Mapping in the Mind's Eye
I like maps. Not so much for their usefulness as for their esthetics. To some degree, I share this with my father. But where he likes local maps, on which he can plot ever more efficient drives, I prefer maps on a regional or global scale.
Again, this is largely an esthetic choice. One thing I learned from my drawing classes long ago was that, to be pleasing to the eye, a picture must strike a balance between regularity, which lends structure, and sufficient asymmetry to add dynamism. Local maps, unless they lie on a crinkly bit of coastline, or an unusually interesting stretch of river, tend to lack variety of shape. While especially true of flat states in the heartland, where I grew up, even mountainous areas and stretches of glacial lakes don’t have much artistic shape. They have geographic features, sure, but mostly the same geographic feature, repeated. All about the same size, more-or-less evenly spread about. That kind of balance, or rather, imbalance, is a lot easier to find on large-scale maps: the land surrounding the North and Baltic seas, for example, or Japan, or the Mediterranean. Or, happily, the whole world.
But my preference is not purely esthetic. I also prefer large maps for the way they can capture critical elements in the broad sweeps of history. Battles are fought between nations. Trade routes necessarily stretch between geographically disparate locations with disparate resources. And the tales of explorers reach far and away, to where the dragons be.
For me, the beauty of maps is inextricably bound to history. Like young men in the early chapters of novels watch the ships, or trains, or caravans, and dream of adventures in distant lands, I study my maps and fill out the edges of what I know of history. Rarely, I even imagine historical alternatives: what would national borders in North America look like had there been no Old World to interfere with the nascent agricultural societies? More often, I think in the ahistorical terms of computer games: if this were a map for Civ, where would I most like to start, and how would I try to grow?
And once I get that far, I begin to design new game maps, with an eye to interesting play variations. It’s very therapeutic. When the day is done, my wife knits beautiful things. I draw worlds, and imagine developing them.