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The sea of possibilitiesBy MARGO HAMMOND © St. Petersburg Times, published September 3, 2000 Did you ever wish there was a road map to life? Well, now there is, thanks to Dutch mapmakers Louise Van Swaaij and Jean Klare. In The Atlas of Experience (Bloomsbury, $19.95), already a European bestseller, they have mapped out the unexplored world of the human psyche, from the tiny Island of Insignificance to the vast Sea of Possibilities. On their maps, a city named Entree can be found on an Island of Haute Cuisine; the hamlets of Superstition and Habit are on the outskirts of a city named Belief. A futuristic look at maps? Actually, such fantasies are well rooted in the history of mappery: In the Middle Ages cartographers drew sea monsters and dragons as well as the Garden of Eden on the edges of their maps, marking the end of the known world at the time. Obviously maps not only show us how to get where we want to go. They also contain the landmarks of our darkest fears and fondest hopes. "Even the most mundane-seeming maps can possess extraordinary poetic power and clues to a place's memories and soul," say the authors.
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From the Times Opinion page |
