And directions in America are different: the search for arborescence and the return to the Old World occur in the East. But there is the rhizomatic West, with its Indians without ancestry, its ever-receding limit, its shifting and displaced frontiers. There is a whole American “map” in the West, where even the trees form rhizomes. America reversed the directions: it puts the Orient in the West, as if it were precisely in America that the earth came full circle; its West is the edge of the East.
- A Thousand Plateaus, Deleuze & Guattari
maps seem to be cool these days. right now i am sat in the british library where there is currently an exhibit called magnificents maps. nottingham contemporary only recently closed its uneven geographies exhibit. the bbc has recently aired documentary series like "the beauty of maps" and "maps: power plunder and possession". the website strangemaps has a post on the above xkcd map and the concept of east and west. (i wonder why that is? this trend in interest. i am assuming it's more than a coincidence.)
anyway, as a once-student of american studies, i like the phrasing of america as the place where "the earth came full circle"; i think it speaks to the power of america as an imaginary (one that even deleuze & guattari cannot resist!)
ps in googling for images for this post, i came across this which is a nice little re-imagining of the globe, albeit for rather commerical purposes (but then again that's why maps are interesting, no? the contexts and values written to them).
pps and as a final side note, i'd rather like one of these. anyway, back to work.
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