Question

[telophase]

Can anyone name books or movies in which the setting functions almost as a character? LA Story is an extreme example of that, in which the city of LA talks to Steve Martin's character through a highway sign, but in general I'm looking at things that aren't quite that literal. :)

eta: I suppose a lot of man vs. nature stories could do that as well. There's a decent definition in this short essay on setting, which boils down to the setting acting as a catalyst.

(I'm basically looking for examples to read/watch and generate ideas for something.)

Comments

[yhlee]

Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood, or is that cheating?

Greer Ilene Gilman's Moonwise maybe, but it's been a while.

[telophase]

I've never read Mythago Wood, so I couldn't say. :) Thanks!

[tessercat]

Midgar of Final Fantasy 7.

I'm sure there are recordings on youtube, if you don't have/want to (re)play it yourself.

eta: er, ok, it's not a book or movie, but. I think it fits.

[telophase]

XD Thanks!

[wyrdness.livejournal.com]

Cube, maybe? It's pretty much the entire driving force of the movie.

Edit: Finally got the right movie. XD Not that I watched this one, I have seen it's vastly less scary sequel HyperCube though.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

:D Thanks!

[selenite.livejournal.com]

The ship was sometimes treated as a character on Firefly.

The Discworld acted on characters to enforce the various laws of Narrative.

The Ringo/Weber March series had the planet as enemy, man vs nature interspersed with man vs man episodes.

[inkblot14.livejournal.com]

It is often said of Discworld, but I think one could narrow it down to specific novels...I think it's especially prevalent in the later Ankh Morpock novels, from Going Postal on.

I've also heard it said of China Mieville's Perdido Street Station, although I never made it more then a few pages into the book. I've misplaced my copy, and I'm not sure where it's got to.

And Pat Rothfuss' Slow Regard of Silent Things, in which the University is a character.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Will second Perdido Street Station, largely because the city has more character than most of the characters, including the woman who has a scarab beetle for a head.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

XD

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[amai-kaminari.livejournal.com]

The first one that comes to mind is the movie "Lost in Translation".

Many horror/suspense movies have settings that are so integral to the plot that they are essentially characters.

The Shining?
2001: A Space Odyssey?
Gravity?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

THanks!

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

It depends on how broadly you define setting, I think.

Hill House in the Haunting of (and by extension, any place not haunted by a specific ghost that seems to have its own feelings and a means of expressing them, which is probably a lot of haunted places). The House of Usher in the Fall of.

Fairyland in Cat Valente's "Girl Who" stories.

Ships and spaceships (named but otherwise not conscious or ones with AI or living ships a la Moya in Farscape). The TARDIS.

Hogwarts' because of its room of requirement and tendency to shift stairs around.

Magical mazes.

Other versions of Fairyland (Labyrith and Krull's space-shifting fortress, Wonderland, Oz, Narnia).

The knowes in Seanan McGuire's Toby series. Knowes in general. L.M. Boston's Green Knowe.

Olondria in Stranger in Olondria. Hav in Last Letters from Hav.

I'll probably think of a bunch more as soon as I hit post. :)


ETA: the various countries in Elizabeth Bear's Eternal Sky series, where the skies, moon, suns, and stars of a place literally change depending on which supernatural beings are predominant in them.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

I'm not exactly sure what counts as "almost a character".

Dark City.

"Here There Be Tygers" by Ray Bradbury.

"The City" by Ray Bradbury.

The Four Lords of the Diamond series by Jack L. Chalker.

There are various books where the Gaia hypothesis is true or is made to become true.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I'm not necessarily looking for sentience to be involved, but where the place is a hugely strong element. The Shining above was a good idea--the Overlook Hotel doesn't have sentience, but it's still an antagonist.

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

Okay, movie geek here - and there are quite a few!
Some random ones:

• Shirley Valentine (Greece) - this is always the #1 movie I think of when I think of movies with locations as a character. :-)


• Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Isan region of Thailand - really rural, away from the cities, as are most of the director's movies, although you may need to read some background info to get all that)


• No Country for Old Men (the Texas border, but in the very early 1980s - so, time and place. This is key to what the movie's about, as well)


• Anything by Jacques Tati, Elia Suleiman, or Hany Abu-Assad (although again with the time and place)


• Chinatown (LA, though I never thought about it like that before; it's LA's history, basically)


• Angel Heart - the story could have been set elsewhere, but New Orleans is a big part of the story as told


• The Grand Budapest Hotel (the hotel, LOL)


• Slumdog Millionaire (Mumbai)
  
• "The Music Room (1948 1958, whoops) - that big house he's knocking around in for most of the movie


• Barcelona (well, name)

And - almost forgot - there are a series of "day in the life" city movies:

Berlin, Symphony of a City (Berlin)
Man With A Movie Camera (unidentified Soviet city soon after the Russian Revolution) - I *love* this film
Manhatta - New York
Daybreak Express - Third Avenue El, New York City
a few more I haven't seen

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Cool, thanks!

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

James Joyce's Ulysses, for a classic.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[solarbird]

A few thoughts I had were already taken. Here are a couple more, if ships count.

Battlestar Pegasus, in "Exodus: Parts I and II," Battlestar Galactica (2004). That was an angry, angry ship.

USS Constellation, in "The Doomsday Machine," Star Trek (1966). Or so was my reading. Commodore Decker's alter-ego.

Does a building count as a location? I'd nominate the clock tower in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Specifically the clock tower.

The Spirit World, generally, Avatar: The Legend of Korra.

I would make an argument for Aperture Science Testing Facility (all eras), independently of GLADoS, Portal I and II.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :)

[athenejen]

If you're still looking:

Drawing Blood by Poppy Z Brite -- the house is absolutely both the main setting and a key character.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, probably qualifies.

"There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury is an extreme example in that it's a short story in which everything about the plot is essentially inferred from the description of the setting.

I know there must be more, but that's what I can come up with at the moment that people haven't already mentioned.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I really should check out that Bradbury story.