The "fictional universe" trend

Recently I saw a publication about “what if the universes of Lord of the Ring and Harry Potter would make a crossover” and I was thinking; wait, according to their respective lores, both stories happened in our universe already.

Tolkien wrote that all his writings are actually a translation he did on an ancient parchment and that all the events on his stories happened in the prehistory, whilst Rowling says that all the events on his books happened around the 1990s under the cover of secrecy. Both worlds are separated by time, not by space. But it make me think how it seems that recently the idea that every work of fiction since the Epic of Gilgamesh is its own “separated universe”, that we never see a story happening in our world unless is a documentary as everything that happens is a parallel universe were we are not involved.

Doesn’t that takes away some of the charm? Dracula is such a good book because is writen as collection of diaries giving it some realism like if you’re reading what people recorded on the case. But if you read Dracula on the mindset of “oh, this happens in this parallel universe that has vampires on it” the charm is lost. Lovecraft’s stories would be much less scary if you start the book thinking that nothing in it can harm you as all is in a separated world that is not your own. No need to feel afraid of the Mi-Go or the Old Ones.

Oh let’s see Roger Rabbit for example. One reason it is so good is that it shows characters from different rival studios. This gives the movie extra realism as in a world were cartoons are real if all of them were from Disney you know something is wrong. This required for the producer to grant the rights for the characters from other studios to appears and a lot of legal negotiations.

We know vampires don’t exist, nor wizard, nor elves, etc., but been so conscious about it all the time takes away part of the excitement. Or maybe is just me. Still I wonder, when it begin this trend of always conceive every single movie, book and the like as a separated reality that can’t affect us, as the “universe” that is not ours? In the old days writers even went through some lengths to give some sense of realism to their works as the examples of Dracula, Tolkien, Harry Potter and Roger Rabbit shows. They all take efforts to place their stories in our world, not in a separated one, however nowadays this is generally thrown out the window.

(Again, we know this events never happened in our reality but we are not supposed to be remembering it all the time, we are supposed to forget it temporarily).

I know this post is very ranty, but it truly bugs me. I don't know if you know what I mean maybe is just me.

Edited by Luppercus on Apr 29th 2020 at 4:39:03 AM

Hm. I don't think it's a matter of writers being lazy - many writers now go to just as much effort to flesh out the fictional universes their characters inhabit. Personally, I tend to assume all works take place in their own universe, even if it's something like a realistic fiction novel about high schoolers. It would be interesting to see if any other tropers share your feelings, though, and I hope some of them post here.

It would be interesting although the post doesn't seem to be much popular, maybe is just me.

And I don't think an author is lazy just for creating a alternate world, quiete the opposite, what I think is that when the opposite happens (the author takes effort in making it our world, even creating complex explanations for The Masquerade) is kind of disrespectul to his/her effort to placed them so easily in another world.

I know a poster on Game FA Qs who hates the idea of how every game, book,etc. needs to be connected to each other nowadays but I am sort of indifferent to it. I don't mind that there needs to be a universe but I am not at a loss if there isn't.

Personally, I like that stuff a lot. I like imagining different worlds where our fiction is fact, part of their history or daily life. Nothing has to be like that, obviously, but I also don't think any individual story is necessarily hurt by being connected to a universe of others.

Hell, for years I've had a fanfic brewing in me that connects several classic Cartoon Network and [adult swim] properties. Maybe someday I'll write it.