Talk:Lost World (genre)

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Contents 1 NPOV? 2 start 3 Link to traditions such as El Dorado 4 Crichton 5 More Lost World Fiction

[edit] NPOV?

Shouldn't we work on rewording language that implies that these worlds were "lost" in the first place? In many of the examples of real-world interest (e.g., egyptology), the idea of a "lost world" was largely the result of Britain's imperial outlook... Does that make sense? --Junius49 (talk) 21:26, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] start

This article gives King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard the credit for starting the "Lost World" genre. I might be wrong, but isn't Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth part of the "Lost World" genre, and wasn't it published earlier?

My source said the Lost World genre starts with Mines. Earth was 1864 so yes it's earlier. I don't know if that is considered part of the Lost World genre or not. Lost World books seem to involve jungles and primitive natives and pillaging of the natives treasure, a "colonialization of the tropics" theme, in particular Africa since that was the great exploration frontier of the 19th C. Perhaps Verne's Earth is considered too fantastical to be in the same genre? --Stbalbach 01:18, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

Well, I think Journey to the Centre of the Earth really should be considered part of the "Lost World" genre since many of the subsequent "Lost World" novels borrow quite a few of the elements of it. Both The Land That Time Forgot and Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World have dinosaurs and prehistoric humans in them. I'd say they owe more to Earth than to Mines. And according to the summary for Journey to the Centre of the Earth, it does indeed have a prehistoric jungle in it.

I'm just going by what my source said -- it's not the best source, but it's the source I have found. If you have a source that says it, lets add it. Otherwise I think we should defer to to WP:NOR. -- Stbalbach 21:28, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

Source: Robert E. Morsberger, afterword in the Reader's Digest edition of King Solomon's Mines 1994 ISBN 0895775530

Journey to the Centre of the Earth is usually considered an early example of the genre - a scientist and explorer team undertake a strange journey and discover a hidden part of the world, in this case, with various examples of prehistoric life. In Allienne Becker's book "The Lost World Romance", she explicitly makes the link. However, she also comes up with earlier stories. At what point the "underground land" of 18th century satire becomes the Lost World of 19th century romance is not entirely clear, but I quote Becker:

A blend of fantasy, science, travelogue, and Rousseauistic utopianism, Symzonia ( 1820) is the first of the nineteenth-century romances which are appropriately termed the Lost Worlds Romance. It is the story of a fantastic sea voyage to the lost worlds of inner earth, which are entered in the Antarctic at the South Pole. Although this work bears the symbolic name of Adam Seaborn as its author, it is generally assumed that the tale was actually written by the American Captain John Cleves Symmes, a staunch advocate of the theory that the earth is hollow, an idea that had been around for a long time.

You may be able to read the book at Questia ImmortalWombat (talk) 14:17, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the reference, ImmortalWombat. I hope to incorporate it soon. --Junius49 (talk) 22:03, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Link to traditions such as El Dorado

Stb. - I don't have a source for the link to El Dorado - it seemed self-evident, though perhaps not phrased well. And I thought the connection to a related subject could be useful. If you don't like that as it is, do you think it could fit as a 'See Also'? It makes sense to me, but I'm not on a mission to include it; I was just trying some offerings to fill out a stub. I'm not that pleased with the phrasing of any of the parts I wrote. :-/—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.60.72.233 (talk • contribs) .

Ok i just softened the wording some. -- Stbalbach 11:50, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

I can't remember the name, but I read a fictionalized account of going to El Dorado. It was a novel that certainly fits here. Gautam ^Discuss 15:13, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Crichton

I've removed the sentence about Michael Crichton's "Lost World" as being a modern example of the genre. In my opinion, it doesn't fit. There's no discovery of a lost civilisation or land at all. Feel free to revert if you disagree. Rojomoke 17:46, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

I agree with you, but someone added it back Gautam ^Discuss 15:12, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

I agree that there is no "lost" civilization in Jurassic Park. To satisfy our generic description of the genre and Crichton fans, I changed Jurassic Park to Congo (novel) -- which certainly fits the Lost World genre. I did keep the reference to Crichton's Lost World because, although there is no discovery of a lost civilization, the title itself shows that Crichton plans to engage with our generic expectations by referencing Doyle's original work --Junius49 (talk) 17:06, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] More Lost World Fiction

Lots of Verne stories seem to fit. Are we going to add in shipwreck novels as well, like Verne's Mysterious Island or Defoe's Robinson Crusoe? What about fiction that takes you into another world (although all good novels do this, only some do it explicitly in the diegesis). Gautam ^Discuss 15:12, 5 May 2007 (UTC)