World Building in Pompeii

[peadarog]

 I'm still digging through Mary Beard's absolutely intriguing Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town. Every chapter is a challenge to the way I create the imaginary towns in my current work in progress. I have a character who is a baker, so where are the mills in my cities? Who does the banking? How are the streets cleaned? I find myself furiously

Comments

[msstacy13]

As I so often say,
God is in the details.

[peadarog]

And the interconnectivity.

[msstacy13]

For that matter,
as Gene Roddenberry explained to Desilu,
the very mundane reality of the Enterprise
made everything that happened to the crew plausible.

[peadarog]

too true.

[ex_camillea]

Make the characters touch and interact with the scenery that supposedly gave birth to them. Let them change it and be changed in return.

Nicely said!

[peadarog]

Gratias!

[karen_w_newton]

It's quite true that historical fiction takes a kind of world building. You could even say it's harder than fantasy or science fiction world building because we do know a lot about the past, so you have to stick to what we know or have a good reason for deviating. Rome presents some interesting challenges. Whenever you go that far back, you touch the issue of slavery, for example. It's a lot harder to create sympathetic characters who own slaves and see northing wrong in that, but you have to if they are true to their time. There were no abolitionists in ancient Rome.

One of the best series I ever read set in ancient Rome as the one by Lindsey Davis that starts with Silver Pigs. And a friend of mine just released an excellent fantasy/historical novel about Cleopatra's daughter set mostly in Rome; it's called Lily of the Nile. But for a a gripping read with a fascinating view of Rome, my fav Roman novel has got to be The Far Arena, by Richard Ben Sapir, which is sadly out of print but still available as a used book

[peadarog]

I am familiar with the work of Ms. Davis already :)

As for making slave owners attractive, I think it is very doable. Just think of how future generations will struggle to make non-environmentalists attractive? It will be hard for them, what with trying to survive amidst the mess we've made of the planet...

But we're all just ordinary people who honestly don't believe we're doing much harm and in many cases are struggling to do our best and pay our bills.

"The Far Arena" looks really interesting btw...

[peadarog]

I've just ordered a copy of "The Far Arena" second-hand...

[karen_w_newton]

Wow! That was fast! I have a paperback copy that's falling apart, and a hardback I bought when I realized it wan't going to last. Hope you like it.

[opheliastorn]

That book looks really interesting! I will have to hunt down a copy.

Worldbuilding stuff like this is really interesting, and I definitely think it adds to a story. Cities or worlds that are completely familiar are just a bit too samey to me, and it's completely possible to integrate this sort of research seamlessly into the narrative - think of all the weird things readers know about Ankh Morpork without their introduction seeming infodumpy.

[peadarog]

Cities or worlds that are completely familiar are just a bit too samey to me, and it's completely possible to integrate this sort of research seamlessly into the narrative - think of all the weird things readers know about Ankh Morpork without their introduction seeming infodumpy.

Fully agree. The ideal is always to introduce things bit by bit. It's not always possible in every situation. Even Pratchett has to infodump at times, but he uses humour to make them interesting and fun.

[nwhyte]

Do you know strange_complex? Classical cities are her area of specialization.

[peadarog]

I don't! But I think I'll start following her journal for a while :-)