Classification

I know that the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling are assigned the number 823.914, but what if someone wrote a book about quidditch: Where would it go? What about Hogwarts? And where do you put books about lost cities?

Fictional games and places are classed in the 800s with the number for the author who invented the game and the place. Thus, quidditch and Hogwarts would also be assigned the number 823.914. An adaptation of the game--if such were possible--would be classed somewhere in the 790s. For example, an adaptation of quidditch that used the balls but eliminated the broomsticks and any other flying apparatus would be classed at 796.3. A computer version of the game would be assigned the number 794.8.

The classification of a "lost" city depends on how the city is viewed by historians and archaeologists. If they think it is fictional, e.g., Atlantis, the city belongs in the 398.2s or the 800s. The classification is moved from the 398.2s or the 800s to the 900s when such a city is discovered, as happened in the case of Troy.

Last revised: 15 July 2005