The space in which the fantastic event unfurls takes on a life of its own, strongly marked by what C. W. Thomsen calls visionary architecture’s "tendency to externalize an inward vision." This dynamic is on display in the Romantic fascination with ruins, or in Piranesi’s celebrated Imaginary Prison engravings, where hellish fears of incarnation and torture are inscribed on a massive scale. Poe’s epochal Fall of the House of Usher confers a grim aura on the Gothic edifice. The space of dreaming takes on an importance of its own.

View Images: Fantastic Space

Studies:

• Luzius Keller. Piranèse et les romantiques français. Paris: JosÈ Corti, 1966.
• C. W. Thomsen, Visionary Architecture: From Babylon to Virtual Reality. NY and Munich, Prestel, 1994.
• Paul Zucker. Fascination of Decay, New Jersey: Gregg Press, 1968.
  

Literary works:

• Poe: "Fall of the House of Usher."
• Italo Calvino, "Invisible Cities;" "The Count of Monte Cristo."
• J.-L.Borges, "The Circular Ruins."
• Julio Cortazar:"House Taken Over."