On August 29, 2019, Disney World’s latest attraction, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge will welcome visitors to a galaxy far, far away. Florida. They claim it will be their most immersive park to date, and, considering the wealth and reputation of Disney, that’s saying something. This latest attraction underlines a growing trend—the actualization of fantastic worlds in real life. Readers, cinephiles, and gamers have always had the experience of visiting the microcosm of a fantastic world within a world. We have imagined tramping around the forests of Fangorn keeping pace with the Ents or stepping within the walls of Hogwarts for a spell and a butterbeer. We’ve created these escapes in our minds and our galloping technological imaginations. Our Neverwheres were virtual or imaginative, but now—for a price—we can go and visit these otherworldy locations without ever leaving Earth. In this paper, I will explore the material reality of corporealize, fantastic landscapes. What is the experience of visiting the Shire in New Zealand or Hogwarts in Florida or Noah’s Ark in Kentucky? Does this experience enhance, mimic, or resist the experience of watching the film, playing a game, or reading the book? Does the lack of lived experiences in these locations detract from “real” experience? Will these geospace representations become static models of past fictions, locking our imaginations in a fixed, alternative reality? Who maintains these otherworlds? Who will keep Hogwarts magically clean, and who will summon the mess with expensive wands?
About the presenterBrian Russell Lutz
Brian Lutz is the youngest person ever named Poet Laureate of Bucks County. A full-time faculty member at Delaware Valley University since 2006, Lutz, an associate professor of literature, has published widely in various local, national, and international journals. His scholarly focuses revolve around critical trends in contemporary literature, millennial poetics, and spatial studies—especially as it pertains to the fantastic.