Genius Loci: Difference between revisions

Contrast with the non-tangible but often similar [[Sentient Cosmic Force]]. Compare [[Sapient Ship]], [[That's No Moon]], [[Anthropomorphic Personification]], [[The Lost Woods]], [[Fisher King]], [[Fisher Kingdom]], and [[Smart House]]. May overlap with [[Environmental Symbolism]] or [[Eldritch Location]].

 

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== Film ==

* ''[[Transformers the Movie]]'' introduced Unicron, the evil robot planet who eats other planets. The comics added a good counterpart, Primus, the god of the Transformers who inhabits their planet, Cybertron. Also, Metroplex, the city-transformer, and his evil counterpart Trypticon, who were later joined by Fortress Maximus and Scorponok, respectively. ''[[Transformers Headmasters]]'' also featured the living planet Daira.

* In some stories featuring a [[Haunted House]], the house itself will display attributes of a Genius Loci. One of the classic examples is in [[The Film of the Book]] of Shirley Jackson's ''The Haunting of Hill House''. The 2006 CGI movie ''[[Monster House]]'' is a more recent example.

* In Diane Duane's ''[[Young Wizards|High Wizardry]]'', Dairine visits a planet composed principally of silicon, in layers laid down by periodic volcanic activity. Thus, the planet had become a natural computer and, due to its size, was sufficiently complex to be sentient. Unfortunately, having no sensory apparatus, it hadn't had very much to think about up until then.

* In [[Harry Harrison]]'s ''Deathworld'' the hero finds himself on a planet whose flora and fauna are in constant full-on attack against the human miners/settlers. Everything is deadly, poisonous, powerful, stabby, etc. It turns out that the planet itself has a mind (is a mind?) and has been psionically directing the attacks.

* [[Stephen King]] liked to use this one. The Overlook hotel from ''[[The Shining]]'', the house on Dutch Hill from ''[[The Dark Tower]], Book 3: [[The Dark Tower (Literature)/The Waste Lands|The Dark Tower]]'', and the eponymous hotel room from the short story ''[[Fourteen Oh Eight (Film)|Fourteen Oh Eight]]'' are all [[Genius Loci]].

** The eponymous mansion from ''Rose Red''.

* In ''[[Glen Cook|Cruel Zinc Melodies]]'', Garrett discovers that {{spoiler|a truly gargantuan fungal life form is living beneath his home city, and is both sentient and powerfully psychic. It's responsible for a series of "hauntings" in the theater Garrett's been hired to protect from sabotage.}}

* If one considers a sapient planet-sized starship to be a location, then the Tar-Aiym weapons platform in later books of the ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' series would count. If not that, then how about Quofum, the {{spoiler|homeworld of the Xunca}}, which was basically hollowed out and filled with enormously sophisticated machinery designed to speed up the evolution of the planet's native life.

* The [[Spellsinger]] series has several examples, including a slow-witted marshland called the Brulumpus and a maelstrom with a raunchy sense of humor.

* In ''[[Animorphs (Literature)|Animorphs]]'', the Taxxons are spawned from the Living Hive, which makes up most of a large mountain and several cave systems on the Taxxon home world.

* In Ben Bova's ''Saturn'' it's revealed that {{spoiler|the rings of Saturn are a lifeform, although whether they're sentient or not is never explored}}

* In ''Angelmass'', it is revealed that the 'Angel' particles the titular miniature black hole emits are counterbalanced by the Angelmass itself becoming a demon, capable of propelling itself and destroying ships with bursts of [[Hand Wave|Hawking radiation]].

** The 1991 novel ''Timewyrm: Revelation'' featured Saul, the spirit of a church in Cheldon Bonniface, England.

** The 1992 novel ''Transit'' featured a 22nd-century interplanetary subway system (the "stunnel") that had become so complex that it had evolved sentience.

* ''[[Eureka]]'': Carter's smart house, S.A.R.A.H., is ''so'' smart it has opinions. And a Twitter account!

* The warehouse in ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' is sentient. To what degree is uncertain, but it is alive.

** The TARDIS herself, which is technically a [[Sapient Ship]] containing its own [[Pocket Dimension]].

* ''[[Kamen Rider Kiva]]'''s Castle Dran, a sentient castle/dragon tank-like ancient haunted house. That's just the ''exterior''.

* ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'' had Moya the [[Living Ship]], which had intelligence and personality, but could only communicate via the Pilot.

 

== [[Radio Drama]] / Audio Drama ==

 

 

** And in 4th edition, the Warlock spell "Vestige of Land's Soul"' allows the Warlock to wake up the spirit of the land around them and order it to kill one of their enemies.

** The land of Rashemen in Forgotten Realms is implied to be a living being.

* In ''[[Shadowrun]]'' the fact that the earth has a presence on the astral plane is seen by some as evidence that the planet itself is alive.

** Shamans can also summon a ''Hearth Spirit'', literally the [[Genius Loci]] of wherever they happen to be: in a nightclub you might get a spiritual bouncer or barman (depending on the kind of nightclub you are in), for instance.

** This may require some elaboration: The whole town of Silent Hill is alive with a mystical force that takes your nightmares and fears and brings them to life, whether in monster form or in the form of a location (like a building or something). If Silent Hill wants you, you will end up in the town, either by being called to it or having an unfortunate accident in or near the town and ending up stuck in that Hell-hole. Later in the series, the power of the town grows to consume its neighbor, Shepherd's Glen.

* In ''[[Planescape Torment]]'', one early quest involves helping a living street give birth. Another involves ''helping'' a haunted house. Oh, and a door that only opens when you aren't looking at it. And the Lady of Pain may be the Genius Loci of Sigil.

** In both ''Oracle of Ages'' and ''Oracle of Seasons'', Link can enter the Maku Trees, which are also giant sapient guardian trees. However, there's only one room inside, and it only houses a character whose function is to transfer data between the two games, so the [[Genius Loci]] aspect doesn't really come into play. ([[Nintendo]] probably only put Farore inside the trees because they wanted her location to be the same in both games.)

** Arguably, the Moon from ''Majora's Mask''. Whilst it has a actual (rather intense-looking) face, it never moves it or shows any other signs of sentience. Like the rest of the game, it's all rather mysterious.

== Web Original ==

* ''The Grave Academy'', in the eponymous Forum/RPG is pretty explicitly alive, and apparently needs feeding once a month.

* One of Ursula Vernon's short stories (untitled and unfinished as of yet) features sentient trees who have fungus for brains. Once outsiders arrive and begin scooping out the fungus as a delicacy, the trees themselves go mad.

* ''[[The Dionaea House]]'' is a semi-famous internet story featuring someone who goes and investigates the disappearance of his friend and finds what turns out to be a sentient (and hungry) house. [http://dionaea-house.com Found here.]

 

== Real Life ==

* The Internet could be a more tangible example of a Genius Loci / Gaia. There are certain movements around the self-organizing properties of the internet (especially concerning content, privacy, and censorship), which makes it seem to possess a mind of its own.

* On a micro scale, any living creature (including a human) can be a location. Your fleas and dust mites probably think ''you're'' a walking planet, or at least a small continent. Humans are one of the few creatures that carry two distinct species of dust mites due to having two distinct locations of hairs. And then of course, one's stomach flora is unique to each individual.

* Though not sentient (at least not that we know) there are some areas with organisms or groups of organisms that have grown to be truly massive.

* Combining certain elements of the Gaia theory, Jung's belief in the collective unconscious, and [[The Singularity]] leads to this trope as the logical extreme. The internet itself could be viewed as a tangible form of Jung's collective unconscious, or even a full-on [[Hive Mind]]. And since most people in the developed world are expected to have access to the internet, certainly at home, if not on them at all times in the form of a smart phone, [[The Singularity|the point]] may well come very soon when nearly ''all'' human beings have constant access to this shared mind, making the human race the "brain" for a global superorganism consisting of all life on the planet.

* The [[Anthropomorphic Personification|national spirits]] of countries (Britannia and John Bull for Britain, Marianne for France, Columbia and Uncle Sam for the United States, etc) can be regarded as this.

[[Category:Index of Fictional Creatures]]

[[Category:Genius Loci]]