Saturday, July 28, 2018

"Spying Is Impossible in Klopstokia"


From Million Dollar Legs (1932). A perfect illustration of two contrasting forces, often employed in creating a fictional country:

fairy-tale-like vagueness ("a far away country") and encyclopedia-like specificity ("chief exports...")


Klopstokia is one of those fictional countries that have very peculiar customs... like using arm wrestling competition in presidential elections:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8rMpbbSwD0


Also, it is one of those cases where one of the protagonists, a native of the fictional country, is a very high-ranked person. Almost mirroring Graustark, the male protagonist, an American (?), falls in love with a lady who turns out to be... well, not a royalty, but still a very respected figure -- and he fails to recognize it immediately.

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