Thread by @anthilemoon

So @visakanv asked me to do a book thread of this one, I just started reading it tonight and I'm very excited 🗺️

First, it's impossible not to think of phrenology when you see the cover - and then when you Google phrenology you'll find that exact image

Phrenology was a scam, who would use an illustration of a well known scam as their book cover? Now I'm even more curious 👀

If you've never heard about it, phrenology was a pseudoscience where doctors (?) would pretend to guess your psychological attributes based on the shape of your skull - e.g. "oh I can feel a bump behind your ear you must have anger issues"

I'm not going to take a pic of every single page (hopefully) but want to acknowledge how strong this book starts

Maps to tackle the unknown
Maps as thinking tools
Maps for storytelling

Sometimes "We strike out for what we believe to be unchartered waters, only to find ourselves sailing in someone else's bathtub."

It's so true it hurts. Very interesting take on our thirst for newness.

Also, first Borges reference at page 13.

The book is full of thought-provoking statements which will make you want to write articles to debate them, and I suspect the author knew he would trigger this metacreation process 🤭

(e.g. "An explorer means to explore something" - intuitively true, but is it?)

Also, next time you struggle with impostor syndrome, think of poor old Giacometti, who was so critical of his own work he ended up inventing a whole new painting style where the picture is never truly finished

On the importance of blanks, fragments & incomplete knowledge in the creative experience—what's missing can matter as much as what's there

"Brackets imply a free space of imaginal adventure." — [[Anne Carson]]

Maybe this quote should be on the homepage of @RoamResearch 💫

"Conventions of illusion" - visual projections are never completely satisfactory

Here the book focuses on physical cartography, but the same could be said of mental maps: visual representations always feel limited compared to the complexity/3Diness of our minds 🍄✨

Most of us know how to read a map. But do you know how to *make* a map? Mapmaking is sensemaking 🗺️✍️

e.g. The famous map John Snow drew which identified a specific water pump as the vector for cholera could have been drawn differently leading to altogether different conclusions

"Critical Cartographer" sounds like an amazing job title 🕵️‍♀️🗺️

Maps are visual statements, a way of seeing, which very few of us are trained to question

Being aware of a map's projections and conventions is a great step towards questioning our assumptions

When we think of "North" many of us think "up" — but there's no up/down in space

"East" is also an illusion, it earned its priority because that's where the sun "rises" so folks believed it to be the direction of Paradise

Case in point, one of my favourite maps in the book 👇

Note to self: Be like John Ogilby, the creator of the first ever national road atlas, which he started working on when he was 72 🥰

We have many lives, may we live them

Also look at the beautiful execution in visual metaphor, with imaginary scrolls to take an imaginary stroll

We use geommetical conventions when mapping the world—by choosing a specific distorsion formula, we choose to believe and convey a particular view or the world

I find this particular projection fascinating: following the line of the equator with your eyes feels disorientating 💫

Such geometrical conventions can be applied to any creative endeavour, including literature

Far from constraining the imagination, they offer a framework for artistic freedom and opportunity 🗺️

See "La Disparition" (The Void), a 300-page novel which never uses the letter "e"

I'm done reading this wonderful book! Did a bit of data analysis for y'all:

13 - 22 - 37 - 85 - 136 - 172 - 173 - 175 - 211

Can you guess what these are?

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All the pages where Borges is mentioned ✨

Verdict: 👍 @visakanv you should absolutely read this. Feels like it was written by your alter ego 🎭

@patel0phone thanks so much for the recommendation

@MarkMulvey ordering the sequel, "A Muse & A Maze" 🙏