Poll: Fiction: Characters or Ideas?

[Arachon]

Fiction primarily concerns characters, often set in a world, it may be our world, it may be another world, you still have the protagonist, antagonist, sidekick etc. be it in games, films, books, comics, you name it.

However, not all fiction is primarily about characters, many works, especially in the Speculative Fiction, and Science Fiction genres, are about ideas, or worlds, or cultures. Take such things as the Fremen culture in Frank Herbert's masterpiece Dune, or the rather depressing world in William Gibson's Neuromancer, or the entire mythos, history and world J.R.R Tolkien created with The Lord of the Rings (and related works).

These works seem to be more about "creating" a world where your characters can live, rather than the characters themselves. Whereas other works, usually not quite as speculative, or "unrealistic" (of course this is just a generalization), focus more on the characters themselves.

My question is, which "type" do you prefer the most? Of course, optimally, it should be a healthy mix of the two, but if you were forced to choose?

Personally, I prefer works describing worlds, universes, ideas, cultures. Why? Don't really know, I enjoy reading about it, thinking about what else could happen in the same universe, and (if the author has done a good job), what kind of research the author must have done to be able to piece together his universe realistically.

 

[Sylocat]

It depends on the author, what their strengths and weaknesses are.

I must say, the title is rather misleading... you have it as "characters or ideas" but the poll is "characters or worlds." Typo? Malapropism? Last-minute mind change?

 

[The Zango]

Tbh both but if i were to choose characters but then again most of the fiction books i've read have been set in our universe.

 

[Cpt_Oblivious]

Both. A world without characters is nice but boring and characters without a world are bland, as there are no outside stimuli to show us who they are.

Oh, and OP, you have an amazing avatar.

 

[twaddle]

the is kind of a jacked up topic and poll. first you need to verify if your talking about fiction ingeneral or fiction that apeals to us/ Good fiction. Next you should add both as an option in this poll. Truthfully you can't have a story with out characters and setting.

 

[CK76]

I'd say characters by a slight margin.

Characters can make an old world come alive, an imaginative world with no characters is an encyclopedia. Which I also enjoy, but not form a storytelling stand point.

 

[Billion Backs]

Both, but worlds matter.

I love well thought out worlds a la Silmarillion (despite my dislike for the actual overall plot) or Dune.

Seeing how there's generally one world but more then one character, I'll have to pick world.

 

[Jang]

I'd say characters. Don't get me wrong, I do love a good cosmology (on a side-note I can't believe you didn't list "Avatar" as an example), and I've spend a fair amount of daydreaming time imagining fantasy worlds myself, but suppose we are faced with the idea of either interesting characters or an interesting world, then if we pick worlds, who's there to explore the world?

I love sci-fi, especially stuff like "ghost in the shell", because it gives a guess as to how things will be in the future. But I can't really feel sorry amount some future drug-addicts, or feel outraged about how some people gets screwed by others using advanced technology, if I can't relate to the people suffering.

Characters, on the other hand, can interact with one another, more of less, regardless of the world they live in.

In-short: I love it when books, tv, games, etc. goes into great depth with the worlds they create, but for me, it's all for naught, if I can't relate to people experiencing this world.

 

[Robert632]

They are both importent, but characters are just slightly more interesting to me.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

The world has to be immersive but the characters have to be interesting or I won't care.

 

[Eliam_Dar]

Well I am actually working on a Fantasy Novel (someday it will be finished) I am now struggling with the world design, since I want it to be believable. The characters are also difficult and they have mutated a lot as the world desing advances, since they must be influenced by the culture that supposedly influenced them. Worst part is that I have to desing several different cultures which will be the origin of at leas 4 characters there, and their different backgrounds (cultural, political and religious) play a major part on their relationships.

Having said that, the characters are the most important part, you can have an awsome world, but nobody would care if the character does not fulfill thir expectations.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Fiction primarily concerns characters, often set in a world, it may be our world, it may be another world, you still have the protagonist, antagonist, sidekick etc. be it in games, films, books, comics, you name it.

However, not all fiction is primarily about characters, many works, especially in the Speculative Fiction, and Science Fiction genres, are about ideas, or worlds, or cultures. Take such things as the Fremen culture in Frank Herbert's masterpiece Dune, or the rather depressing world in William Gibson's Neuromancer, or the entire mythos, history and world J.R.R Tolkien created with The Lord of the Rings (and related works).

These works seem to be more about "creating" a world where your characters can live, rather than the characters themselves. Whereas other works, usually not quite as speculative, or "unrealistic" (of course this is just a generalization), focus more on the characters themselves.

My question is, which "type" do you prefer the most? Of course, optimally, it should be a healthy mix of the two, but if you were forced to choose?

Personally, I prefer works describing worlds, universes, ideas, cultures. Why? Don't really know, I enjoy reading about it, thinking about what else could happen in the same universe, and (if the author has done a good job), what kind of research the author must have done to be able to piece together his universe realistically.

I am trying to put into words a universe where you have 4 or so levels of civilization cultures. The 2 immortal cultures removal around ideals of the "light" and the "dark", the "light" is a social order of strong work ethic you are your job, you live for your job ect,ect its setting is like a set of worlds thats run like an office with politics and backstabbing dealing with rumors and innuendo more than any other acts as most "bad" acts are against the law and the law deals fast and hard with anyone who steps outside it. The main character is a bit of a dizt and lost human who can not conform to their ways.

The "dark" culture is run on a tribal army system I am still trying to make heads or tails of basically its a form of survival of the fittest theme strung along a multi tribal waring sects that get along because they hate the light more. I guess its generic and chilched still trying to put a good spin on it ><.

"Lesser" civilizations run on variations of more normal generic human stuff you see used alot in fiction, speaking of humans is it sad to call humanoid races humankin, then again if creation is a enitity and humanity is one of its quaint notions it dose not sound sooooooo bad, hell even DR who dose not try and explain humans/human like races away. uhg details....to focused on them ><


Now with that drooling out of the way a good mix of both is always good having characters thrown at a new and different culture, or just different is always good. But I guess having good characters makes it more entertaining and engaging it works for dragon age its got me to watch star trek more than I wold have. Even if I am a geek SW eps is bland they focus more on the setting than the story which is annoying...

 

[The Last Nomad]

GRRR. I already tped this out but it didnt seem to post... So here I go again... (I'll make sure to copy the text before I press send this time).

The Title should have the same options as the Poll. To me Ideas and Worlds are two different things... The world is the entire universe and setting of the fiction (obviously enough). But I feel the Idea is more linked with the theme... The message the author/creator is trying to get across (E.g WAR IS BAD YO! as in most war based fictions, or what lenghts humans will go to to survive as in most post-apocalypic scenarios). Of course thats just my take... Feel free to disagree or discuss... Thats what forums are for after all...

I feel that creators of works of fiction are concentrating on ideas too much and not enough on the Characters or Worlds... They should learn that you don't need a message to be interesting. The characters or world should be able to do that. And besides most people will find messages within the story and characters anyway.

Anyway... to answer the question... I prefer worlds... As they are usually more interesting than a few characters... They are more open to possibilities...
But of course it really depends on how deeply developed the characters and worlds are.
For example... I find This Guy [http://mynotetakingnerd.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/tommy-gavin-rescue-me-drinking.jpg] more interesting than the entire Star Wars Universe.

 

[DoctorNick]

World wins for me, half of the joy of reading a good Sci-Fi or Fantasy novel is getting to explore the world the author has crafted as a playground for their characters. Now having said that characters are also extremely important for obvious reasons I shouldn?t have to explain. What?s absolutely the best though is when they?ve managed to create both great characters AND a unique world for them to interact with. It?s always interesting to see cool characters doing things that seem strange to us but are actually logical in the context of the world they live in.

But, like I said if I had to choose then I'd go with a more creative world.

 

[Arachon]

I'd say characters. Don't get me wrong, I do love a good cosmology (on a side-note I can't believe you didn't list "Avatar" as an example), and I've spend a fair amount of daydreaming time imagining fantasy worlds myself, but suppose we are faced with the idea of either interesting characters or an interesting world, then if we pick worlds, who's there to explore the world?

I love sci-fi, especially stuff like "ghost in the shell", because it gives a guess as to how things will be in the future. But I can't really feel sorry amount some future drug-addicts, or feel outraged about how some people gets screwed by others using advanced technology, if I can't relate to the people suffering.

Characters, on the other hand, can interact with one another, more of less, regardless of the world they live in.

In-short: I love it when books, tv, games, etc. goes into great depth with the worlds they create, but for me, it's all for naught, if I can't relate to people experiencing this world.

Avatar? oO Really?

Er... Anyhow, if you like GitS, have you read some "proper" Cyberpunk? GitS is post-Cyberpunk, whereas stuff like Neuromancer, is the original Cyberpunk, which tends to be slightly more dystopic and depressing than post-Cyberpunk.

 

[Naheal]

Yes.

A completely fleshed out world with flat characters is boring.
Likewise cool, interesting, and dynamic characters quickly become disinteresting should the world itself be uninteresting.

 

[Pillypill]

Provided the characters aren't awful, and are at least well thought out, then i would rather have a well planned world, like DA:O (although it's characters were really well done).

 

[dunnace]

Characters everytime. The actions mean nothing to a lump that can't feel consquences. Some of the best books ever written are soley based on character and they tend to be the better ones. Nothing is more facisnating than great characters in unusual situations, or characters shaping the world around them.

 

[Jang]

Avatar? oO Really?

Now, don't get me wrong! I liked the movie, but I am not one of those people who claim "Avatar" is "da best movie evar!!", and I am sick of seeing those reviews everywhere that are throwing perfect scores at this movie, because I do not see how you can argue that it is a perfect movie?

My point was though, that apart from the visual stunning visual effects, then there really is a huge emphasis on the world Pandora, as opposed to an emphasis on an original plot, and original characters. And if you look to many of the fans (especially those LARP thing'ies), then what they love about he movie is the world that's described to them. Hence why I think it serves as a good example to the OP's question.

Er... Anyhow, if you like GitS, have you read some "proper" Cyberpunk? GitS is post-Cyberpunk, whereas stuff like Neuromancer, is the original Cyberpunk, which tends to be slightly more dystopic and depressing than post-Cyberpunk.

Not sure what you mean "proper" cyberpunk, and I have to say I am not sure what you mean by "cyberpunk" nor "post-cyberpunk". However, i might just look into that "neuromancer" thing you are mentioning there.

 

[the D0rk One]

ideas. characters, worlds, ass-shaped, fart-dispensing probes fired out of a gun shaped like satan's cock come from ideas, i think.