The recent publicity around Alien: Romulus reminded me of the fascination I had as a youth with the alien and horrifying world created through Ridley Scott's imagination. It dawned on me later that I was merely reflecting humanity's deep-rooted fascination with the mystical and extraordinary. This attraction is rooted in several aspects of our nature, at the base of which, there is the feeling of confinement created by the mundane realities of life. The mystical worlds offer a temporary escape from the ordinary, allowing us to explore new possibilities and experiences.
Psychology has a word; "Paracosm" to describe the act of creating imaginary worlds and alternative realities. Over the last several decades, these fictional worlds have become prominent in pop culture, from Oz to Middle Earth.
This attraction to the alien worlds has many metrics to quantify their popularity. For example, the stories of "The Lord of the Ring" family are best-sellers, with over 150 million copies sold in 30 odd languages (1). The movies based on these books are reported to have collected nearly 1 billion dollars at the box office worldwide, making them among the most profitable films ever produced (1). The 17 Academy Awards indicate their claim to universal popularity, with The Return of the King alone winning 11 of them. The potential of such fiction to make money is a well-established fact. "After a competitive bid against HBO and Netflix, Amazon is reported to have bought the rights to produce TV programs based on Tolkien’s imaginary world for 250 million dollars, which makes it by far the most expensive script idea ever sold" (1).
Another imaginary world created exclusively for movies is the Galaxy Far, Far Away in the Star Wars universe with countless planets, each with its unique characteristics and history. Coruscant is the Galactic Empire's capital planet, a sprawling metropolis covered in skyscrapers. Alderaan is a peaceful planet destroyed by the Empire in a demonstration of their power. Naboo with its striking scenery, is the home to the Gungans and the royal family. Tatooine is a desert planet with twin suns, which has associations with Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. There are other planets like Hoth: An icy planet where the Rebel Alliance established a base, Endor: A forest moon where the Ewoks live and where the Rebel Alliance defeated the Empire, Bespin: A gas giant with a floating city known for its cloud city, Mustafar: A volcanic planet where Anakin Skywalker turned to the dark side, Kamino: A planet where the clone army was created, Geonosis: A desert planet where the Clone Wars began and Dagobah: A swampy planet where Yoda trained Luke Skywalker. Each planet has a distinctive story and contributes to the rich mosaic of the galaxy far, far away.
Various thinkers have associated the fascination with imagined worlds with the basic human trait of curiosity which has played a pivotal role in human evolution, serving as a powerful catalyst for innovation, adaptation, and survival. Curiosity led early humans to explore new territories, seeking out food, water, and shelter. This exploration expanded their knowledge of the environment and enabled access to critical resources. Curiosity prompted humans to experiment with different materials and tools, leading to the development of new technologies such as fire, weapons, and shelters. When faced with obstacles, curiosity drives humans to find ways to overcome them. This problem-solving ability was crucial for survival in changing environments. Curiosity encouraged experimentation and innovation, leading to new tools, techniques, and strategies.
This fascination has also been linked to other human traits. Mystical stories can offer profound insights into the nature of existence, the human condition, and the mysteries of the universe when we seek meaning and purpose in life.
Many mystical stories employ archetypal characters and symbols that trigger a deep resonance with our collective unconscious. These archetypes, such as the hero, the villain, and the wise old man, tap into our shared human experiences and emotions. While not everyone believes in the supernatural, many people are drawn to the idea of a world beyond our senses. Mystical stories often explore these possibilities, providing a sense of awe.
In essence, our fascination with mystical worlds stems from a combination of our desire for escape, our curiosity about the unknown, our search for meaning, and our innate connection to the archetypal. Together, these create an enduring appeal that continues to attract viewers spanning generations.
Cognitive scientists Edgar Dubourg, and Nicolas Baumard, in their paper, "Why We Are Fascinated By Imaginary Worlds?" have offered the human preference for exploration as a plausible explanation for this fascination. According to them, fiction provides ‘intensified stimuli’ crafted to grab the consumers’ attention, by attracting people’s attention, Their thesis is that our preferences for imaginary worlds rely on exploratory preferences, driving us to prospect novel environments (1).
From an evolutionary point of view, exploring the environment has benefits leading to discovering new resources: food, mates, habitats etc. These far outweigh the costs of exploration. Trans-continental human migration and dispersal have allowed fast colonisation of new homelands spread over the planet.
Wayfinding, defined as the ability to wander and reach a destination efficiently, is a skill indicating exploratory preferences in human beings. Performance in wayfinding envisages cognitive skills such as visuospatial memory and mental rotation ability.
‘Plasticity’ indicates the degree to which an organism is open “to generating new goals, new interpretations of the present state, and new strategies to pursue existing goals” and envelopes exploratory preferences (2). This is obvious because spatial exploration demands flexibility to be responsive to changing environments.
The attractive properties of explorable environments are heightened in works of fiction, which compete for audiences' attention. The authors intensify the stimuli to attract the audience. 1914 saw the birth of Tolkien’s world Arda. This was the first of the imagined worlds similar in magnitude to the real world. As we approached the end of the previous century, many such worlds had sprung up worldwide.
If exploratory preferences render imaginary worlds culturally attractive and successful, it is logical that to retain their attractiveness and success, there has to be a constant renewal (1). The other characteristics of the imaginary worlds are that they should be more attractive to people willing to accept new experiences. Youth and people of higher levels of affluence should be more drawn to imaginary worlds. People with higher levels of learning seem to favour exploration. For instance, 82.4% of the SF and fantasy fans surveyed claim education at the university level or above (3). Similarly, affluence allows people to desire exploration of both the real and imaginary worlds.
Scaled globally, imaginary worlds should have more popularity in economically more advanced countries. In support of this idea, modern imaginary worlds emerged for the first time in the UK, the richest country in the 19th century and later spread to the European and American societies. It gained popularity in mainland China at the turn of the new millennium, two decades after the take-off of the Chinese economy (4).
1. https://hal.science/hal-03419898/file/Dubourg%20Baumard%202021%20Why%20Imaginary%20Worlds.pdf Why imaginary worlds? The psychological foundations and cultural evolution of fiction with imaginary worlds Edgar Dubourg, Nicolas Baumard, Behav Brain Sci 2021 Jul 8:45:e276
2. DeYoung, C. G. (2013). The neuromodulator of exploration: A unifying theory of the role of dopamine in personality. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00762
3. Menadue, C. B., & Jacups, S. (2018). Who Reads Science Fiction and Fantasy, and How Do They Feel About Science? Preliminary Findings From an Online Survey. SAGE Open, 8(2), 215824401878094. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244018780946
4. Song, H. (2013). Chinese Science Fiction: A Response to Modernization. Science Fiction Studies. https://doi.org/10.5621/SCIEFICTSTUD.40.1.0015
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