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The Most Wonderfully Insane Ways of Entering Another Universe in Literature
Suspension of disbelief is a heck of a thing. Some books ask for a little more heavy lifting than others, especially when travel from the “real world” to an alternate universe is involved. No one wants a dissertation on quantum physics, but sometimes the mechanisms for traveling to a magical land are startlingly… well, the only word is bonkers, really.
Here’s a bunch of books whose mechanisms for accessing other universes, as rated on the Bonkers Scale.
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The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis
Everyone is familiar with the magical Wardrobe of the first book that led to Narnia (fairly low on the Bonkers Scale, IMHO), but not everyone recalls that visiting Narnia was actually a pretty hectic affair dictated, basically, by the whims of God—er, Aslan. These mechanisms involved sudden unexpected teleportation (SUT), a magical painting of a ship that floods a room, a magical door on a hillside, and, in the final book, death itself.
Grade on the Bonkers Scale: Three.
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The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum
Again, everyone remembers the travel method of the first book: Tornado. That’s pretty crazy, but on in the series and you’ll quickly discover that getting to Oz was often violent and, in a word, terrifying: Aside from the tornado, there’s being washed overboard from a ship and falling into chasms opened by earthquakes. Later, Baum grew tired of constantly explaining the travel to Oz and simply moved his characters there permanently.
Grade on the Bonkers Scale: Kittens.
The Guardians of the Flame, by Joel Rosenberg
Rosenberg’s Guardians of the Flame series, released at the height of hysteria about the secret plot to use role playing games to drive teenagers insane (see: the incredibly, wonderfully terrible TV movie Mazes and Monsters, starring a young Tom Hanks) employs a simple “What If?”: What if your Game Master was secretly a powerful wizard who transported a group of college-age RPG players to a fantasy world and transformed them into their characters? When I read these books as a kid, I would have sold my brother to make it come true.
Grade on the Bonkers Scale: Tom Hanks.
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The Hellbound Heart, by Clive Barker
Technically, the puzzle box at the center of The Hellbound Heart (known by the wonderful name The Lament Configuration) doesn’t so much transport you to another world as bring another world—and its icky inhabitants—to you, so they may promptly begin flaying you for fun. Still, the idea of having to solve a puzzle to access the alternate reality of the Cenobites is a wonderful one, especially when you consider the possibility of accidentally solving such a puzzle on a rainy day when the Internet’s out.
Grade on the Bonkers Scale: Guatemalan Insanity Peppers.
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Mordant’s Need, by Stephen R. Donaldson
You might think the obvious choice for one of Donaldson’s alternate universe stories would be the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, but frankly the ways of getting from the ‛real world’ into The Land are kind of humdrum, generally involving grievous physical or mental injuries. On the bonkers scale that’s actually kind of… not bonkers. The more bonkers choice is his lesser-known fantasy series Mordant’s Need, which features mirrors as the conveyance of choice. Throw in a protagonist so milquetoast she has lots of mirrors around her just to reassure herself that she exists, and you have a moderately bonkers trip to an alternate magical universe.
Grade on the Bonkers Scale: 2 Sleepy Koala Bears.
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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
Finally, we have what may be the most incredible alternate universe riff ever put to paper. At one point in this convoluted and hilarious series of novels, Zaphod Beeblebrox enters an office that is actually the entry point to an artificial universe created specifically for him. When his pursuers arrive, he escapes out the window. The real genius of this bit comes later, when Zaphod is captured and brought to the Total Perspective Vortex for punishment-cum-execution. The Vortex is designed to display to the viewer a complete model of the entire universe (extrapolated from the atoms of a piece of cake), with a tiny microscopic dot representing the viewer—the subsequent sense of “perspective” completely destroys the ego, and the victim dies almost immediately. Except Zaphod survives because he’s still in an artificial universe built just for him. Thus he’s the most important thing in it. Frankly, if you don’t find that to be genius, we are no longer friends.
Grade on the Bonkers Scale: 100% Bonkers.
What do you say—are there ways of entering an alternate universe in books that are even more bonkers? Let us know!