science fiction genre - What is a hollow world?

I have heard the phrase hollow world several times, but seeing the question "Does the Song of Ice and Fire take place in a hollow world?," inspired me to finally Google the topic. This led to a TV Trope page about hollow worlds explaining:

When science started to switch over to the modern view of Earth's composition the idea of the hollow earth became a Discredited Trope, but later generations of Speculative Fiction writers took up the concept and revitalized it.

Adding various world types: ring worlds, dyson spheres, artificially constructed worlds, etc. Which confused the matter further. Unfortunately, I guess I don't truly understand the concept of a hollow world. Is it as simple as the world is hollow? Or is there something more conceptual at play?

Answer

Yes, the fundamental quality of a hollow world is that it is a large, hollow, more-or-less spherical object, and creatures live on the inside surface of it.

What's on the outside of the object (or even if it has an outside) may vary. There could be creatures living on the outside, or it could be bare, or the object could fill the entire universe (and thus have no outside).

Of course the science problem is that gravity as we know it can't hold objects to the inside of a sphere, which is why this is now mostly a fantasy concept. If the world is cylindrical, though, centrifugal force could be used to press the inhabitants to the surface.

Comments

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