I read the above article earlier this week and found something profound that is really sticking with me. (I didn’t find Waldo and that is sticking as well.)
It’s the Word paracosm. A Paracosm is a completely fictional universe or world that is so rich and in-depth that a person can be completely absorbed through the history, stories, languages, mythology and dreams of that imaginary universe.
The examples in the article are very familiar, JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings and Star Wars.
While I was reading the article and for the last several days I can’t stop thinking about my own paracosms that I have been absorbed in through the years. The number of potential paracosms available to us now is increasing. Thanks to wider adoption of Internet usage, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the deluge of long-running TV programming, we will have the option of simultaneously existing in our reality and as many paracosms as we can have the time to invest in.
I believe that paracosm will become the word of the year in 2016. They will be all around us and the human condition drives us to label everything. The imaginary universes that will extend for years beyond ourselves will be labeled and briefly understood by all as the new form of ‘alternate reality.’ And this will be recognized if it hasn’t already by every writer, artist, and saavy producer as the perpetual money machine that it is.
Paracosms will only get broader and deeper, and they will forever lay somewhere between existence and non-existence.
If the people at Disney have anything to say about it, the past four decades of Star Wars were merely prologue.