Genre fiction often has a way of illustrating aspects of narrative and social storytelling with more obvious visual symbolism. One of the easiest ways to bring across the magical alternate world, class stratification, or the haves and have-nots is to literally put the better part of the universe miles above the rest.
There is a fairly common trope in speculative fiction stories that places a beautiful location in the sky above the less impressive locales. One of the most interesting aspects of this trope is that it’s commonly used inboth sci-fi and fantasy. Whether it’s blessed by magic or incredibly scientifically advanced, this storytelling element delivers a great deal of detail with a single choice.
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The first literary example of a floating city is a strange example of a semi-fictional narrative. In the year 815, a priest named Agobard of Lyon wrote a raving treatise that bordered on an unhinged screed called “On Hail and Thunder.” In it, he details the tale of the land of Magonia, which is probably the first fictional floating city. While the domain of variousdeities is often located generally upward, it is typically described as another plane of existence, rather than a floating land mass. Magonia, on the other hand, was a civilization that existed miles into the sky. The area was inhabited by sailors who traveled the skies in airships, floating from cloud to cloud. The denizens of Magonia partnered with magic users who controlled the weather, using the cover of storms to steal crops from those below. This story was not, however, a fictional idea that Agobard thought up. It wasreportedly a common primitive beliefthat Agobard was angrily railing against, seeing it as a violation of scripture. This manuscript was lost for almost 800 years, but, once found in the 1600s, became the earliest example of the floating continent trope.
Johnathan Swift’s 1726 novelGulliver’s Travelsprovides a better starting point for the fictional trope. For those who onlysaw the 2011 film adaptation, the original novel sees its main character travel to a variety of fantastical locations, each of which serves as a sharp critique of an aspect of modern society. Swift was a satirist first and a craftsman of narrative fiction second. The third island his eponymous lead finds himself upon is the flying island of Laputa. Laputa is a beautiful landscape that is devoted to the pursuit of scientific enlightenment and artistic expression. Unfortunately, most of the matters they conduct experiments on are meaningless or stupid. They waste a great deal of time and resourcespursuing scientific knowledge withoutpractical application, like softening marble for use in pillows. The target of mockery was those who would spend time seeking answers without any clear goal in mind. The tendency of floating city denizens to be focused on intellectual pursuits has been a fairly common aspect of the trope.
By 1960, real architects Buckminster Fuller and Shoji Sadao proposed the idea of an actual floating city. Named “Cloud Nine,” the plan was a 1-mile wide flying megastructure that would allow for a migratory lifestyle. The duo was later commissioned by the US government to construct something similar, but the plan never quite took off. Meanwhile, fiction writers took the idea and ran with it. The 1936 film adaptation ofFlash Gordonfeatured Sky City, a floating city that was home to a race of flying hawk men. The twin titans of science fiction,Star WarsandStar Trek,followed that example and each had floating cities of its own.Star Warsintroduced Cloud City, miles above the pollution of the planet Bespin.Star Trekintroduced the city of Stratos in the season 3 episode “The Cloud Minders.”
Later examples of this trope added fascinating elements of classism. Where the early takes featured thieves or fools, the modern iterations tend to see their rich live in the clouds. Neil Blomkamp’s second featureElysiumdepicted its titular locale as a massive elliptical band around the Earth’s surface, leaving it above the surface where poor people reside. Their perfect medical technology and lives of luxury led surface dwellers to attempt to immigrate through force. The eleventh episode ofFirefly, entitled “Trash,” featuredBellerophon, a city where the rich lived in luxury miles above the sea. There are still examples of the simpler version of the trope, however.
Anime has kept the fantastical floating continent alive and well.Hayao Miyazaki’sCastle in the Skyeven borrowed the name of Johnathan Swift’s take on the concept. Ongoing monster hit shonen seriesOne Piecefeatures the floating island of Skypiea, which is the setting for a long story arc. These examples play with the flying nations less as metaphors and more as wonderful fantasy lands. Both examples are key to the trope, which, uniquely, works with or without an allegorical basis.
The flying island is a fascinating trope that can mean whatever the creator wants it to mean. Whether it’s a beautiful aesthetic choice or a visual allegory, the flying continent is a solid narrative device for new and old works.
