WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.510 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.510 --> 00:00:02.640 align:middle line:90% Well, thanks, Shannon, Frances. 00:00:02.640 --> 00:00:04.420 align:middle line:90% It's great to be back. 00:00:04.420 --> 00:00:07.140 align:middle line:84% I've been back in Tucson since 1985. 00:00:07.140 --> 00:00:11.190 align:middle line:84% I actually left Tucson in 1986, but I've been back a few times. 00:00:11.190 --> 00:00:14.040 align:middle line:84% But it's been a while, so it's good to be here. 00:00:14.040 --> 00:00:15.960 align:middle line:84% And it's great to have the chance to talk here 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:17.340 align:middle line:90% in the beautiful building. 00:00:17.340 --> 00:00:19.230 align:middle line:84% I am a contributor to the new Poetry Center. 00:00:19.230 --> 00:00:22.770 align:middle line:84% I believe I paid for somebody's stapler, I think, 00:00:22.770 --> 00:00:23.730 align:middle line:90% is what I contributed. 00:00:23.730 --> 00:00:25.890 align:middle line:90% But it's a remarkable place. 00:00:25.890 --> 00:00:29.140 align:middle line:84% I'm proud to have at least sent in one check 00:00:29.140 --> 00:00:30.538 align:middle line:90% to do my little bit. 00:00:30.538 --> 00:00:32.580 align:middle line:84% And happily a few other people were more generous 00:00:32.580 --> 00:00:35.910 align:middle line:84% apparently because it's an amazing place. 00:00:35.910 --> 00:00:38.612 align:middle line:84% And we only wish there were more of them. 00:00:38.612 --> 00:00:41.070 align:middle line:84% Obviously, the Poetry Center was here when I was a student. 00:00:41.070 --> 00:00:44.520 align:middle line:84% When I was an undergrad at a place called Washington College 00:00:44.520 --> 00:00:46.000 align:middle line:84% on the eastern shore of Maryland, 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:48.000 align:middle line:84% there was something called Richmond House, which 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:49.800 align:middle line:90% was the Literary House there. 00:00:49.800 --> 00:00:52.590 align:middle line:84% And it's actually where AWP was housed for either one or two 00:00:52.590 --> 00:00:53.760 align:middle line:90% years. 00:00:53.760 --> 00:00:55.650 align:middle line:90% When I got there, it went away. 00:00:55.650 --> 00:00:58.200 align:middle line:84% Most buildings was given to writers. 00:00:58.200 --> 00:00:59.730 align:middle line:90% It was bulldozed. 00:00:59.730 --> 00:01:01.290 align:middle line:90% It had been condemned. 00:01:01.290 --> 00:01:03.148 align:middle line:84% And it was unsafe to live in, but they 00:01:03.148 --> 00:01:05.190 align:middle line:84% let the writers live in there for two more years. 00:01:05.190 --> 00:01:06.930 align:middle line:84% And then they finally bulldozed it. 00:01:06.930 --> 00:01:09.180 align:middle line:84% And I'm happy to see that the Poetry Center is 00:01:09.180 --> 00:01:14.070 align:middle line:84% going the other way and improved tremendously than what it had. 00:01:14.070 --> 00:01:16.320 align:middle line:84% A couple of things about what I'm going to do. 00:01:16.320 --> 00:01:20.460 align:middle line:84% I'm delighted and a little worried about the fact 00:01:20.460 --> 00:01:23.820 align:middle line:84% that this was underwritten in part by the Geography 00:01:23.820 --> 00:01:28.800 align:middle line:84% Department and in part by the great folks that you are here. 00:01:28.800 --> 00:01:29.612 align:middle line:90% I need to say this. 00:01:29.612 --> 00:01:32.070 align:middle line:84% Even though I've written the book, Maps of the Imagination, 00:01:32.070 --> 00:01:36.610 align:middle line:84% I know nothing about cartography or geography. 00:01:36.610 --> 00:01:38.190 align:middle line:84% In fact, I've never taken a class 00:01:38.190 --> 00:01:43.740 align:middle line:84% in geography, which I regret, along with so many things. 00:01:43.740 --> 00:01:45.720 align:middle line:90% But I regret that. 00:01:45.720 --> 00:01:48.120 align:middle line:84% What I do have is kind of an amateur's interest 00:01:48.120 --> 00:01:48.990 align:middle line:90% in these things. 00:01:48.990 --> 00:01:52.050 align:middle line:84% And that actually led me to discover, 00:01:52.050 --> 00:01:54.120 align:middle line:84% among other things when I was here, 00:01:54.120 --> 00:01:56.400 align:middle line:84% the Mapping the Transmississippi West 00:01:56.400 --> 00:01:57.810 align:middle line:90% by Carl Wheat I think it is. 00:01:57.810 --> 00:01:59.560 align:middle line:84% Right [INAUDIBLE] Does somebody here know? 00:01:59.560 --> 00:02:01.740 align:middle line:90% 00:02:01.740 --> 00:02:02.430 align:middle line:90% I think it was-- 00:02:02.430 --> 00:02:04.888 align:middle line:84% I assume it's still-- nobody would have walked out with it. 00:02:04.888 --> 00:02:05.893 align:middle line:90% It's an enormous book. 00:02:05.893 --> 00:02:07.560 align:middle line:84% It was down in special collections here. 00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:09.509 align:middle line:84% And I remember spending time with it 00:02:09.509 --> 00:02:13.170 align:middle line:84% as a grad student and just kind of poking my nose around maps 00:02:13.170 --> 00:02:14.490 align:middle line:90% for the longest time. 00:02:14.490 --> 00:02:17.805 align:middle line:84% And then at Warren Wilson, the program that I direct now 00:02:17.805 --> 00:02:19.560 align:middle line:84% at the graduate, program I direct, 00:02:19.560 --> 00:02:20.850 align:middle line:90% it's a low residency program. 00:02:20.850 --> 00:02:22.920 align:middle line:84% The faculty and students only come to campus 10 days 00:02:22.920 --> 00:02:24.295 align:middle line:84% at the beginning of the semester. 00:02:24.295 --> 00:02:25.980 align:middle line:84% And there's this strange tradition 00:02:25.980 --> 00:02:29.040 align:middle line:84% of giving talks, giving lectures about craft 00:02:29.040 --> 00:02:33.840 align:middle line:84% among the fiction writers in particular, oddly enough, that 00:02:33.840 --> 00:02:35.740 align:middle line:90% have some metaphorical basis. 00:02:35.740 --> 00:02:37.590 align:middle line:84% And so our friend Charlie Baxter has 00:02:37.590 --> 00:02:39.990 align:middle line:84% written about talking forks, which 00:02:39.990 --> 00:02:41.970 align:middle line:84% is about the role of objects in fiction. 00:02:41.970 --> 00:02:44.400 align:middle line:84% Michael Martone did a terrific lecture on camouflage, 00:02:44.400 --> 00:02:47.028 align:middle line:84% actually talking about military camouflage among other things. 00:02:47.028 --> 00:02:48.570 align:middle line:84% But what he was interested is the way 00:02:48.570 --> 00:02:51.905 align:middle line:84% things can be made to appear or disappear in a story 00:02:51.905 --> 00:02:53.280 align:middle line:84% depending on how they're treated. 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:54.947 align:middle line:84% For instance, you've been to the airport 00:02:54.947 --> 00:02:57.930 align:middle line:84% and seen somebody in army fatigues who is not 00:02:57.930 --> 00:02:59.160 align:middle line:90% camouflaged in the airport. 00:02:59.160 --> 00:03:00.810 align:middle line:84% Nobody stands out more than the guy 00:03:00.810 --> 00:03:02.790 align:middle line:84% walking through the airport in camouflage. 00:03:02.790 --> 00:03:03.660 align:middle line:90% Right. 00:03:03.660 --> 00:03:06.788 align:middle line:84% Camouflage has everything to do with context and what 00:03:06.788 --> 00:03:08.580 align:middle line:84% you're trying to disguise for what reasons. 00:03:08.580 --> 00:03:13.080 align:middle line:84% Anyway, so when it was my turn, I somehow-- 00:03:13.080 --> 00:03:16.130 align:middle line:84% I decided to run with this interest I 00:03:16.130 --> 00:03:18.120 align:middle line:84% had in maps and a few books I had 00:03:18.120 --> 00:03:20.940 align:middle line:84% read, in particular a book by a fellow named 00:03:20.940 --> 00:03:23.490 align:middle line:84% Denis Wood called The Power of Maps that inspired me. 00:03:23.490 --> 00:03:26.190 align:middle line:84% Because it was clearly the work of a passionate eccentric. 00:03:26.190 --> 00:03:27.900 align:middle line:84% A strange guy, very much fired up 00:03:27.900 --> 00:03:29.520 align:middle line:84% about ideas I'd never heard before. 00:03:29.520 --> 00:03:31.560 align:middle line:84% And it seemed to me that one could 00:03:31.560 --> 00:03:35.580 align:middle line:84% adapt these to the kinds of things writers 00:03:35.580 --> 00:03:36.930 align:middle line:90% consider all the time. 00:03:36.930 --> 00:03:39.580 align:middle line:84% When I finally met Denis Wood after the book was done, 00:03:39.580 --> 00:03:41.760 align:middle line:84% I realized that it made perfect sense because he 00:03:41.760 --> 00:03:42.900 align:middle line:90% had an English background. 00:03:42.900 --> 00:03:44.700 align:middle line:84% He, in fact, had transferred ideas 00:03:44.700 --> 00:03:47.883 align:middle line:90% into cartography and geography. 00:03:47.883 --> 00:03:49.800 align:middle line:84% So I guess there's a natural conversation that 00:03:49.800 --> 00:03:50.883 align:middle line:90% goes on with these things. 00:03:50.883 --> 00:03:52.383 align:middle line:84% What I'm going to talk about tonight 00:03:52.383 --> 00:03:53.670 align:middle line:90% is rigorous geometry business. 00:03:53.670 --> 00:03:54.900 align:middle line:84% And I appreciate all of you who showed up, 00:03:54.900 --> 00:03:56.760 align:middle line:84% who might be worried about the math angle of this. 00:03:56.760 --> 00:03:58.170 align:middle line:84% But there will be no quiz, and you 00:03:58.170 --> 00:04:00.253 align:middle line:84% don't have to really know anything about geometry. 00:04:00.253 --> 00:04:02.650 align:middle line:90% 00:04:02.650 --> 00:04:04.050 align:middle line:90% I'm going to tackle-- 00:04:04.050 --> 00:04:07.320 align:middle line:84% I don't usually discuss this part of the book 00:04:07.320 --> 00:04:12.255 align:middle line:84% with people for reasons you may understand in a few minutes. 00:04:12.255 --> 00:04:15.780 align:middle line:84% But when I first turned in the book 00:04:15.780 --> 00:04:17.850 align:middle line:84% when I was at the University of Georgia Press, 00:04:17.850 --> 00:04:19.267 align:middle line:84% it went out to several readers who 00:04:19.267 --> 00:04:21.517 align:middle line:84% were passing their opinion on it and telling the press 00:04:21.517 --> 00:04:22.980 align:middle line:90% whether they should publish it. 00:04:22.980 --> 00:04:25.170 align:middle line:84% I got these anonymously, but the first person was clearly either 00:04:25.170 --> 00:04:27.110 align:middle line:84% my mother or my aunt or somebody [INAUDIBLE] person-- 00:04:27.110 --> 00:04:27.590 align:middle line:90% I loved it. 00:04:27.590 --> 00:04:28.632 align:middle line:90% Everything was wonderful. 00:04:28.632 --> 00:04:30.310 align:middle line:84% And I was feeling pretty good about it. 00:04:30.310 --> 00:04:32.260 align:middle line:84% And then the next one was pretty glowing as well. 00:04:32.260 --> 00:04:33.600 align:middle line:84% And then they said, well, we just need the third one. 00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:35.970 align:middle line:84% And then we'll go ahead and get this started. 00:04:35.970 --> 00:04:37.410 align:middle line:90% And the third one came in. 00:04:37.410 --> 00:04:39.540 align:middle line:84% And this guy said, well, not bad. 00:04:39.540 --> 00:04:42.480 align:middle line:84% He said, but when we get to this chapter called "A Rigorous 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:44.560 align:middle line:84% Geometry," said the whole thing falls apart. 00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:46.020 align:middle line:84% He said, first of all, the geometry 00:04:46.020 --> 00:04:47.400 align:middle line:90% has nothing to do with maps. 00:04:47.400 --> 00:04:50.040 align:middle line:84% And he said, so it doesn't belong in the same book. 00:04:50.040 --> 00:04:51.600 align:middle line:84% And second of all, he essentially 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:53.558 align:middle line:84% said-- but he took a page to say that he didn't 00:04:53.558 --> 00:04:55.780 align:middle line:90% know what I was talking about. 00:04:55.780 --> 00:04:56.550 align:middle line:90% And so my first-- 00:04:56.550 --> 00:04:59.340 align:middle line:84% I went through the-- what-- seven stages. 00:04:59.340 --> 00:05:00.940 align:middle line:90% Anger, grief, denial, all that. 00:05:00.940 --> 00:05:03.340 align:middle line:84% And then, finally I just realized 00:05:03.340 --> 00:05:06.547 align:middle line:84% that I needed to rewrite it first to prove that, of course, 00:05:06.547 --> 00:05:08.380 align:middle line:84% geometry does have something to do with maps 00:05:08.380 --> 00:05:10.780 align:middle line:84% or vice versa, but more importantly 00:05:10.780 --> 00:05:15.700 align:middle line:84% to try to demonstrate why this consideration of what I'm 00:05:15.700 --> 00:05:17.680 align:middle line:84% calling the geometry that underlies fiction 00:05:17.680 --> 00:05:20.580 align:middle line:84% was particularly important to me and to this discussion I 00:05:20.580 --> 00:05:21.872 align:middle line:90% was trying to make in the book. 00:05:21.872 --> 00:05:23.413 align:middle line:84% So I'm going to give it a whirl here. 00:05:23.413 --> 00:05:25.240 align:middle line:84% I'm going to give some pieces of that here, 00:05:25.240 --> 00:05:29.467 align:middle line:84% and we'll see what you think of it by the time we're through. 00:05:29.467 --> 00:05:31.300 align:middle line:84% And there won't be a lot of geography in it. 00:05:31.300 --> 00:05:32.140 align:middle line:90% I'm afraid although. 00:05:32.140 --> 00:05:34.450 align:middle line:84% We'll have a couple of quick references. 00:05:34.450 --> 00:05:35.980 align:middle line:90% I do want to show you one thing. 00:05:35.980 --> 00:05:37.720 align:middle line:84% Here's the motivation for the chapter. 00:05:37.720 --> 00:05:39.345 align:middle line:84% The motivation for the chapter is this. 00:05:39.345 --> 00:05:42.250 align:middle line:84% When I was here as a student in the graduate program-- maybe 00:05:42.250 --> 00:05:43.180 align:middle line:90% it's all changed now. 00:05:43.180 --> 00:05:45.850 align:middle line:84% You, guys, can tell me later-- but the majority of the fiction 00:05:45.850 --> 00:05:49.000 align:middle line:84% students were writing in the realistic tradition, 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:49.870 align:middle line:90% the great majority. 00:05:49.870 --> 00:05:51.578 align:middle line:84% There are few people doing funkier stuff. 00:05:51.578 --> 00:05:53.830 align:middle line:84% David Wallace came and he overlapped 00:05:53.830 --> 00:05:55.330 align:middle line:84% with me and some of the other people 00:05:55.330 --> 00:05:57.080 align:middle line:84% who were working in the age old tradition. 00:05:57.080 --> 00:05:59.660 align:middle line:84% And obviously, David was shaking things up even then. 00:05:59.660 --> 00:06:03.040 align:middle line:84% But most people were working in the realistic tradition. 00:06:03.040 --> 00:06:05.530 align:middle line:84% And I was interested in all kinds of things even then 00:06:05.530 --> 00:06:07.120 align:middle line:90% and taking various lit courses. 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:09.912 align:middle line:84% And I was surprised then that there 00:06:09.912 --> 00:06:12.370 align:middle line:84% were people who were writing in that mode who really didn't 00:06:12.370 --> 00:06:14.308 align:middle line:84% want to read Barth and Kundera, and Calvino, 00:06:14.308 --> 00:06:15.850 align:middle line:84% and some of the other folks I'll talk 00:06:15.850 --> 00:06:16.990 align:middle line:90% a little bit about tonight. 00:06:16.990 --> 00:06:19.780 align:middle line:84% And, now, even though I've directed this program 00:06:19.780 --> 00:06:23.680 align:middle line:84% in North Carolina for 15 years and we get wonderful students, 00:06:23.680 --> 00:06:26.030 align:middle line:84% we still get more writers working 00:06:26.030 --> 00:06:29.590 align:middle line:84% in the realistic vein in fiction than in anything else. 00:06:29.590 --> 00:06:31.393 align:middle line:84% And we get relatively few kind of-- 00:06:31.393 --> 00:06:32.935 align:middle line:84% whatever they want to call themselves 00:06:32.935 --> 00:06:36.490 align:middle line:84% as post-modernist or experimental writers, whatever. 00:06:36.490 --> 00:06:38.920 align:middle line:90% And that's fine. 00:06:38.920 --> 00:06:42.430 align:middle line:84% But what always worries me is when the realistic writers say 00:06:42.430 --> 00:06:45.640 align:middle line:84% they don't want to read this work that to them seems false. 00:06:45.640 --> 00:06:47.800 align:middle line:84% It doesn't do what they think fiction should do. 00:06:47.800 --> 00:06:50.145 align:middle line:84% And when people are interested in experimentation, 00:06:50.145 --> 00:06:51.520 align:middle line:84% aren't willing to look at Chekhov 00:06:51.520 --> 00:06:55.120 align:middle line:84% to see what he was up to and, where, what they're doing 00:06:55.120 --> 00:06:56.292 align:middle line:90% came from-- 00:06:56.292 --> 00:06:57.500 align:middle line:90% so that's what this is about. 00:06:57.500 --> 00:06:58.210 align:middle line:90% It's about realism. 00:06:58.210 --> 00:06:59.752 align:middle line:84% It's about work that isn't realistic. 00:06:59.752 --> 00:07:03.490 align:middle line:84% And it's about how the two talk to each other in some ways. 00:07:03.490 --> 00:07:05.840 align:middle line:90% Yeah, thanks. 00:07:05.840 --> 00:07:09.040 align:middle line:84% Somebody said the United States, which is the correct answer, 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:11.870 align:middle line:90% or a correct answer. 00:07:11.870 --> 00:07:13.270 align:middle line:90% How do you know? 00:07:13.270 --> 00:07:14.097 align:middle line:90% Shape. 00:07:14.097 --> 00:07:14.680 align:middle line:90% Yeah, correct. 00:07:14.680 --> 00:07:15.400 align:middle line:90% We know about the shape. 00:07:15.400 --> 00:07:15.900 align:middle line:90% Correct. 00:07:15.900 --> 00:07:17.923 align:middle line:90% But have you ever seen this? 00:07:17.923 --> 00:07:19.090 align:middle line:90% I don't mean to see the map. 00:07:19.090 --> 00:07:22.873 align:middle line:84% I mean, have you ever seen this thing depicted? 00:07:22.873 --> 00:07:24.200 align:middle line:90% No. 00:07:24.200 --> 00:07:24.890 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:07:24.890 --> 00:07:25.550 align:middle line:90% Yeah? 00:07:25.550 --> 00:07:30.120 align:middle line:84% Yeah, you climbed a mountain and turn around and seen this? 00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:30.620 align:middle line:90% No. 00:07:30.620 --> 00:07:31.970 align:middle line:90% No? 00:07:31.970 --> 00:07:33.230 align:middle line:90% Google Earth. 00:07:33.230 --> 00:07:34.880 align:middle line:90% That's that Google Earth. 00:07:34.880 --> 00:07:36.320 align:middle line:90% God love Google Earth. 00:07:36.320 --> 00:07:37.730 align:middle line:90% A variation on this. 00:07:37.730 --> 00:07:41.210 align:middle line:84% Has anybody ever gone far enough away to see this thing? 00:07:41.210 --> 00:07:44.320 align:middle line:90% 00:07:44.320 --> 00:07:45.700 align:middle line:90% Some people? 00:07:45.700 --> 00:07:46.610 align:middle line:90% Astronaut. 00:07:46.610 --> 00:07:47.110 align:middle line:90% Astronauts. 00:07:47.110 --> 00:07:47.910 align:middle line:90% So usually somebody-- thank you. 00:07:47.910 --> 00:07:49.493 align:middle line:84% So usually somebody says an astronaut. 00:07:49.493 --> 00:07:51.070 align:middle line:84% And we'd said, OK, but-- and then 00:07:51.070 --> 00:07:53.050 align:middle line:90% we start in with the facts. 00:07:53.050 --> 00:07:56.470 align:middle line:84% For instance, this portrayal of the United States 00:07:56.470 --> 00:07:59.630 align:middle line:84% is surrounded by blackness, which is a little odd. 00:07:59.630 --> 00:08:01.450 align:middle line:84% And so [INAUDIBLE] context certainly. 00:08:01.450 --> 00:08:04.720 align:middle line:84% But even if we just look at the depiction of the 48 states 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:07.600 align:middle line:84% themselves, clearly this map is color coded, right? 00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:09.970 align:middle line:84% It happens to be color coded for rainfall, right? 00:08:09.970 --> 00:08:10.768 align:middle line:90% It's color coded. 00:08:10.768 --> 00:08:13.060 align:middle line:84% If you could see a little better, if this were a better 00:08:13.060 --> 00:08:15.018 align:middle line:84% scan, you'd be able to see there are city names 00:08:15.018 --> 00:08:17.710 align:middle line:90% and other demarcations on it. 00:08:17.710 --> 00:08:19.330 align:middle line:90% There are no clouds, right? 00:08:19.330 --> 00:08:20.770 align:middle line:84% In almost any given time, there's 00:08:20.770 --> 00:08:22.840 align:middle line:84% going to be a cloud somewhere over the United States, 00:08:22.840 --> 00:08:24.382 align:middle line:84% but those have been erased so that we 00:08:24.382 --> 00:08:26.980 align:middle line:90% can see the whole country. 00:08:26.980 --> 00:08:27.970 align:middle line:90% Canada and Mexico-- 00:08:27.970 --> 00:08:29.200 align:middle line:90% Canada-- sorry. 00:08:29.200 --> 00:08:31.720 align:middle line:90% Mexico are, as we said, missing. 00:08:31.720 --> 00:08:33.220 align:middle line:90% The oceans are missing. 00:08:33.220 --> 00:08:36.100 align:middle line:84% So it starts to make what's defining this map. 00:08:36.100 --> 00:08:38.809 align:middle line:84% And then, of course, what else is missing? 00:08:38.809 --> 00:08:39.309 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:08:39.309 --> 00:08:40.289 align:middle line:90% Hawaii and-- 00:08:40.289 --> 00:08:41.360 align:middle line:90% Yeah, Hawaii and Alaska. 00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:43.189 align:middle line:84% Why are they not here do you think? 00:08:43.189 --> 00:08:43.970 align:middle line:90% [INAUDIBLE] 00:08:43.970 --> 00:08:45.980 align:middle line:90% Yeah, they don't fit. 00:08:45.980 --> 00:08:48.030 align:middle line:84% It's an alarming reason to be left off a map, 00:08:48.030 --> 00:08:48.830 align:middle line:90% don't you think? 00:08:48.830 --> 00:08:49.400 align:middle line:90% Sorry. 00:08:49.400 --> 00:08:51.290 align:middle line:90% Yeah, too far away. 00:08:51.290 --> 00:08:53.540 align:middle line:84% For millions of people, this is a little bit annoying, 00:08:53.540 --> 00:08:54.770 align:middle line:90% more than a little bit annoying. 00:08:54.770 --> 00:08:56.353 align:middle line:84% You're not on the map because it would 00:08:56.353 --> 00:08:59.180 align:middle line:84% be a very big piece of paper, and most of it would be blank. 00:08:59.180 --> 00:09:01.730 align:middle line:84% And so either most mapmakers deal with this 00:09:01.730 --> 00:09:03.740 align:middle line:84% by having a little insets of Alaska and Hawaii. 00:09:03.740 --> 00:09:05.240 align:middle line:84% Usually to a different scale, right? 00:09:05.240 --> 00:09:07.070 align:middle line:90% Because Alaska's huge. 00:09:07.070 --> 00:09:09.590 align:middle line:84% Or as Raven, the company that made this map, 00:09:09.590 --> 00:09:13.640 align:middle line:84% they have to make separate maps of Alaska and Hawaii. 00:09:13.640 --> 00:09:16.520 align:middle line:84% And so this is just the continuous 48. 00:09:16.520 --> 00:09:18.200 align:middle line:84% What interests me about this image, 00:09:18.200 --> 00:09:21.303 align:middle line:84% though, is that-- and there are many maps just like this. 00:09:21.303 --> 00:09:22.220 align:middle line:90% We can all look at it. 00:09:22.220 --> 00:09:23.743 align:middle line:84% We all know what it is, and we all 00:09:23.743 --> 00:09:25.160 align:middle line:84% might be tempted to say, oh, yeah. 00:09:25.160 --> 00:09:26.610 align:middle line:90% That's a roughly accurate map. 00:09:26.610 --> 00:09:27.620 align:middle line:90% That's a realistic map. 00:09:27.620 --> 00:09:30.320 align:middle line:84% That seems to be a scientific map of the United States. 00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:31.820 align:middle line:84% But this thing that we're looking at 00:09:31.820 --> 00:09:33.350 align:middle line:90% doesn't exist, right? 00:09:33.350 --> 00:09:34.490 align:middle line:90% It's not flat. 00:09:34.490 --> 00:09:35.970 align:middle line:90% There's nothing in this context. 00:09:35.970 --> 00:09:37.220 align:middle line:84% There's nothing with this writing on it. 00:09:37.220 --> 00:09:39.095 align:middle line:84% There's nothing that's color coded like this. 00:09:39.095 --> 00:09:42.170 align:middle line:84% This thing that we're looking at is an idealized representation 00:09:42.170 --> 00:09:44.210 align:middle line:84% of something that does exist, right? 00:09:44.210 --> 00:09:47.450 align:middle line:84% But we tend to think of this as a kind of objective portrayal 00:09:47.450 --> 00:09:48.530 align:middle line:90% in some way. 00:09:48.530 --> 00:09:50.340 align:middle line:84% It's a dangerous way to think about maps 00:09:50.340 --> 00:09:53.480 align:middle line:84% but also a different way to think about fiction writing. 00:09:53.480 --> 00:09:55.190 align:middle line:84% If we're trying to use a map, if you're 00:09:55.190 --> 00:09:57.860 align:middle line:84% trying to get from the rental car 00:09:57.860 --> 00:10:01.450 align:middle line:84% counter to your hotel in Tucson, or Phoenix, or anywhere else, 00:10:01.450 --> 00:10:03.200 align:middle line:84% you don't need to think about any of that. 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:04.850 align:middle line:84% You just have to hope the roads are right. 00:10:04.850 --> 00:10:06.200 align:middle line:84% You know you can find your way from where you 00:10:06.200 --> 00:10:07.290 align:middle line:90% started to where you're going. 00:10:07.290 --> 00:10:08.720 align:middle line:84% But if you're trying to make a map, 00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:10.300 align:middle line:84% you need to think about all those things. 00:10:10.300 --> 00:10:11.690 align:middle line:84% You need to think, are we going to color code it? 00:10:11.690 --> 00:10:12.110 align:middle line:90% Why? 00:10:12.110 --> 00:10:13.310 align:middle line:84% Why do we even know about rainfall 00:10:13.310 --> 00:10:14.100 align:middle line:90% for this particular map? 00:10:14.100 --> 00:10:15.170 align:middle line:90% What is this map about? 00:10:15.170 --> 00:10:16.820 align:middle line:90% What story does this map tell? 00:10:16.820 --> 00:10:18.260 align:middle line:90% Do we need cities name? 00:10:18.260 --> 00:10:19.385 align:middle line:90% If so, which ones? 00:10:19.385 --> 00:10:20.510 align:middle line:90% Do you do it by population? 00:10:20.510 --> 00:10:24.050 align:middle line:84% Do you do it by your favorite cities? 00:10:24.050 --> 00:10:24.890 align:middle line:90% I have maps. 00:10:24.890 --> 00:10:25.640 align:middle line:90% There's no end it. 00:10:25.640 --> 00:10:26.723 align:middle line:90% But there are maps online. 00:10:26.723 --> 00:10:28.430 align:middle line:90% I found one that says, Our Trip. 00:10:28.430 --> 00:10:32.390 align:middle line:84% And it has-- obviously, a family made a trip across the West. 00:10:32.390 --> 00:10:34.220 align:middle line:84% And there are certain towns named, 00:10:34.220 --> 00:10:35.750 align:middle line:84% and you figure that must've been where they stopped, but also 00:10:35.750 --> 00:10:36.680 align:middle line:90% places they had lunch. 00:10:36.680 --> 00:10:38.120 align:middle line:90% And it just says Lunch. 00:10:38.120 --> 00:10:40.820 align:middle line:84% Instead of the city name it says Lunch. 00:10:40.820 --> 00:10:43.013 align:middle line:84% So the story of this map could be anything. 00:10:43.013 --> 00:10:44.180 align:middle line:90% It could be a political map. 00:10:44.180 --> 00:10:46.010 align:middle line:84% It could be a map about vegetation. 00:10:46.010 --> 00:10:47.030 align:middle line:90% It could be about birds. 00:10:47.030 --> 00:10:48.830 align:middle line:84% But they've chosen to include information 00:10:48.830 --> 00:10:51.590 align:middle line:84% that they think their viewer will be interested in. 00:10:51.590 --> 00:10:53.750 align:middle line:84% Mapmakers are constantly making those decisions 00:10:53.750 --> 00:10:57.750 align:middle line:84% as are, of course, fiction writers and poets. 00:10:57.750 --> 00:10:58.250 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:10:58.250 --> 00:11:00.260 align:middle line:90% Here we go. 00:11:00.260 --> 00:11:01.752 align:middle line:84% Well, mathematics may or may not be 00:11:01.752 --> 00:11:02.960 align:middle line:90% the language of the universe. 00:11:02.960 --> 00:11:05.127 align:middle line:84% It's one of the man-made tools that have long helped 00:11:05.127 --> 00:11:06.410 align:middle line:90% us to understand our world. 00:11:06.410 --> 00:11:08.270 align:middle line:84% From the very start, people wanted 00:11:08.270 --> 00:11:11.000 align:middle line:84% to know more about the Earth-- how much of it there was, 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:13.880 align:middle line:84% what shape it was, if and where there were other people on it. 00:11:13.880 --> 00:11:16.130 align:middle line:84% By paying attention to the sun and the stars, the moon 00:11:16.130 --> 00:11:18.140 align:middle line:84% and the sea, even the ancients understood 00:11:18.140 --> 00:11:20.510 align:middle line:84% that the Earth was more or less a ball, 00:11:20.510 --> 00:11:22.340 align:middle line:90% and they knew it was a big ball. 00:11:22.340 --> 00:11:23.360 align:middle line:90% How big? 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:25.580 align:middle line:90% Too big to measure by foot. 00:11:25.580 --> 00:11:27.985 align:middle line:84% Eratosthenes, credited as the first man 00:11:27.985 --> 00:11:29.360 align:middle line:84% to measure the girth of the Earth 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:32.330 align:middle line:84% with any kind of accuracy, acted on one crucial assumption, 00:11:32.330 --> 00:11:34.010 align:middle line:90% that the Earth is a sphere. 00:11:34.010 --> 00:11:37.470 align:middle line:84% A few observations, that the sun appears to move across the sky. 00:11:37.470 --> 00:11:40.152 align:middle line:84% And as it does, shadows change length. 00:11:40.152 --> 00:11:42.110 align:middle line:84% Also, that over the course of the year, the sun 00:11:42.110 --> 00:11:45.290 align:middle line:84% appears to be higher or lower in the sky and the knowledge 00:11:45.290 --> 00:11:46.460 align:middle line:90% of geometry. 00:11:46.460 --> 00:11:49.160 align:middle line:84% He knew that if the sun's rays are essentially parallel when 00:11:49.160 --> 00:11:50.840 align:middle line:84% they reach the Earth, then by measuring 00:11:50.840 --> 00:11:52.970 align:middle line:84% the angle of a shadow in Alexandria 00:11:52.970 --> 00:11:54.710 align:middle line:84% and the height of the object casting it 00:11:54.710 --> 00:11:57.160 align:middle line:84% at the time the sun shines straight down onto shadowless 00:11:57.160 --> 00:11:59.110 align:middle line:84% Syene in the tropics, he could learn 00:11:59.110 --> 00:12:00.860 align:middle line:84% what fraction of the Earth's circumference 00:12:00.860 --> 00:12:04.760 align:middle line:84% was represented by the distance between the two cities. 00:12:04.760 --> 00:12:06.950 align:middle line:84% There's a photograph taken at the time. 00:12:06.950 --> 00:12:07.450 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:12:07.450 --> 00:12:09.470 align:middle line:84% This is a kid's book about Eratosthenes. 00:12:09.470 --> 00:12:10.987 align:middle line:90% It's a beautiful little book. 00:12:10.987 --> 00:12:12.820 align:middle line:84% The Librarian Who Measured the Earth I think 00:12:12.820 --> 00:12:14.540 align:middle line:90% is the name of it. 00:12:14.540 --> 00:12:17.210 align:middle line:84% By his calculations, the answer was nearly 150th, 00:12:17.210 --> 00:12:20.572 align:middle line:84% that is the distance he measured was nearly 150th of the 360 00:12:20.572 --> 00:12:22.280 align:middle line:84% degree circumference of the globe, right? 00:12:22.280 --> 00:12:24.290 align:middle line:84% Multiplying that figure by the distance 00:12:24.290 --> 00:12:27.050 align:middle line:84% between Syene and Alexandria produced the circumference 00:12:27.050 --> 00:12:27.680 align:middle line:90% of the Earth. 00:12:27.680 --> 00:12:30.750 align:middle line:84% And it was a shockingly close approximation 00:12:30.750 --> 00:12:32.960 align:middle line:90% given how he was working. 00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:35.120 align:middle line:84% Early man had taken note of the movement of the sun 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:36.590 align:middle line:84% and the change of seasons and recognized 00:12:36.590 --> 00:12:38.810 align:middle line:84% that in spring and fall the sun changed directions. 00:12:38.810 --> 00:12:40.850 align:middle line:84% Its northernmost and southernmost paths 00:12:40.850 --> 00:12:43.400 align:middle line:84% are the imaginary lines we call tropics 00:12:43.400 --> 00:12:46.940 align:middle line:84% after tropes, which is Greek for turn for the apparent turning 00:12:46.940 --> 00:12:48.680 align:middle line:90% of the sun across the sky. 00:12:48.680 --> 00:12:51.170 align:middle line:84% The tropics are named after the constellations Cancer 00:12:51.170 --> 00:12:54.230 align:middle line:84% and Capricorn, imaginary figures in the sky, 00:12:54.230 --> 00:12:58.860 align:middle line:84% remnants of an ancient game of Connect The Dots. 00:12:58.860 --> 00:13:00.110 align:middle line:90% Those are constellations. 00:13:00.110 --> 00:13:02.150 align:middle line:84% The Equator is another imaginary line. 00:13:02.150 --> 00:13:03.530 align:middle line:90% This one on the Earth itself. 00:13:03.530 --> 00:13:06.230 align:middle line:84% Long before any man was able to stand or sit far enough 00:13:06.230 --> 00:13:08.300 align:middle line:84% away to see the entire planet, people 00:13:08.300 --> 00:13:11.090 align:middle line:84% conceived of the Earth as a ball with imaginary lines 00:13:11.090 --> 00:13:13.790 align:middle line:84% of latitude parallel to the equator and imaginary lines 00:13:13.790 --> 00:13:16.310 align:middle line:84% of longitude running perpendicular to it connecting 00:13:16.310 --> 00:13:19.100 align:middle line:84% the poles, points determined not by a natural feature 00:13:19.100 --> 00:13:21.680 align:middle line:84% of the land but by mathematicians. 00:13:21.680 --> 00:13:23.450 align:middle line:84% For much of our existence then, mankind 00:13:23.450 --> 00:13:25.910 align:middle line:84% has used the invented system of geometry 00:13:25.910 --> 00:13:28.010 align:middle line:84% to gain a better understanding of the Earth. 00:13:28.010 --> 00:13:31.540 align:middle line:84% We have literally imposed geometry on the planet.