Imagining the Impossible: International Journal for the Fantastic in Contemporary Media

Imagining the Impossible: International Journal for the Fantastic in Contemporary Media https://tidsskrift.dk/imaginingtheimpossible This international and double blind peer-reviewed journal is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of the fantastic in today’s entertainment media. The journal is double blind peer-reviewed and 1-3 issues are published per year. University of Southern Denmark en-US Imagining the Impossible: International Journal for the Fantastic in Contemporary Media 2794-3690 Author may use a more restrictive Creative Commons than 4.0/by but should then contact the journal Authors agree to the Copyright Notice as part of the submission process Assembling Storyworlds https://tidsskrift.dk/imaginingtheimpossible/article/view/138359 A fundamental assumption regarding fantasy worlds is that they need to have a certain degree of internal coherence and consistency, otherwise the audience’s ability to immerse themselves in the storyworld will collapse under the weight of its contradictions. It is time to reconsider some of our ideas about storyworld design. “Building” imaginary worlds implies construction according to an architectural masterplan. In Imagining the Impossible volume 2, issue 1 we consider whether “assembling” may be a more productive term, implying the conjoining of different modular parts into forms that may be put together in various ways by different fans, like someone playing with Lego pieces drawn from several different sets. Stephen Joyce Christian Mehrstam Rikke Schubart Jakob Ion Wille Copyright (c) 2023 Rikke Schubart, Stephen Joyce, Jakob Ion Wille, Christian Mehrstam https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 2023-06-28 2023-06-28 2 1 10.7146/imaginingtheimpossible.138359 Video Games in Transmedia Storyworlds https://tidsskrift.dk/imaginingtheimpossible/article/view/129696 This article looks at the impact of video games on transmedia fantasy worlds using The Witcher as a primary example. While Hollywood-centred franchises tends to follow a “mothership” model of transmedia, with one dominant platform surrounded by ancillary texts, The Witcher demonstrates an alternate model in which the video game series plays just as central a role as the TV adaptation. The article introduces the concept of “dual industrial core” transmedia to describe this type of franchise and explains its implications for fantastic storyworlds. Whereas mothership transmedia attempts to offer high levels of completeness and consistency, particularly in relation to the storyworld’s mythos and topos, dual industrial core transmedia favours greater flexibility. The key platforms for the storyworld maintain distinct differences between each other, often deliberately choosing to diverge in terms of character and storyworld representation, with the video game praised for its Slavic character while the TV series aims for a more generic fantasy environment reminiscent of Game of Thrones or The Lord of the Rings. What holds the fantasy world together is less a coherent mythos and topos than a particular kind of ethos, allowing creators in different media to expand the storyworld by creating “Witcher-esque” situations that are accepted as authentic if they remain true to the storyworld’s bleak, morally ambiguous worldview. As dual industrial core franchises become more common, we may also expect to see more fantastic storyworlds bound primarily by ethos with significantly less emphasis on a complete, consistent mythos and topos. Stephen Joyce Copyright (c) 2023 Stephen Joyce https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 2023-06-28 2023-06-28 2 1 10.7146/imaginingtheimpossible.129696 Transmedia Worldbuilding and Mashup Mythology in Penny Dreadful https://tidsskrift.dk/imaginingtheimpossible/article/view/134455 By focusing on the merged and interfigural nature of the characters and mythology in the Penny Dreadful transmedia world, this article seeks to demonstrate that transmedia characters are essential to transmedia worlds; they are anchors from which plots and mythology develop and expand. This is contrary to what is proposed by, for instance, Susana Tosca and Lisbeth Klastrup in earlier versions of their transmedial world theory, where character in their own formulation were “subsumed under the category of mythos” (Tosca & Klastrup 2020, 37). Instead, this article argues for the opposite scenario, that the construction of mythology in Penny Dreadful’s transmedia world is intricately tied to specific mythic plot structures, defining character conflicts, character narrators, and to serialized character development as well as character elaboration across media. Anita Bech Albertsen Copyright (c) 2023 Anita Bech Albertsen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 2023-06-28 2023-06-28 2 1 10.7146/imaginingtheimpossible.134455 Unworlding in Nameless https://tidsskrift.dk/imaginingtheimpossible/article/view/130077 <div> World-building has thrived as a new field for scholars interested in fantastic fiction since it allows for new insights into how imaginary worlds are actualized other than simply the formal devices that render fantastical worlds different from non-fantastical ones. However, there are things that cannot be told and there are things that should not be told — these are the reaches that much weird fiction likes to explore. In the vocabulary of world-building, we would say that readers are never given access to a fully coherent and consistent imaginary world. The process of Nameless is what I identify as the process of unworlding — when the imaginary world is filled with contradictions and impossibilities and break any attempt at constructing a system or structure. </div> Steen Ledet Christiansen Copyright (c) 2023 Steen Ledet Christiansen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 2023-06-28 2023-06-28 2 1 10.7146/imaginingtheimpossible.130077 Making the Fantastic Real https://tidsskrift.dk/imaginingtheimpossible/article/view/131460 This study - Making the Fantastic Real - provides research into the subject of design fiction, science fiction fandom, sharable digital media content on the one hand, and the design of real-life engineering artifacts on the other. This study has selected the case of The Hacksmith to understand the space of meaning (science, fiction, co-creation, and design) created by the production of “the fantastic” by this specific acknowledged Canadian Youtuber.   The Hacksmith Industries is the trademark name of the YouTube channel The Hacksmith (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/theHacksmith/featured">https://www.youtube.com/c/theHacksmith/featured</a>) created by Canadian engineer James Hobson in 2006. One of the signature elements of Hobson’s interests is the lightsaber and the Star Wars franchise. But Hobson explores many other dimensions of popular culture, ranging from nerf wars shooters to superhero artifacts of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His focus is on how to make elements or objects of the fantastic real, as his slogan goes, not to change any storyline, story arc or franchise world, but to see how far the innate human capability of play and creation can be taken from the fictional realm to reality. Tem Frank Andersen Thessa Jensen Peter Vistisen Copyright (c) 2023 Tem Frank Andersen, Thessa Jensen, Peter Vistisen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 2023-06-28 2023-06-28 2 1 10.7146/imaginingtheimpossible.131460