How lovely is this map of Bücherland (‘the land of books’) by Alphons Woelfle, created in 1938? “The Land consists of about half a dozen distinct territories, most of which are explicitly named: Leserrepublik (Reader’s Republic), Vereinigte Buchhandelsstaaten (United States of Booksellers), Recensentia (a realm for Reviewers), Makulaturia (Waste Paper Land), and Poesia (Poetry). The capital of the US of B is the city of Officina (Latin for workshop, and the origin of our ‘office’; the name seems remarkably unremarkable. Possibly there is an old reference or a German word-joke here we’re not getting).”
As the Strange Maps site notes, the mapping of imaginary realms has a long and respectable history in catrography. Obvious modern examples most of us will be familiar with are the maps that often come in the fantasy novel, for example – Tolkien, as in many other aspects of the genre, being the king here and Pratchett’s Discworld also boasting its own ‘proper’ fold out maps. Its not just in fiction or flights of fancy by cartographers that we see such maps though – consider the fantastical medieval Mappa Mundi, or the maps showing the layout of the harbours of Atlantis, many of which were taken seriously at various points in history.
And to a certain extent all maps are, in our own minds, partly imaginary, after a fashion - how often have you been planning a trip to another country and eagerly looking over the map in your guidebook? You plot routes and sights you want to see, places to visit, but for you personally its all imaginary until you find yourself standing on that real street and making that turn here or there. I do like the idea of Bücherland though, I’d apply for citizenship if it existed; perhaps they’d let me live in Vereinigte Buchhandelsstaaten (United States of Booksellers). Still, I suppose we get the next best thing, we get some wonderful books and comics which do take us to other lands and that shared cultural imagination is our true land of books. (link via Boing Boing)
Sat, May 2, 2009
Books