Rating fantasy worlds

[alexxkay]

My friend Eidan passed along this meme/game on Facebook:
"You find yourself in front of seven identical doors. A voice from above tells you: "These seven doors lead to seven places: Narnia, Neverland, Wonderland, Hogwarts, Camelot, Middle Earth, and Westeros." Which door do you go through? Why that door? What happens?"

As Eidan points out, exactly where and when you end up makes a big difference, as well as your social status.

I'll start by rating each choice on the following qualities on a scale of 0 to 10:
* Tech level. I *like* living in the 21st century, and even going back to the 20th would be a big hardship for me at this point. OTOH, magic can often make for a higher *effective* tech level.
* Awesomeness potential. What wonders am I likely to experience?
* Horror potential. How likely am I to experience something awful? How awful do things get?
* Governance and civil liberties. How likely am I to be able to do what I want?
* Chance of returning. If it doesn't work out, can I come home?

I'll also add (and score) a few other possibilities in the comments.

Comments

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Saruman seems to be doing his best to get an Industrial Revolution underway, in both Isengard, and later, The Shire.

Rivendell and Lothlorien, while not necessarily big on mechanical engineering, have a lot of high art and creature comforts that I would equate with a pretty high TL.

[corwyn-ap.livejournal.com]

War is a lot less common on Middle earth than modern day US.

There is a lot less geography there than here, but travel is slow. Truth really is that you see more things per minute walking than you do flying.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Yeah, very long and still not yet complete. ISTR reading somewhere that we're past the halfway point to the ending the author has in mind, but I can't find a cite, so take that with a grain of salt.

[siderea]

Yeah, thanks.

[corwyn-ap.livejournal.com]

Seems unfair to put yourself AFTER the events of the story itself (albeit unfinished). Why not rate it at current story point?

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Wait a minute. "TL"? All I see in the post that could abbreviate as "TL" is Tech Level.

[gyzki.livejournal.com]

The Nathan Brazil fan club appreciates people who remember the Well of Souls!

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

If you include the Tim Burton movie, there are significant differences. Some characters really do die, and Alice returns knowing it wasn't a dream.

I've written a filk about the movie ttto the great old hit "(It's Only A) Paper Moon" (sung here by Nat "King" Cole): Cheshire Moon.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

"Rational!Harry will nt reshape the Muggle word" →

"will __"?, "world"

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

My first consideration is going to be "do women get to make their own decisions there?"

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Correct. The fact that their TL lags so badly, when it has no need to, says bad things about how they run things, hence affects the Governance score.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

"no doubt", "world". Composed this on a computer that has a tendency to hang briefly and lose several characters at odd intervals, and I sometimes fail to catch that that happened.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Neverland is probably Right Out, then. Though you might enjoy Jane Yolen's short story "Lost Girls".

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming I come through in 2013, except for the cases where there doesn't seem to be any clear correlation between Earth time and time at the destination (Narnia, Westeros) or where the stated destination inherently implies time travel (Camelot, Middle Earth).

[londo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but points for tech level in the meantime. And possibly governance?

[hungrytiger]

For me, ranking them as places to be deposited depends a great deal on how they would treat outsiders and what kind of place they'd be likely to leave you in afterward (assuming you survived).

Hogwarts and Narnia are tops. Appearing at Hogwarts would either leave you with a memory-wipe and returned to your original place or with a position as a Professor of Something (or possibly a ministry job). Narnia is fairly welcoming to newcomers and seems like they'be be happy to settle you somewhere.

The middle ground are: Neverland, Wonderland, & Middle Earth. I think living in Wonderland would drive me batty. Neverland, seems fun but the primitive nature of it would also grate after a while. Middle Earth is the best of this set (if you can avoid the wars), but unless you're settled with the elves or hobbits life seems pretty rough.

Camelot and Westeros are right out. Far too likely to be killed on contact and depressing places to live out my life if I'm not.

So of the list provided, I'd pick Hogwarts (with Narnia as a close 2nd). Missing from that list is the superior choice of Oz which rates higher on friendly to newcomers and a comfortable life to be settled in.

Of course, if I had a pick of fictional worlds to settle in, then I'd head over to "The Place" in Key West (from the Callahan's Universe).

[soon_lee]

My rating would depend on Horror Potential more, and being an Asian person, visiting some of those worlds could likely end up a one-way fatal experience.

From the list, I'd got with Hogwarts.

If given the choice of any fictional world, Iain M. Banks' Culture is attractive.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

It's been at least a decade since *I* read it, so Idunno. At any rate, it has a *long* way to go before it gets close to 2013 United States.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

The state of "my government is in a state of war with another government" is less common in Middle Earth. The odds of any random person dying as a result of warfare seem to me to be much higher.

If I want to walk through beautiful scenery, I have plenty of that available in 2013 United States. Scenery doesn't rate more than a blip on my personal scale of Awesome.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

If you happen to be a craft-oriented person, I bet you could have a good time living with Middle Earth dwarves in peacetime.

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

And since my other link was well received, here are Ursula Vernon's perspectives on Narnia and Neverland.

[corwyn-ap.livejournal.com]

Between the war of five armies and the war of the Ring, there was 60ish years of reasonable peace. Can you name a similar 60 year time period in US history? Or alternatively, name every war US has been involved in since 1950.

The difference would appear to be population, it is not clear what the population of ME is, from the books. We meet so few people, but the population must be far greater than we see to maintain the lifestyle we see. So when we see a few thousand people killed in a war in ME we think it is a lot. While a hundred thousand in Iraq is barely worth noting.

[corwyn-ap.livejournal.com]

Opening up the question, if you could live in ANY fiction, but are randomly substituted for an existing resident, where would you choose.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

Your points are valid. But, on the other hand, it's been 40 years since we had a draft. Though we have an army that is large in absolute terms, the percentage of our population that makes it up is miniscule. The percentage of able-bodied males in Gondor and Rohan that ended up fighting seemed very close to 100. And from what little we see, it's not clear that Isengard or Mordor contain anything that could be called a civilian.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

"randomly"? No thanks.