“Rome was good. Sat ninety in the summers. Leaned on his off speed when the weather got cold. Postseason, most of the district had seen him by then, we took advantage of teams whose scouts said he was two pitch: fastball/change. Got him to bust out the slider he’d been tossing since wiffle ball—even though Mr. Roman made him stop.” — “Unwritten Rules” by Joe Bohlinger, Hobart.

I watched Doctor Strange and Everything Everywhere All At Once yesterday. Both use the idea of the multiverse as a way of telling their story. Everything Everywhere All At Once does this exceptionally well. Doctor Strange does not. There are obvious reasons for this — note how closely the Daniels focus on a single family as they invoke the entirety of everything — but I’m also struck by the choices that were made in invoking the nature of all things multiversal in Doctor Strange as well — like, in the first universe Doctor Strange visits after jumping from one universe to another with someone named America, the audience is clued into the fact that Things Are Well And Truly Different in This Universe by the fact that — with stop lights — red means go.

That kind of worldbuilding choice begs the question in true ‘I can’t believe I have to say this’-style: why bother invoking the multiverse at all? Like, my guys. My gals. My persons. Come on. Le Guin gave us Gethen in The Left Hand of Darkness, which had an entire society built around the fact that gender didn’t exist. Middle Earth partly emerged from Tolkien’s fascination with the Finnish language. And Doctor Strange decided to give us, “It’s Earth, and it’s basically the same, except there are more trees in New York and red means go?”

N.K. Jemisin has a really solid collection of slides from a presentation on worldbuilding up on her website that are worth reading in full — you can also listen to her speak about worldbuilding with Ezra Klein — and the slides make one thing abundantly clear …

… there are steps you can take to build a world. Real steps! Practical steps! You can answer questions about flora and fauna, realize there’s something worth unpacking in the Finnish language or the idea of gender, or realize that — in true improv comedy fashion — you can slowly pull the figurative camera back and back from the scene at hand, as the podcast Hello from the Magic Tavern has done for years.

So what sort of world can we build together?

Here are three images I found on Pinterist. (Sources: one, two, three.) Consider these to be an unofficial prompt for you and your writing. If you want to share any of the results with Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo, we’d love to see it.

ELSEWHERE IN THE HOBART CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: “Now he is sitting across from me and the juxtaposition of him in this fluorescent diner is jarring.” / “There’s nothing your shadow can’t stick to / colanders, guitar strings, smoke, the light resting on the wall” / “I’ve disappeared into the current / of loving nothing / but tainted water lapping against rotten fish.” / “How many mirrors have you frowned into” / “The patient dodges the moon and increases to full throttle.” /

THREE SONGS BY D’ANGELO TO CONSIDER ON THIS SUNDAY NIGHT: Chicken Grease, Ain’t That Easy, Sugah Daddy.

Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo

#35: You Can Worldbuild Better Than Doctor…