Gadgets and Gizmos Galore: Detailed Worldbuilding in The Seems - Emily

The Seems by John Hulme and Michael Wexler is a trilogy detailing the work of Becker Drane, a Fixer. In the book, there are two realms: The World and The Seems. The World is the place ordinary people live in, and The Seems is an alternate dimension that controls what goes on in The World. Every job in The Seems is dedicated to keeping The World running properly, from packaging and dispensing Thought, to regulating Emotion, to spreading one side of pillows with Warm and the other side with Cool. Of course, things are bound to go wrong--whether a machine functions or someone purposely sabotages something, issues crop up every day. This is where Fixers come in. They are the most prestigious workers, 37 in total, having gone through a rigorous selection and training process.

However, I’m not here to talk about the story. If you want to hear about Becker’s adventures, you can go read the books yourself (or wait for me to write another post about them, as I love this series). Instead, I’m going to take a step back and show you how Hulme and Wexler have taken their worldbuilding to the next level, simply by paying attention to the details. Throughout all three books, tens, maybe hundreds of Seems-specific objects are mentioned. They play an integral part of daily life in The Seems, however, we as readers get no definition or precursor of what these things are. Somehow, the authors throw these objects in without creating confusion, in fact, they add to the story. The way they do this is by a combination of capitalization and description.

When an object is described, it is capitalized. Thought, Emotion, and Space are all objects in The Seems that have their own purpose. The way they are capitalized gives them a sense of importance and distinguishes them from their regular noun counterparts. The reader immediately realizes that Thought refers to an actual object called Thought, instead of just a thought in someone’s head. Similarly, on page 75, Space is referenced: “Becker plopped them [helmets] into his Toolkit--which, although it had plenty of extra Space, didn’t have unlimited weight.” If Space had not been capitalized, it would just have been a reference to the Toolkit not being very full, however, the capitalization indicates that the Space is not of normal means. In fact, a Fixer’s Toolkit is the size of a briefcase, yet can carry much more in volume than that.

In the same vein, a Fixer uses many Tools when they go on missions to fix things. Most tools have a trademark after their name, as well as being capitalized, so they are easy to identify. Names are mainly common objects, such as the Thinking Cap™, a propeller hat that, when spun, raises the wearer’s IQ, or the Digeradoozy™, which when blown, produces an audio blast that affects a radius the size of a football field. As it turns out, there is a list of tools at the back of the final book (The Lost Train of Thought), but this list is by no means exhaustive. It only contains 16 Tools. Many more are referenced in the book, yet they are not in the glossary, nor do the Fixers ever stop to define what exactly they do. So how, then, do Hulme and Wexler keep the flow of the story going when their reader is constantly bombarded with unfamiliar names and trademarks galore?

Simply put, description (and clever titling). The description of the effect the Tool has on its surroundings, combined with its name, lets the reader instantly understand the object’s purpose. For example, Becker’s Bear Claws™ are mentioned when he uses them to dig a hole in the sand to escape something: “. . . he remembered . . . how she [Lake, a previous Fixer] had frantically dug her way underground to escape the attack . . . With the help of his Bear Claws™, Becker was already thirty feet down . . .” It is obvious, then, to the reader that Bear Claws™ are something that helps the wearer dig, similar to the claws on a bear. 

In The Seems, attention to detail, descriptive names, and inferences all culminate in a fully immersive world where the reader doesn’t have to stop every few pages to reference a glossary or to scratch their head in confusion. It all comes together right there on the page. Hulme and Wexler have built what is one of my favorite series when it comes to worldbuilding and story potential. With just a bit of Luck, anything is possible in The Seems.