Geography Matters in Fiction

Geography matters. In a story, the writer takes you on a journey of place, physical and metaphysical. You go on a trip, see new vistas, smell new aromas, witness ways life unfolds in the designated place, whether in a future world, in outer-or-inner space, or in a little corner in Mississippi, like Faulkner’s fictional Yoknapatawpha County, or in Thomas Hardy’s imaginary Wessex in SW England.

Landscape affects the story, provides the setting for the characters, and influences what transpires there. Prairie, high mountains, rivers, deserts, any environment becomes a tag, a definer. But landscape involves many factors beyond the physical. The history, politics, and economy of the area come into play, but the humans and others - from pets to vampires and everything in between - shape and are shaped by that space. They strut and fret upon the stage.

Why did Edgar Allan Poe choose a bleak landscape, lousy weather, and heavy architecture for his The Fall of the House of Usher? He needed a setting suited to his appalling characters. Would they have worked in sunny Tuscany? Doubt it. His characters were as unsafe as humans as his house was as architecture.

Geography can define character, and character can define geography. In N.K. Jemisin’s latest novel, The City We Became, she presents a highly potent fusion of place and character. The story takes place in New York City, a city she loves…and possibly fears. No spoilers here, but her novel is a fascinating, symbolic Sci-Fi read. In many ways, geography becomes plot.

The setting of a story can bring out dynamic ideas - psychology, history, culture, sense of self, sense of others - that challenge the reader. I imagine our current world situation will leave a huge stamp on literature as we move forward. Hindsight, being 20/20, will provide a plethora of interpretations of this pandemic and its effects. How could a minute virus from the world of electron microscope reality bring entire countries and people to heel? We learn from our environments, figuratively and literally. What we learn from this will shape humanity.

My hope? We move forward towards a geography of greater humanitarian communion and respect for Mother Earth. Without her geography, we are works of fiction.