Mundane Manifesto 2.0

them they are happyness in slavery, if they cant chose they are big object, hell asmiov did make some comparation the slavery in his books(but again that man did pretty much everything)

Now, evocative worldbulding is something place more to impress and give and idea than explaing something, when harry go ministeries he encounter weird and strange stuff, we dont know WHY but it dosent need it, their impact left enought and make ask big questions

Is the diferent between how the egyptian made the pyramid and SEE one, the former give you detail that dosent really mean shit until later, relaying in fridge brillance, evocative worldbulding is more a HOLY SHI- moment.

I see what you mean. Then again, a book can only be evocative through its prose, so there's no functional difference between showing and telling. If anything, since a book can't always rely on illustrations, having the narrator or a character blurt out relevant exposition would be more engaging than just describing the scenery.

Still, there is a difference between telling the fictional history of elements of the world, and explaining the fictional physics that drives their functions. You can't spell history without story, after all, while much fewer readers would geek out over the explanations of fictional devices and natural phenomena. "The Sword of Legend that once slayed three giants in one strike" definitely sounds more engaging than "The Sword of Legend forged from a carbon-mithril alloy with duskboar ivory engravings in the hilt". One is a story, the other is a limited edition collector's item commercial. (Mind you, it can also be used as a character building moment - the Monster Hunter International series is chock-full of lavishly described gun porn, but it only serves to enhance the experience of seeing a horror-fantasy world through the eyes of a trigger-happy monster hunter. A zombie apocalypse? I call it a target-rich environment.)

edited 21st Sep '16 12:50:18 PM by indiana404

Both have their strong and weakness of course, layerd worldbulding only funtion when is imporant, otherwise it feel distracting and if the story is not engaging you are creating a empthy theater, pretty but without reason(as it happen with Avatar and jupiter asending who have intersting setting but boring story to tell in it)

Evocative is good...but is insustancial ir relies in "not touch the men behind the curtain"

Granted both are conected in many way, if I tell there is a powerfull race who dominate the space and give you a detail is one thing but when you see the big dumb object and try to understand what the fuck is that, THAT is evocative worldbulding