Why Create a Fictitious Universe?

Q: So why create a fictional universe?

A: For the same reason one creates a novel or a painting or a film: it is an act of creative expression.

For the last several years I have found art coming to mean more and more to me. When something occupies my mind I find myself organizing and hierachializing it as a sort of low level background process. It just seems to be what my mind does when left to it's own devices.

I have come to have in my mind a sort of hierarchy of magnitudes or maybe a hierarchy of significances when it comes to art. The more art forms a given work includes within itself, the higher the position it occupies in this hierarchy.

So, for instance, a story or illustration is a lower level work and a book - which combines both a story and illustrations is of a higher level in the hierarchy. It is a more 'significant' creative act. A play, containing a story, sets, costumes, acting, lighting, sound, direction, production, etc is yet higher in magnitude. A film, with a full soundtrack, cinematography, screenplay etc is yet higher. (Just higher in magnitude with regard to my hierarchy mind you; not higher in terms of quality or value in any absolute sense; there being books of very high quality/ value and films of very low.)

That was sort of my first set of thinking. Then an idea came from somewhere of a child as a blank canvas that the parents get to paint. This gave rise to the realization of how powerfully our children paint back onto us; "The canvas paints back." is the way I summarize the idea. This led me to begin seeing relationships as art which then led me to see a family as a higher form and a nation as a higher from and a civilization as a higher form and a planet willed with civilizations as a still higher form.

And thus the question: where does it end? what is the highest form of art?

My answer - for now - is that a universe is the highest form of art. It inspires, incubates and spawns other art. That may be the purpose of a universe: to incubate, spawn and contain art.

So that is my rather long winded reason. That's why I've decided to create a universe.