Month: September 2023

‘Pseudo-Anachronistic’ Elements in Fantasy

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

This blog post from independent roleplaying games creator Periapt Games looks at the phenomenon of what’s called “pseudo-anachronistic elements” in fantasy fiction (and fantasy roleplaying games): technologies that have no business existing in the era being portrayed. Of course maps are mentioned, and at length—otherwise why would I mention it here? “Despite being ubiquitous in the modern day, reading a top-down map or even understanding what a map means is a learned skill, and not trivially so. Don’t expect pre-industrial people to be able to purchase a map, read one, or know what one is.” This is precisely what I was trying to say in my 2019 Tor.com article, “Fantasy Maps Don’t Belong in the Hands of Fantasy Characters”; it’s gratifying to see someone else making the same argument.

Previously: Fantasy Maps Don’t Belong in the Hands of Fantasy Characters.

The Return of the Map Projection Trading Cards

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
Map projection trading cards (Daniel Huffman)
Daniel Huffman

Daniel Huffman’s map projection trading cards are making a comeback. “While my colleagues and I did our best to let everyone know about these cards, some people inevitably missed out during the first print run. I’ve had many people contact me asking and hoping to get their hands on a pack or two. So, I am bringing them back for one final print run via Kickstarter,” writes Huffman. “I hope you’ll share this widely, so that we don’t miss anyone this time around, as this is almost certainly the last time these cards will be printed.”

Previously: Map Projection Trading Cards.

The CBC on Inaccessible Flood Maps

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

As the CBC’s evening news program The National reports, flood maps can be incredibly hard to find, with even municipal maps requiring an NDA to view in some cases. Now this story focuses on Halifax, Nova Scotia in the wake of flash flooding this summer; the situation elsewhere in Canada may be quite different (Quebec’s flood maps, for example, are available online, though only in French).

Man Dies After Driving Across Collapsed Bridge, Family Sues Google

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

The family of a man who died after driving off a collapsed bridge is suing Google; they allege that despite multiple reports from users, Google Maps continued to mark the bridge in North Carolina, which partially collapsed in 2013, as passable, directing him and other drivers across it. The family is also suing local companies for failing to maintain the bridge or put up barricades and hazard warnings.

Edney on Sleigh’s Anciente Mappe of Fairyland

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
Bernard Sleigh, An Anciente Mappe of Fairyland (1917)
Bernard Sleigh, “An anciente mappe of Fairyland: newly discovered and set forth,” ca. 1917. Map illustration, 147 × 39 cm. Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, Boston Public Library.

Matthew Edney has a post on Bernard Sleigh’s Anciente Mappe of Fairyland, about which we have seen much already; Edney’s look is deeper and more analytical. “Of special interest to me is how, despite his overtly anti-modernist subject matter and style, Sleigh nonetheless gave structure and system to his fictive panorama by giving it the trappings of normative maps and of realistic imagery more generally.”

Previously: An Anciente Mappe of Fairyland; North of Nowhere: The Osher’s Fantasy Map Exhibition.

Behind the Scenes of the ‘Barbie’ Map

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

The Wall Street Journal provides some background to the map that got the Barbie movie into trouble in Vietnam, and the steps movie studios are increasingly taken to ensure that on-screen cartography doesn’t run afoul of other countries’ sensitivities. How to avoid a repeat of the Barbie controversy? “One proposal executives have discussed: having an employee inside the clearance department review every map featured on screen for potential problems or offenses. That’s a tough proposition, one employee noted, since the ‘Barbie’ map wasn’t processed by the Los Angeles team as a normal map at all.” (Link may be paywalled; see also the Apple News+ link—which granted is also paywalled.)

Previously: Philippine Censors Want ‘Barbie’ Blurred, Not Banned; The Nine-Dash Line Gets ‘Barbie’ Banned in Vietnam.

A Book Roundup: Recent New Publications

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Book cover: A History of the World in 500 MapsWriting for Geographical magazine, Katherine Parker reviews A History of the World in 500 Maps by Christian Grataloup (Thames & Hudson, 13 Jul 2023), which was originally published in French in 2019. “[E]ven with 500 maps, there’s a selection process at work that may leave some readers wanting for specific trajectories and topics. For example, although there’s a continual emphasis on economics, commerce and migration, the impact of the Transatlantic slave trade is only lightly addressed. Similarly, Indigenous perspectives are present, but not abundant. However, such critiques of lacuna in subject coverage are inevitable in any book that attempts to include all of human history.” Note that the maps are modern maps of history created for this book, not old maps. UK-only publication. £35. Amazon UK.

Book cover: Esri Map Book Volume 38The 38th volume of the Esri Map Book (Esri, 5 Sep 2023) came out earlier this month. Like the NACIS Atlas of Design (previously),1 it’s a showcase of maps presented at a conference—in this case, maps from the Map Gallery exhibition of Esri’s International User Conference. The Esri Map Book website has a gallery of maps presumably from this volume, and given the number of pages in the book (140) and the number of maps in the gallery (65), it may actually be complete (assuming a two-page spread per map). $30. Amazon (Canada, UK), Bookshop.

Book cover: The GlobemakersPeter Bellerby, of bespoke premium globemaker Bellerby & Co. fame, has written a book: The Globemakers: The Curious Story of an Ancient Craft (Bloomsbury) is out today in hardcover in the UK, and in North America on October 17; the ebook is available worldwide as of today. From the publisher: “The Globemakers brings us inside Bellerby’s gorgeous studio to learn how he and his team of cartographers and artists bring these stunning celestial, terrestrial, and planetary objects to life. Along the way he tells stories of his adventure and the luck along the way that shaped the company.” £25/$30. Amazon (Canada, UK), Bookshop.

Urban Caffeine on the NYC Subway Map

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

“I remember the first time I saw the New York City subway map. I called an Uber.” On her Urban Caffeine channel, Thea looks at the oft-maligned, controversial and complicated New York subway map. Her take is informed by her experience growing up in pre-GPS, pre-Google Maps Manila, which she frankly found easier to navigate; by contrast, she finds New York’s map too cluttered and information-dense and more in tune with the needs of New Yorkers than visitors and tourists.

Yellowstone Maps Through the Years

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
Maps of Yellowstone National Park from the U.S. National Park Service
NPS Yellowstone National Park maps for 1972 (left) and 2023 (right). Library of Congress, NPS.

As part of a series exploring the history of National Park Service visitor guides, photographer QT Luong takes a closer look at the vistor guide maps—specifically, the maps for Yellowstone National Park, which he tracks through multiple iterations. “Given the importance of the park, Yellowstone maps have been subject to more revisions than any other park maps, which makes it possible to tell a more complete story. This also means that the history of maps from other parks is far from strictly paralleling the evolution of the Yellowstone maps. However, by examining my extensive collection of park maps, I can confirm that it follows the same general outline.”

World War II Aerial Reconnaissance Photos of England

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Historic England has posted some 3,600 aerial images of England, of a collection totalling more than 20,000, taken during World War II by USAAF reconnaissance aircraft. This was done as part of the crews’ training—their job was to collect aerial photos of Nazi Germany and occupied Europe, but they needed to practise first—and as so often happens in history, information collected for one purpose can pay unexpected and unrelated historical dividends: a wealth of aerial imagery from 1943 and 1944. The images are available via this interactive map. [PetaPixel]

Previously: Historic England’s Aerial Photo Explorer.

From Academieland to Zelda: Fictional Map Exhibition at Harvard

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

From Academieland to Zelda: Mapping the Fictional and Imaginary, an exhibition of fictional maps at Harvard University’s Pusey Library, runs until 3 November 2023. The Harvard Gazette (the university’s official press outlet) has a writeup. “Calling the exhibition ‘kind of a mishmash,’ curator Bonnie Burns, head of geospatial resources at the Harvard Map Collection, said that ‘within the exhibit you have maps that are kind of theoretical, like nursery rhymes and Fairyland maps. And then there’s a big chunk of maps of literature—Middle Earth to Narnia.’” Many familiar maps, old and new, in this exhibition, at least for those of us who’ve been studying this field.

ICHC 2024

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

The 30th International Conference on the History of Cartography will take place the first week of July 2024 in Lyon, France. Its theme is “Confluences—Interdisciplinarity and New Challenges in the History of Cartography.” The call for papers is open until 20 November 2023. Two associated exhibitions have already been announced, one on distant spaces, the other on maps and images of travel.

What3Words Confusion Rate Under Scrutiny

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

The What3Words geocoding service assigns a three-word mapcode to every three-square-metre patch on the planet, the premise being that three words are easier to remember and share than longitude and latitude to the equivalent decimal places. But the main complaint about What3Words (apart from the proprietary nature of its algorithm and database) is that it’s possible to get even those three words confused, especially in contexts where plurals and homophones may not be heard clearly, or where similar combinations of words are close enough to each other that they can be mistaken for each other. There’s actually an entire website dedicated to chronicling errors in W3W.

W3W maintains that their algorithm keeps similar combinations “so far apart that an error is obvious. We also worked hard to remove homophones and near homophones like sale and sail.” They rate the the chance of two confusing combinations appearing close enough to be unclear at about 1 in 2.5 million. But in a new analysis of the algorithm, currently in preprint, computer scientist Rudy Arthur argues that despite W3W’s claims this chance of confusion is far higher, and warns against adopting W3W as critical infrastructure (it’s used by emergency services, particularly in the U.K.) without testing and comparing against available alternatives. [The Register]

Previously: What3Words Hasn’t Had the Greatest Couple of Months: A Roundup.