The mapmaker’s terrible hand

Effacing features is a rush. The “critical cartographers” have one good point they bury in recondite academese: the mapmaker has absurd power.

Nice town or flyspeck island community you got there. Where everyone you’ve ever cared about weaves a rich tapestry of comity and care. Just seeing the tiny smudge of roads on the map surfaces memories…the creaky springs on the dry goods shop door….the proprietor’s old dog splayed in the doorway, indifferent to traffic……

All that important stuff? All those lives lived in that patch of ink? All those long driveways hazed by bonfire smoke? The feel of the cold bottle in your hand as you head around back?

Occludes a label I need, so: annihilated. Gone. Never existed. You’ve been generalized.

What you care about is not on the map? Guess you gotta make your own