Just finished the excellent Hav, a novel about a fictional city by expert travel writer Jan Morris.
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Just finished the excellent Hav, a novel about a fictional city by expert travel writer Jan Morris.
Ursula Le Guin loved it – she called it "alternate geography" and thought it was better understood as science fiction. The first part, in particular, is an astonishing melange of real and invented world history...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jun/03/travel.travelbooks
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Just finished the excellent Hav, a novel about a fictional city by expert travel writer Jan Morris.
Ursula Le Guin loved it – she called it "alternate geography" and thought it was better understood as science fiction. The first part, in particular, is an astonishing melange of real and invented world history...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jun/03/travel.travelbooks
When the first part was published in 1985, some supposedly thought Hav was a real place; the Daily Mail and Time Out covered it as non-fiction.
I always find these claims a little exaggerated but Morris *was* a well-known travel writer and the book is written very much as such, so the "hoax" works.
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When the first part was published in 1985, some supposedly thought Hav was a real place; the Daily Mail and Time Out covered it as non-fiction.
I always find these claims a little exaggerated but Morris *was* a well-known travel writer and the book is written very much as such, so the "hoax" works.
Morris clearly did not set out to deceive people, however. Hav is about the impossibility of knowing a place from a short visit, or even a months-long visit, as a travel writer might.
Indeed, it's really about the formation of history, and how it influences us today. A tale about tales!
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Morris clearly did not set out to deceive people, however. Hav is about the impossibility of knowing a place from a short visit, or even a months-long visit, as a travel writer might.
Indeed, it's really about the formation of history, and how it influences us today. A tale about tales!
I'm not sure Hav could be adapted into a traditional TTRPG, but it might make a for wonderful journalling game.
It does give me the ARG/experimental fiction itch though...
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I'm not sure Hav could be adapted into a traditional TTRPG, but it might make a for wonderful journalling game.
It does give me the ARG/experimental fiction itch though...
@adrianhon I love that book, so if that itch ever translates into something?
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