OK I have a question to ask all those science fantasy readers our there? Who spends anytime on the maps of the various lands that appear at the front of most books? I may attention to them on the few (the very few) novels that I read more than once. Once has the map being a part of the story. I recently continued on trilogy set in a future or past landscape where the map at the front was identical to the middle east. That helped me understand some of the points the author was making, but it did not add much to the story. In fact this was one of those fantasies which don't fall into the category of serious and memorable (such as the latest Stephen Donaldson) but rather light, fun but undemanding to the point where sat in an Apartment in Soho, Hong Kong with a moderate hangover from a weekend at the 7's, I can't remember the name or the author.
So why am I saying this? Well thanks to Cory Banks (who has not yet registered as an accredited member of the CE network so will not get a hot link) I came across this site which shows an example of a story told by placing dialogue onto a google map of a city. Now this is all well and good, novel and interesting but it is not what story telling is about. I don't need a map to enter a fantasy, I need good writing which allows me to paint pictures in my head that resonate with my real and imagined experiences with that of the author. A traditional story teller does not hold up a map (or worst still project it onto a screen with powerpoint), they weave the necessary aspects of location into their words. A film (of a book) does not have a map, it shifts and changes locations without precision or grid reference.
Yes I can see the use of locating anecdotes captured as part of a research project for analysis and we plan something along those lines for the next release of SenseMaker™ but that is for analysis and search, not for the purpose of telling a story. I will admit to a bit of discomfort as to these gimmicks. They seem to want to reduce story to a string of facts rather than a weaving of the imagination.
Incidentally - as a curiosity, compare the book covers for the US and UK edititions on Donaldson's book. Which is the more authentic to the story? The UK version is authentic to The Land, which is an integral aspect of the book. The US edition attempts (wrongly) to place the book into the have Wizard, will travel and right wrongs genre.
Comments (5)
http://www.delta7.com/ has visual dialogue. I had something similar done (before I found Julian Burton), and it proved very good at engaging people. Probably very limited numbers of fragments and underlying stories per picture though if it is to make sense as a picture.
Posted by Brian Sherwood Jones | March 31, 2008 4:45 PM
Posted on March 31, 2008 16:45
Personally, I am a huge map fan. My walls are graced with everything from a 1600s Bleau map of Tuscany to a pre-Civil War schoolhouse map of the US with 1840 census data that mentions the number of whites, free-blacks, and slaves by state. New Hampshire had 1 slave. I guess this must relate to Arlo Guthrie's "Last Man" story (can't find a reference but Arlo fans will know the story).
Anyway, there is a lot of interesting work going on in university history departments in terms of how maps themselves tell stories and the telling of history using GIS, Google maps, etc. (http://chnm.gmu.edu/projects.php for a reference to interesting semi-related work) I know this isn't the basic thread, but I could see how eventually it would move tot he world of fiction and fantasy. The only map I ever looked at was Tolkien's, and that was only after having read it once through and on second reading was getting into the details more than the escape.
As for book covers - compare Pratchett covers from US and Britain/Canada. US covers are "pretty", whereas the British covers are much more colorful, brutal, and 'raw'.
Wayne
Posted by Wayne Zandbergen | March 31, 2008 6:41 PM
Posted on March 31, 2008 18:41
Also not directly related to sci-fi but an interesting story-gathering exercise is that of the BBC project Every Square Mile http://www.everysquaremile.co.uk/
that is asking the people who live in a particular geographic area to write their stories of people and places, current and past, to create a people's history of the site. Photos, ratings and commenting on other's posts is encouraged.
As a futurist, the only thing missing from something like this is the telling of stories about what the place will be like in the future - which gets a little closer to the theme of your post Dave of future stories tied to maps!
Posted by Luke Naismith | March 31, 2008 8:09 PM
Posted on March 31, 2008 20:09
Taking things a bit further O/T from Wayne, my assumption that maps and narrative were very different got a delightful awakening from
'Maps of the imagination: the writer as cartographer' by Peter Turchi.
Posted by Brian Sherwood Jones | March 31, 2008 10:18 PM
Posted on March 31, 2008 22:18
I just finished reading "The Book of Dave" by Will Self. Highly, highly recommended. It's the story of a post-apocalyptic London society that's based on the rantings of a 1990's London cabbie. There are a few maps at the beginning of this book that assisted the story, for example post-apocalyptic "Ham" is where Hampstead is now. Even more valuable was the glossary at the end (from English to future 'mockney').
Posted by Ron Dimon | April 3, 2008 12:03 AM
Posted on April 3, 2008 00:03