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Reflections

Counter-Counter-Mapping?

I found “Rethinking the Power of Maps” by Denis Wood to be one of the most interesting readings I’ve done so far in this class. While I’m aware of the subjective perspective of the writer, his analysis and ironic tone make for a thought-provoking read. Firstly, I find a map of Palestine to be an extremely effective example of the power of maps, particularly in a political context. As a region that has been “a colony, a dependency, a vassalage from … way back” (Wood 235), the history of a land that has changed hands and boundaries so many times is bound to have an interesting mapping history. 

The practices of counter-mapping and counter-counter mapping explored in the text are new terms applied to familiar ideas. They exist as a result of political motivations and propaganda, and provide evidence for the subjectivity of supposedly scientific documents. In a way, maps are used as weapons in the power struggle between Palestine and Israel, and each side is bound to produce dramatically different maps for the exact same area. For humans, land is not merely a geographical location, but possessions subject to history, culture, religion, belief systems, and more.

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Weekly Writings

Week 4 | Reading with the Grain

Argument: In this chapter, Bruckner’s overarching argument is that in the eighteenth to nineteenth century, American mapmaking departed from the standard imperial model and began creating its own place in the world. Paralleled with this rise in mapmaking was a rise in colonial ambitions that set the stage for competition between Philadelphia and London. 

Assertions/Claims:

  1. “At the same time, the map’s signs and symbols re-flected the ideological expectations of imperial politics and colonial practice … Furthermore, these markings sug-gested expansionary land schemes debated by colonial pro-prietors and governments, in particular by members of the Pennsylvania Assembly. Indeed, by dedicating the map to Thomas Pownall, who, as a recent observer of the Albany Congress, had expressed support for an intercolonial alli-ance against the French, the map implicitly aligned itself with parties interested in ideas and concepts advocating colonial political autonomy” (Bruckner 36). 
  2. “Second, and less obvious but perhaps more significant, Evans unknowingly announced a major reversal of the eighteenth-century system of knowl-edge production. By selling out his American-made map within the colonies before shipping it to the metropolis—indeed, by generating demand for a colonial-made map in the imperial metropolis—Evans not only pitted Philadel-phia against London as a center of calculation but inadver-tently decentered the imperial model of mapmaking and scientific communication” (Bruckner 40).
  3. “The material biography of the Evans map outlines the dual rise of the artisanal map as a popular commodity and commercial cartography as a profitable enterprise” (Bruckner 41).

Assertion #2:

An unintentional long-term effect of Evans’s map was a shift in worldwide knowledge production. As a map sold in the colonies, before being sold in Britain by popular demand, A General Map of the Middle British Colonies put Philadelphia (the colonies) on par — and in competition — with London (Britain) as a center in calculation and communication. For evidence, Bruckner describes the production process of the map, including its struggles and subsequent deviations from the imperial model, thus introducing innovative new colonial methods and establishing the map as American-made. In addition, Bruckner details the commercial success in the colonies, then back in England in order to demonstrate the shift in demand and source of knowledge/information. These uses of evidence heavily support the claim, which in turn supports the overarching argument by showing the map-relevant ways in which the colonies’ position began aligning with Britain’s. 

Categories
Free Writes

What is an Idea?

An idea is a thought or abstract concept, original or personal or not, that takes form from mental conception and solidifies into a concrete reality.

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Reflections

American Mapmaking: Is It Any Different From the Others?

From the intentions, perspectives, and applications of maps in general, we have narrowed in on mapmaking in America — or at least the colonies. Chapter 1 of Martin Brückner’s book The Social Life of Maps in America, 1750-1860, “The Artisanal Map, 1750-1815: Workshops and Shopkeepers from Lewis Evans to Samuel Lewis” , dives into the first official map made solely in America, versus the British maps that dominated cartography in the English-speaking world. Considered one of the three most important maps in early American history, A General Map of the Middle British Colonies by Lewis Evans exemplified the progress and difficulties of early American mapmaking. 

Just as we discussed from previous readings, “Guild politics, government tariffs, and, above all, the vicissitudes of a patronage system that stretched from royalty to interested individuals defined the formative years in the material biography of European com-mercial maps” (Bruckner 28). One cannot expect a situation any different just because the location of production is different. In the colonies, cartographers may have “adapted to and departed from the imperial model of map manufacture” (Bruckner 29), but political and economic interference were unavoidable and inevitable. After the struggling Evans secured the funds and legitimacy to actualize his ambitious project, “official sponsorship and partisan patronage quickly moved Evans and his yet-unfinished map into the dual arena of imperial politics and the marketplace” (Bruckner 32). I can easily understand how a map of such scale, dealing with so many areas and borders in an ever-changing new world, was too important to not touch. 

In short, I found this chapter extremely interesting, albeit unsurprising, as we followed Evans’s navigation towards the creation of the first American-made map. I was able to apply information from previous readings to this one and draw connections. Official cartography will always be inseparable from its political aspect.

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Weekly Writings

Week 3 | Summarizing Turchi

“Lolita depicts the way our interactions with the world are often based on illusion, and on both our willful and unintentional reliance on hazy perceptions … And so every story is an iceberg. Or an ice sculpture. Sculpture, after all, is the art of cutting away, of finding David in a block of marble, or one of all the possible davids. Even a child eyeing a pumpkin in October knows that most of the work ahead will be deciding what to remove” (Turchi 66-69).

  1. 250 Word Summary

The book Lolita portrays the illusion-based foundation of our interactions with the world. It also reveals our preference, whether intentional or not, for blurred realities. This is perfectly exemplified in Humbert’s obsession with Lolita, aka Delores Haze. The object of his twisted desires is not the innocent twelve year old girl Delores, but the nymphet Lolita that Humbert has crafted in the attempt to satisfy them. As a result, the thoughts and feelings of Delores are silenced, suppressed, warped through the lens of Humbert’s obsessive eyes. When Delores becomes married and pregnant, however, the illusion Humbert has created begins to fracture as peeks of unpleasant reality filter in. Humbert is forced to contend with the Delores version of Lolita, the real person behind the nymphet. 

Because at the end of the day, Lolita is but a creature in a fantasy world, a figment of Humbert’s imagination. Imagination is fleeting — it cannot sustain itself in the face of reality. But that is the intention of art: to bring readers into the world created, to help people escape reality.

Knowing what we do about blanks, silences, and omissions, now we must ask the key questions. Namely, how much is too much? Too little? And how do we know? Both putting in and keeping out too much can have negative effects, so neither is strictly superior to the other.

The answer to all these questions is purpose. The amount of detail to be included is specific to what an artist means to create. 

In this way, stories can be aptly compared to icebergs, or ice sculptures. Stories are about cutting away the excess to get to David, the masterpiece.

  1. 150 Character Summary

Fiction reveals our preference for escaping reality and using our imagination. The question of what to put in or omit is answered by creator’s purpose.

Categories
Reflections

Tabula Rasa & Reality

An idea that particularly stood out to me from “A Wide Landscape of Snow”, a chapter of Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer by Peter Turchi, is tabula rasa. Turchi calls this “the blank slate of opportunity”, an apt description in the context of blanks in writing and the world at large. A further search revealed that tabula rasa is a theory which argues that the human mind is blank at birth, and all knowledge is imprinted on it through perspective, experience, and other reactions to the external world. There is no prior or shared knowledge, only a world of potential to fill in blank with one’s own unique story. 

In terms of psychology, I connected this theory to the nature vs. nurture debate. Innatism defends nature, while tabula rasa supports nurture. Are we naturally/biologically born with prior or shared knowledge? Or is our mind entirely shaped by the environment around us? These questions are quite thought-provoking to me. Another provocative section of this chapter is the exploration of reality/other worlds, particularly through the use of Lolita as an example text. Reality, while literally objective, is experienced subjectively. Fiction presents new realities, or warps current ones. It can be argued that the number one reason for reading fiction is to be transported into the artist’s world, whether for enjoyment or escape. In Lolita, a similar occurrence takes place in the story itself. Humbert attempts but fails to create a fantasy world where Delores is transformed into Lolita, an innocent into a nymphet. We as humans try our best to make realities that fit our desires, but they do not always become real.

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Weekly Discussions

Blanks in Writing & The World

I had an extraordinarily stimulating discussion with two classmates about Turchi, maps, and related philosophical ideas. Right from the start, the creative juices were flowing, and we flowed from topic to topic, exploring everything under the sun for at least an hour.

We opened the conversation with a surprising observation: that Turchi uses breaks himself, applying the very techniques he writes about in his own writing. It is undeniable that this application is intentional, for subtle reinforcement, for irony, for humor. His use of breaks only emphasizes the powerful eureka moments derived from an unspoken reader / writer understanding. As a group, we found the breaks between sections to be immensely helpful for reorienting our reading and giving a comfortable pause between ideas.

We then talked about how the way that authors control what readers see is closely connected to the same practices in politics. Writers make use of “silences”, or “the intentional or unintentional suppression of knowledge in maps” (Turchi 57), as well as calculated reveals. In the same fashion, the government carefully chooses what to hide and display to citizens in order to generate the desired effect. In writing, it’s called skill; in politics, it’s called propaganda.

In a more general sense, the idea of blanks is reflected in types of humans: those who seek to project their desires onto the natural world (giving rise to domination, imperialism, colonialism), versus those who enjoy nature as it is. An example from Turchi is the contrast between practical, tightly-woven baskets — which are utilitarian, making nature useful to man — and beautiful, work of art baskets — which demonstrate appreciation for beauty of the natural. Humans’ instinct to fill in blanks is present all throughout time and space — literally. We can see the desire to claim blank space through Manifest Destiny, and the desire to expand our influence and knowledge through space exploration. 

Overall, our discussion revolved around the idea of blanks existing not only in writing, but the world all around us.

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Weekly Writings

Week 2 | Paraphrasing Harley & Turchi

Maps, Knowledge, and Power, J. Brian Harley:

“As much as guns and warships, maps have been the weapons of imperialism. Insofar as maps were used in colonial promotion, and lands claimed on paper before they were effectively occupied, maps anticipated empire” (Harley 57).

  1. Similar to guns and ships, maps carry out the warfare of imperialism. To the extent that maps were used in the marketing of colonialism, and the claiming of lands in theory before practice, maps set the precedent for expansionism.
  2. Like artillery and battleships, maps have been the tools used by imperialism. Maps predicted new lands, in the way that they were exploited for colonial propaganda and laying claim to as yet unoccupied lands.
  3. Maps have served as the ammunition for imperialism just as guns and warships do. Maps paved the way for colonization by supporting colonies and depicting unclaimed land as claimed.

Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer, Peter Turchi:

“No matter how hard we work to be objective or faithful, we create. That isn’t to say we get things wrong, but that, from the first word we write – even by choosing the language in which we will write, and by choosing to write rather than to paint or sing – we are defining, delineating, the world that is coming into being” (Turchi 14).

  1. It is impossible to be unbiased, as we create. That doesn’t mean we’re wrong, but we conceive and construct our world by simple choices like the method and language of communication.
  2. We imagine, regardless of how much we try to be unprejudiced. That just means we portray and make into reality our world by deciding on methods of expression, not that we are wrong.
  3. It doesn’t matter how much we attempt to be impersonal, since we design. It doesn’t mean we interpret things incorrectly, but that from the very beginning — from deciding on a language to write in to deciding on another art form — we characterize the world we create.

I chose these passages to paraphrase because they encapsulate key ideas in the respective texts, and they contained well-written language that could be broken down and evaluated. Paraphrasing the passage from Harley helped me truly understand the metaphor of how maps are weapons of imperialism, and in a broader sense, instruments of political power and man’s will. Turchi’s passage became more direct and clearer — especially the idea of maps being subjective representations of the maker’s intentions, biases, and experiences — after paraphrasing. I found Turchi a bit harder to paraphrase because it was more difficult to think of synonyms for all the words that he used. However, the process of paraphrasing overall brought to light my strength in describing but weakness in being concise. I’ve found that searching for a way to present my own understanding of the author’s words is a difficult task, because comprehension isn’t enough — paraphrasing is also about being able to reproduce complex ideas using your own language. 

Categories
Reflections

Connection Between “This Is Water” & Harley/Turchi

“It’s easy to run this story through kind of a standard liberal arts analysis: the exact same experience can mean two totally different things to two different people, given those people’s two different belief templates and two different ways of constructing meaning from experience. Because we prize tolerance and diversity of belief, nowhere in our liberal arts analysis do we want to claim that one guy’s interpretation is true and the other guy’s is false or bad. Which is fine, except we also never end up talking about just where these individual templates and beliefs come from. Meaning, where they come from INSIDE the two guys. As if a person’s most basic orientation toward the world, and the meaning of his experience were somehow just hard-wired, like height or shoe-size; or automatically absorbed from the culture, like language. As if how we construct meaning were not actually a matter of personal, intentional choice” (Wallace “This is Water”).

At first, it seemed a daunting task to connect maps with topics in a commencement speech. After gaining a deeper understanding of the deeper meanings behind maps by reaching Turchi, and Harley, however, I began to see the link between those intricacies and the ideas expressed in David Foster Wallace’s commencement address. As for most real world things we consider in a liberal arts mindset, the purpose is how we think about the world around us. And not just how we think — but “the choice of what to think about”. At first glance and mention, maps are boringly physical, 2D pieces of paper. We regard them as objective drawings that show us a place, instead of subjective representations of perspective and history. So let’s say we apply the standard liberal arts analysis to a map: the same location could be presented in dramatically different ways based on the perspectives, beliefs, intentions, and support systems behind two  different mapmakers. That’s not to say that one or the other is wrong in their interpretation, just that the map reader should be aware and knowledgeable of their backgrounds. Excluding mistakes of faulty printing or incompetence, differences on maps are usually the result of bias. Like Wallace stated, it’s not like “a person’s most basic orientation toward the world, and the meaning of his experience were somehow just hard-wired, like height or shoe-size; or automatically absorbed from the culture, like language”. In other words, we don’t have a preprogrammed instinct toward perfect map making; rather, we make personal, intentional choices to shape and represent the world around us to an audience.

Categories
Reflections

“Maps, Knowledge, and Power”

First and foremost, Harley writes of maps and their connections to knowledge and power with the established foundation that it is a cultural myth for maps to be truly “scientific” or wholly objective. In all the history and social studies classes taken throughout my life, maps have been presented as fact and evidence: unquestionably reliable sources of information from which to study the past and present. Harley’s essay has helped me overcome the long held beliefs associated with prior teachings and cultural myth, and realize the truth that I’ve sensed all along: that maps are representations of current desires and weapons of political power. 

In their basest essence, maps are knowledge. This perspective is a lot more meaningful when we acknowledge that mapmaking has historically been a privilege, benefitter, and representation of the elite / the powers in control. As such, it makes sense that “storage of authoritative resources involves above all the retention and control of information or knowledge“. The making and spreading — or withholding — of maps is essentially the control of knowledge. 

In addition, maps are a potent weapon, a use for them which I never would have thought of before, but see clearly now. Politically, they have political, religious, and propaganda uses. They establish and legitimize land and political boundaries, carry out religious intentions, and spread certain ideas and ideologies. Thus, it becomes clear how maps become a powerful weapon in the hands of imperialism.

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