A Bibliography of Antarctic Lore
While playing around with speculative Antarctica maps, I've been trying to keep notes on other worldbuilding projects & fantasies involving Antarctica.1 Since the Antarctic Adventure Jam is underway I figured I'd post what I compiled so far (special thanks to Antartica Jam discord members who suggested stuff!). I haven't yet read most of these in full, but enjoy perusing them for references & homages to work into my writing.
Literature & Film
- Campbell, John W.: Who Goes There?
- Carpenter, John (dir.): The Thing
- Coleridge, Samuel Taylor: The Rime of The Ancient Mariner "The ice was here, the ice was there, / The ice was all around: / It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, / Like noises in a swound!"
- De Mille, James: A Strange Manuscript found in a Copper Cylinder
- Diski, Jenni: Skating to Antarctica
- Drake, Charles Romyn: A Strange Discovery
- Johnson, Mat: Pym
- Lovecraft, H.P.: At the Mountains of Madness "For a second we gasped in admiration of the scene's unearthly cosmic beauty, and then vague horror began to creep into our souls. For this far violet line could be nothing else than the terrible mountains of the forbidden land—highest of earth's peaks and focus of earth's evil; harborers of nameless horrors and Archæan secrets; shunned and prayed to by those who feared to carve their meaning; untrodden by any living thing of earth, but visited by the sinister lightnings and sending strange beams across the plains in the polar night."
- Miller, John (ed.): Polar Horrors: Strange Tales from the World's End
- Poe, Edgar Allen: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket2
- https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/still-farther-south/
- Price, Robert M.: The Antarktos Cycle
- Robinson, Kim Stanley: Antarctica
- Schmierdorf, Joe: The Antarctic Cycle: Weird Tales of the Antipodes
- Silverberg, Robert: The 13th Immortal "'Who was your father?' the mutant asked Dale Kesley. And try as he might, Kesley could not remember; his past was an utter blank. But he knew one thing—the answer to his life's riddle lay in Antarctica, the once frozen continent, now an earthly paradise surrounded by an impenetrable barrier."
- Vern, Jules: An Antarctic Mystery
Music
- John Cale: Antarctica Starts Here
- Divorce: Antarctica
- Duran Duran: My Antarctica
- Franz Ferdinand & Sparks: Antarctica
- Laura Agnusdei: Flowers are Blooming in Antarctica
- Men Without Hats: Antarctica
- Of Montreal: Wraith Pinned to The Mist
- Al Stewart: Antarctica
- $uicideboy$: Antarctica
- Vangelis: Antarcica
Worldbuilding Projects
- Green Antarctica: "PREMISE: Antarctica never glaciates (or at least never glaciates completely) leaving a relatively warm, habitable continent with a functioning ecosystem. Essentially, Antarctica remains more or less the live continent that it was 20 million or so years ago. Despite being a live continent, Antarctica remains isolated by distance and the circumpolar currents. Even without glaciation, six month nights and six month days, and various local conditions make this the strangest, most exotic place on earth." Warning: Apparently quite horrific -- I've seen this described as "Saw but for anthropology."
- Tagra (also here): "A lost, forgotten world. Long after the end of the Mesozoic era, the last non-avian dinosaurs survived in what is now Antarctica, and one exceptional species briefly tasted intelligence just before their entire world disappeared under ice."
- World Dream Bank - Jaredia Warning: NSFW "A thousand km east of Tierra del Fuego lies one last continent in the equatorial Jaredian strip--one so large it nearly completes the ring, stretching to within a few thousand km of Australia. "Circumnavigating" Jaredia is thus a deceptive phrase. "Circumambulating" would be fairer. Circle this Earth along the equatorial corridor, and you can walk 90% of the way. Still, this last continent we're approaching is the most isolated--Jaredia's great riddle, both biologically and culturally. Tropica is the logical name for this equatorial continent you know as Antarctica. Or rather you don't. None of us know this land--hidden under that ice-mantle is a sprawling, diverse, often spectacular continent."
- SCP-1483