Middle-earth-on-Earth: How and Why People Use Fantasy Film and Literature to Give Meaning to Real World Places

Abstract

What happens when we recall a Fantastical 'Other World' through our interactions with the Real World? For some Tolkien fans, this recollection happens in a variety of Real World places: natural and urban, iconic and mundane and, for a select group, they are compelled to describe this experience by posting about it online. To understand why and how this 'Middle-earth-on-Earth' experience happens, I assembled textual and photographic records from Flickr and analyzed them through qualitative, quantitative, and geospatial means. Through this research, I learned that when Tolkien fans post photographs of Middle-earth-on-Earth on the social media site Flickr they are communicating a personal relationship with two Worlds: the Real World and a Fantastical Other World. Perceptions of both worlds are shaped by a person's experiences, memories, and imaginings, though certain essential physical and aesthetic qualities of the Other World place become points of contact that allow affective responses and mythic roles to be assigned to Real World places. Thus, the Real World place becomes enchanted as a 'place of mine' and the Other World place becomes grounded in all the senses and, for a time, habitable. In this way, Other Worlds shape our understanding and interactions with the Real World and, through a kind of escape, renewal, recovery process (ERR), allow us to re-enchant ourselves.