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Make Mine Mimas

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Yesterday the Cassini mission released this photograph of Saturn’s closest moon, Mimas – an image taken less than a month ago, on October 16th. It has a wonderfully spooky vibe. I can only guess that while flying past Mimas you would get the impression that its singular gaze is following you.
Just about every modern moviegoer who sees this crater-pocked sphere thinks it bears an uncanny resemblance to a famous fictitious space object.

This is apparently a coincidence. Mimas was merely a dot in space for a very long time after William Herschel first spotted it in 1789. The first close-up photos revealing its Cyclopean flair came from the Voyager missions in 1980. The first (fourth) Star Wars movie was already in (and out of) the theaters by then, debuting in 1977.

If travel to Saturn’s moons ever becomes a common thing, one wonders if humans will call this object “The Death Star”. I have to believe it’s possible for a cultural reference to last long after it fades from common knowledge. After all, we’re calling it Mimas right now, and how many people know who Mimas is? But the currents of memory are hard to predict. Future movie loving space travelers might also re-name this moon Wazowski.

Perhaps it will be left to the moon’s colonizers to determine if they want to be thought of as Mimanteans, Imperial Storm Troopers or Wazowskers. Of course, given the pockmarked terrain, you can tell they have a local weather problem with intermittent boulder rain. Anyone looking to live on Mimas might just as well be called a dang fool.

Place names are important, though. Bali Ha’i, Shangri-la and El Dorado all sound like very nice places to go, but would you really want to live there?

If you had to live in a fictional place, where would you settle?

62 thoughts on “Make Mine Mimas”

  1. Oz sounds good to me. I could be the tallest person in Munchkinland or travel to the Emerald City and have my eyes dyed to match my gown.

    On the other hand it might be fun to live on the Trail with the congress of baboons.

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  2. Hobbiton, during the time of Bilbo, especially if it looks like Alan Lee and Peter Jackson think it does. I wouldn’t mind dressing like a nice, respectable Hobbit wife either. Not having a Ring of Power to my credit, I would most likely be done and gone before all the unpleasantness begins.

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  4. Funny, but I find this a very difficult question. It’s much easier to think of a fictional place I would NOT want to settle in. “The Big Rock Candy Mountain”, for example. Not only does it have an over abundance of bees (I’m allergic), but there are cigarette trees and little streams of alcohol that come “trickling down the rocks”. Don’t get me wrong, alcohol is all right in moderation, but what sort of fish would you get out a stream like that? Or out of “a lake of stew”? I think we already have some lakes with that very problem – water shouldn’t be thick and chewy. In fact, the lyrics of the song read like an anti-promotional brochure for the place. Guess I don’t have what it takes to be a hobo.

    In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,
    There’s a land that’s fair and bright,
    Where the handouts grow on bushes
    And you sleep out every night.
    Where the boxcars all are empty
    And the sun shines every day
    And the birds and the bees
    And the cigarette trees
    The lemonade springs
    Where the bluebird sings
    In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

    In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
    All the cops have wooden legs
    And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth
    And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs
    The farmers’ trees are full of fruit
    And the barns are full of hay
    Oh I’m bound to go
    Where there ain’t no snow
    Where the rain don’t fall
    The winds don’t blow
    In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

    In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
    You never change your socks
    And the little streams of alcohol
    Come trickling down the rocks
    The brakemen have to tip their hats
    And the railway bulls are blind
    There’s a lake of stew
    And of whiskey too
    You can paddle all around it
    In a big canoe
    In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

    In the Big Rock Candy Mountains,
    The jails are made of tin.
    And you can walk right out again,
    As soon as you are in.
    There ain’t no short-handled shovels,
    No axes, saws nor picks,
    I’m bound to stay
    Where you sleep all day,
    Where they hung the jerk
    That invented work
    In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

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    1. Excellent commentary, Dale. 🙂 Another place you wouldn’t want to live would be in “Chewandswallow” from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs , where the weather can take a turn and rain maple syrup or orange juice, hot dogs, pancakes… The drawings in this book are so funny!

      I have to think about this some more.

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    2. Dale, I also probably would not be a good fit for Big Rock Candy Mountain except I would be in favor of getting rid of the guy who invented work. There would be no worries about procrastination with no work to do.

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    3. I think I’m with you on this one Dale. I prefer my eggs hard boiled and cigarette trees I would much rather avoid altogether, thank you. Lemonade springs might not be too bad, but might get sticky. Plus, I’d miss snow.

      Ditto Chewandswallow. Hard to plan the day if you don’t know whether it’s going to rain meatballs or ice cream.

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    4. Take me where I only feel
      The wind across my face
      Let me know there’s someplace left for me
      Waiting just for me.
      Bonnie Raitt (All At Once)

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      2. This is very obscure, but the favorite fictional place of my childhood was Wildcat Island and environs (really Lake Windemere) in the Arthur Ransome books. All who know what I am referring to raise your hand. If you were raised in England you would know–I had an English aunt.

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      5. At the beginning of “Lord of the Flies,” like p. 3 or so, the boys name the great English children’s island adventure novels. A boy in turn each says, if memory serves and it should having taught it a few times, “Treasure Island,” “Swiss Family Robinson,” Swallows and Amazons.

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      6. I had that Swallows and Amazons book when I was younger! I read it, but I don’t remember much. I do remember my uncle gave it to me (he’s Finnish, not English) for Christmas one year. I’ll have to find it when I go home for Thanksgiving and read it again. Thanks for reminding me of it 🙂

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  5. Yep, MIG, I’ve always wanted to live in The Shire Before The Unpleasantness. Round doors, full larders, elves hanging around. neighbors like Sam Gamgee. Come to think of it, Rivendell didn’t sound too bad either.

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  6. Oooh, tough choice! There’s plenty of places I’d love to visit but wouldn’t want to live there. I think I’d choose the wizarding world of Harry Potter (sans You-Know-Who). I’d even have a job: turning Hermionie’s S.P.E.W. into a proper foundation for the promotion of civil rights for magical creatures. Second choice might be Amestris from the anime “Fullmetal Alchemist” (my favorite anime series ever), but only after the Homunculae have been defeated and the military dictatorship overthrown.

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  7. Good morning and good wishful thinking,

    There are some fictional places I think would be interesting to visit if I could just be a visitor. A few weeks living in the world of the TV show Taxi might be fun. I like the Sue Grafton alphabetical series of detective stories and wouldn’t mind spending some time as a friend of the main character in her stories. How about a week or two in Lake Wobegon? Oh! I’m afraid Lake Wobegon wouldn’t be too diferent from Clarks Grove, where I live, so I guess I am already more or less living there.

    The only fictional place that I can think of where I might want to settle is the world created by Will Bonsall in his self published book, “Through the Eyes of a Stranger”. This book tells the story of a more or less utopian society of people who are living off the land in a small country they formed after the world we are living in today self destructs.

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  8. This reminds me a little of “what era would you want to live in with your cell phone” from last week. And equally difficult to answer, because I also would love to visit places, but not have to stay and live there. Shire sounds nice but also Pern, but not during the red threads, to see dragons (Anne McCaffrey). Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Mars, of course. Maybe the Land of Lilliput. But just to visit, mind you.

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    1. Thank you for reminding me of Pern! I have long loved Anne McCaffrey’s world and have always wanted to be a dragonrider, even with the threat of Thread. I believe there’s a new book out by her son…I may have to go buy that 🙂

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      1. Pern dragons are about my favorite dragons. I love that they can travel inter-dimensionally. But I also am very very fond of Temeraire (Naomi Novik books)!

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  9. Since I rarely read fiction, I’m at a distinct disadvantage for responding to today’s question. Still, I’d have to say that there literally is no other place I’d want to be than right here overlooking Crystal Bay. It’s my idea of heaven on earth. I did go to Cabo san Lucas one time a few years ago. Having never traveled much further than Minnesota, I wasn’t prepared for the sheer decadence of resort life. I had my first Marguarita (2) and bought I time share I couldn’t afford. Big mistake, but fun at the time! I’m safer staying right here.

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  10. I’ve always wanted to be able to do magic, so for me it would be someplace magical. I would love to attend Hogwarts, or be a Godmother in the 500 Kingdoms (Mercedes Lackey). I could be a wizard in Middle Earth or an Elemental Master in 1920’s England (Lackey again). I would also love to be a Herald in the kingdom of Valdemar…or to go with the magic theme, a Hawkbrother in the Pelagiris Forest (again Lackey…are you getting a trend? haha). I love fiction, it’s pretty much all I read. There are so many places I wish I could visit/live! I would even make do without electricity or running water 😉

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  11. A real estate developer who routinely defiled beautiful landscapes and sold shoddy homes with chemical-laced air finally dies. He wakes up in perfect world with the weather of San Diego and all the people have perfect teeth. Every car is a Lexus and every meal is catered by Julia Childs.
    “I sort of thought I’d land in the Other Place,” muses the developer. “After all the stuff I did, I expected much worse. Maybe God is a Republican after all, and this is my reward!”
    He goes golfing and finds that there are no greens fees. He even gets a free caddy.
    The developer’s first drive sails straight as a string and rolls into the cup.
    The second drive does the same. The developer cannot believe his luck. Back on earth, he was an erratic golfer or a bit worse.
    The third drive is another hole-in-one.
    And the fourth.
    “Damn,” says the developer, “four drives and four hole-in-one shots! I don’t mind playing well, but this sucks. This is getting pretty boring.”
    The caddy lifts his hat and smiles a lopsided smile. The raised hat reveals the ruddy complexion, strange eyes and head horns of the Devil himself!
    Old Scratch says to the developer, ”Welcome to Hell!

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    2. Ya’ know, the question was about fictional places, not “perfect” places. There are plenty of thrill laden fictional locations for you to choose from. Go for it!

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      1. Point well taken. I jumped from the concept of attractive places to the concept of a perfect world, a Big Rock Candy Mountain where everything is ideal. My bad.

        But my answer was meant to say that no matter where I might visit, I would be me and I would have complex interactions with my landscape and its denizens. Essentially, I reject the possibility of a wonderful place where I would love to live because I believe it is necessary to experience sadness, loss, frustration and other normal human emotions in order to know joy, contentment, exaltation and other emotions of happiness. And that faith was anchored in my conviction that the best possible world has to be a lot like the real world we live in. Note please: this is not my cynical rejection of the possibility of great joy. It is my embrace of the world of pain and confusion and surprise because I think it is all needed to be a good place to live. And most descriptions of idealized places to live strike me as incredibly thin and naive, lacking the three-dimensionality of real life.

        Would I enjoy the world of the Hobbit? The homes would remind me of my own, which I love, but I wouldn’t care to accept the Hobbits’ lack of curiosity about the greater world and their willingness to limit their perceptions of life. I have no interest in fairy tale worlds. Perhaps I’d like to live in the Prince Edward Island world of Anne of Green Gables, but–gee–those folks were mighty provincial and laced up tight! Mostly, I think I belong where I am. 🙂

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  12. I would go to live in the Hundred Acre Wood with Pooh and his pals. I would enjoy hunting for Heffalumps and having hero parties and playing Poohsticks. Not sure if I’m cut out to live in a tree like Pooh and Owl, but I’m sure I could make it work. Especially if Rabbit were around to provide the occasional little smackerel of something and I didn’t have to take any of Kanga’s Strengthening Medicine.

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    1. Oh well done, Anna! Yes that would be very grand. Myself, I think it would be very fine to live Under The Name of Saunders.

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  13. This isn’t a fictional place? It’s NOT?? I thought it was fictional!

    Otherwise, the Shire sounds like a very nice place to me.

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  14. Hello, all. Better late than never. I stopped by to read yesterday but never got around to commenting.

    My fictional place isn’t exactly a place as much as a fictional place within another fiction. In The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan, the character Kwan spoke of a world remembered from her past life in China, which she wished to impart to the character Olivia. It’s Kwan’s remembered world through which I’d most like to travel.

    Also, Kwan is my favorite fictional character ever. She seemed so real to me.

    Hope everyone is having a good week.

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    2. catch that one on books on tape too. amy reads it herself and she is phenominal as a performer in the presentation of her story

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  17. Actually, I’d like to spend some time in Cicely, Alaska, home of “Northern Exposure.” Then I’d like to time travel a la Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, and end up in England at the smaller of Mr. Rochester’s houses where he and Jane Eyre lived out their lives. From there I could time travel again, ending up on a Federation Starship headed to an idyllic planet inhabited by proficient, kind, resourceful beings. Learn their culture for a few years and then head home to Robbinsdale, back to this same house, and by the time I got back all the yard work and house repairs would be done.

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    2. Jane Eyre makes me think of Thursday Next. Wouldn’t mind living in the books she travels in (or rather behind the scenes of the books with her…).

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      1. Anna – glad to hear you are a Thursday Next fan as well… I’m waiting feverishly for the newest book to come in at the library. I think I’m 47 out of 100 requests so far!

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  18. the big rock candy mountain sounds just fine to me. cigarette trees and rivers of alcohol and if its vegie stew then i’m good to go. shangri la and bali hai come to mind. mayfield with wally and the beav, mayberry with andy and barney, willie wonkas chocolate factory, a land called honna lea has the potential to be sad but without that how can we enjoy happiness when its there. camelot, the city of bedrock and the jetsons home town (did it have a name) would be a kick, bedford falls would be a fun place to visit. the land of the point from harry nilsons story of obleo would be exciting and green acres is so full of characters it would be tough to pass but i do like the eyes of the guy whose dream town has jails with thin walls and railroad bulls with a blind eye and imagines stew whiskey and cigarettes as the ticket to the good life. like straight out of grapes of wrath.

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    1. Sit beside the breakfast table
      Think about your troubles
      Pour yourself a cup of tea
      And think about the bubbles
      You can take your teardrops
      And drop them in a teacup
      Take them down to the riverside
      And throw them over the side
      To be swept up by a current
      And taken to the ocean
      To be eaten by some fishes
      Who were eaten by some fishes
      And swallowed by a whale
      Who grew so old
      He decomposed
      He died and left his body
      To the bottom of the ocean
      Now evverybody knows
      That when a body decomposes
      The basic elements
      Are given back to the ocean
      And the sea does what it oughta
      And soon there’s salty water
      (That’s not too good for drinking)
      ‘Cause it tastes just like a teardrop
      (So they run it through a filter)
      And it comes out from a faucet
      (And is poured into a teapot)
      Which is just about to bubble
      Now think about your troubles

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      2. OH! It’s a little green man with one eye! I must’ve missed some kind of pop culture phenomenon! My eye is opened! Thanks!

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