http://makingmaps.net/2008/12/23/new-book-the-natures-of-maps-by-wood-fels/ Resources and Ideas for Making Maps Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:11:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://makingmaps.net/2008/12/23/new-book-the-natures-of-maps-by-wood-fels/#comment-723 Sun, 18 Jan 2009 01:33:16 +0000 http://makingmaps.wordpress.com/?p=451#comment-723 [...] John Krygier has nice things to say about The Natures of Maps: Cartographic Constructions of the Natural World, by his colleague, Denis Wood (Krygier and Wood co-authored Making Maps) and John Fels, and reprints the blurb he wrote for the book. The Natures of Maps sounds quite interesting, taking Wood’s usual argument about maps as arguments and applying it to maps that are, more than others, expected to provide a passive view of reality. “The book confronts nature on maps — nature as threatened, nature as threatening, nature as grandeur, cornucopia, possessable, as a system, mystery, and park — with intense slow readings of exemplary historical and contemporary maps, which populate this full color, beautifully illustrated and designed book,” Krygier writes in the blurb. “The careful interrogation of maps reveals that far from passively reflecting nature, they instead make sustained, carefully crafted, and precise arguments about nature.” [...]

]]> http://makingmaps.net/2008/12/23/new-book-the-natures-of-maps-by-wood-fels/#comment-705 Mon, 29 Dec 2008 06:47:30 +0000 http://makingmaps.wordpress.com/?p=451#comment-705 [...] John Krygier has nice things to say about The Natures of Maps: Cartographic Constructions of the Natural World, by his colleague, Denis Wood (Krygier and Wood co-authored Making Maps) and John Fels, and reprints the blurb he wrote for the book. The Natures of Maps sounds quite interesting, taking Wood’s usual argument about maps as arguments and applying it to maps that are, more than others, expected to provide a passive view of reality. “The book confronts nature on maps — nature as threatened, nature as threatening, nature as grandeur, cornucopia, possessable, as a system, mystery, and park — with intense slow readings of exemplary historical and contemporary maps, which populate this full color, beautifully illustrated and designed book,” Krygier writes in the blurb. “The careful interrogation of maps reveals that far from passively reflecting nature, they instead make sustained, carefully crafted, and precise arguments about nature.” [...]

]]> http://makingmaps.net/2008/12/23/new-book-the-natures-of-maps-by-wood-fels/#comment-700 Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:43:23 +0000 http://makingmaps.wordpress.com/?p=451#comment-700 I just bought this after seeing it on the shelf at Stacey’s Books last night … the illustrations are gorgeous and the table of contents is fascinating. When I tried to read “Power Of Maps”, I almost threw it across the room several times due to Wood’s clumsy, elbow-poking, breathless writing style. Hopefully this one won’t suffer in the same way, though the visible presence of italics, em-dashes, and ellipses in my initial scan of the body copy is making me worry. =)

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