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Post by thewordcrafter on Nov 18, 2009 8:20:09 GMT -5
I would like to pose a world suggestion, and see where the people flesh it to.
What if the world were actually flat?
Things to consider: What would politics look like. What would science and technology look like. Exploration of the "other side"? Capitol punishment. Recreation. Business. Education. The seasons (would the world be divided like a pizza for the seasons?) Would we fence in the edge?
Approach this from a today standpoint... what would it look like in today's society if we'd learned to live with a flat world.
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Post by Paul Baines on Nov 18, 2009 9:31:24 GMT -5
Have you read any of the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett? He uses the old model of a flat world on four elephants standing on a giant turtle swimming through space.
His stories are generally a spoof of all things Fantasy, but he has some interesting ideas and they are laugh-out-loud funny in places.
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Post by dmgraham on Nov 18, 2009 10:38:12 GMT -5
The ms I am currently working on has a world that is flat.
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Post by metalikhan on Nov 19, 2009 2:46:19 GMT -5
I was listening to the Silmarillion on cd earlier and heard something I hadn't noticed when I read the book. It sounded like Middle Earth (according to JRRT) started out flat but was twisted and "bent" when the great Flood occurred.
I need to excavate the book and re-read that.
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Post by waldenwriter on Nov 19, 2009 16:02:18 GMT -5
I was listening to the Silmarillion on cd earlier and heard something I hadn't noticed when I read the book. It sounded like Middle Earth (according to JRRT) started out flat but was twisted and "bent" when the great Flood occurred. I need to excavate the book and re-read that. Actually, what happened was that the Valar changed the shape of Middle Earth in order to hide Aman from all but the elves (who get there by way of the Straight Road). This occurred after the Downfall of Númenor, where the Númenoreans were punished by the Valar because some of them had tried to sail to Aman, against the Valar's orders. The "flood" idea you are thinking of probably comes from the fact that in the Downfall, the isle of Númenor sunk into the sea (much like Plato's account of Atlantis).
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Post by metalikhan on Nov 20, 2009 23:07:40 GMT -5
Hey, thanks, WW! The book box I thought the Silmarillion was in -- well, it wasn't the one. Only a couple dozen other possible boxes to look through. You saved me a major excavation.
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Post by waldenwriter on Nov 20, 2009 23:41:41 GMT -5
Hey, thanks, WW! The book box I thought the Silmarillion was in -- well, it wasn't the one. Only a couple dozen other possible boxes to look through. You saved me a major excavation. You're welcome! I've read The Silmarillion a few times, plus I have browsed The Encyclopedia of Arda quite a bit, an online LOTR encyclopedia which has a lot of info from The Silmarillion and the other non-trilogy LOTR-related books ( Unfinished Tales, etc). Basically, I'm a Tolkien nerd. I admit it. As regards the actual subject of this thread, there is a writing prompt in a book I have (called The Writer's Block: 786 Ideas to Jump-Start Your Imagination, a book shaped like a 3-inch block) that tackles this subject. It goes: "There are approximately 3,500 members in the International Flat Earth Society (people who insist the Earth is not round). Write about one of them." I like that prompt.
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vedwards
New Member
MLS Entry: This Side of Eden
Posts: 9
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Post by vedwards on Dec 26, 2009 9:54:26 GMT -5
Have you ever heard of Flatland by Edwin Abbott. It's amazing. Published before the theory of relativity.
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Post by tris on Dec 26, 2009 11:42:52 GMT -5
If the world were designed like a Mobius strip, how would they know it was flat? They would return to their point of origin, just like we do.
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Post by newburydave on Dec 27, 2009 17:41:07 GMT -5
If the world is flat would it have an edge that you could fall off of as in the Narnia story?
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