Getting from here to there
I’m not well travelled. As I tell my kids, it’s a big world out there, and I haven’t seen much of it. Unless, of course, we count knowledge gained from a lifetime of reading maps. It started early; the timetables that CNR provided for passengers had maps. Big dots for each town that had a station, and for someone that had only seen what lay along the road to Charlottetown, they were all about the same size. Seen one, seen them all.
All through school I had the not-so-subliminal advertising from the Neilson chocolate bar maps, while I absorbed that the Island was perhaps smaller than some of its neighbours. It didn’t matter, because maps reduced the world to distances that could be measured. I believed that maps were true. North was up, Canada was pink, the oceans had names.
That’s why I want to recommend a book that I finished up last week. Reading, not writing. The hardcover version of Where Is Here by Alan Morantz was a revelation.
Did you know that maps have as often been used to tell lies and spread false hope as anything else? We have spent close to five centuries mapping Canada, and in many cases, the published results have served as a sales pitch. Just a few ships more and we’ll find you the riches of the world. This river really does go all the way to there. Ignore what the other fellow told you, we have it on good authority from some people that went that way (and never came back).
I loved this book. From the earliest penned drawings of Here Be Monsters to the latest satellite photogrammetry, this book shows you how we really haven’t been where we think we have. I collect maps, and I will continue to do so. I’ll just be a wee bit more distrustful of that next roadmap from the friendly government tourist bureau. After all, they may have their own agenda.
