about time to investigate its unknown literary landscapes. I have no memory of how, when, or where it came into my possession, but there it was. Searching my shelves for something to review this week, I saw a copy of the Bantam omnibus of his novels and stories of Viriconium, a city in the twilight days of Earth. Over the years I’ve read praises of his fiction but have never read a word of it. Ballard, hails from my terra incognita of the universe of sci-fi/fantasy authors.