{"id":1787384,"date":"2019-05-28T10:56:49","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T14:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1787384"},"modified":"2019-05-28T10:58:13","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T14:58:13","slug":"fantasy-maps-dont-belong-in-the-hands-of-fantasy-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/05\/fantasy-maps-dont-belong-in-the-hands-of-fantasy-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantasy Maps Don\u2019t Belong in the Hands of Fantasy Characters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Screenshot
HBO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My latest piece for Tor.com went live this morning. It\u2019s called \u201cFantasy Maps Don\u2019t Belong in the Hands of Fantasy Characters<\/a><\/strong>\u201d and it deals with the question of in-world<\/em> fantasy maps: the maps that characters inside a fantasy novel might use. (Hint: They wouldn\u2019t look like the maps found on the endpapers<\/em> of a fantasy novel.)<\/p>\n

(For some background on how this article came to be, see this post<\/a> on my personal blog.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My latest piece for Tor.com went live this morning. It\u2019s called \u201cFantasy Maps Don\u2019t Belong in the Hands of Fantasy Characters\u201d and it deals with the question of in-world fantasy maps: the maps that characters… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,960],"tags":[745,31],"class_list":["post-1787384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-maps-and-literature","category-my-stuff","tag-fantasy","tag-fantasy-maps","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1818832,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2023\/09\/pseudo-anachronistic-elements-in-fantasy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787384,"position":0},"title":"‘Pseudo-Anachronistic’ Elements in Fantasy","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"28 September 2023","format":"link","excerpt":"This blog post from independent roleplaying games creator Periapt Games looks at the phenomenon of what\u2019s called \u201cpseudo-anachronistic elements\u201d in fantasy fiction (and fantasy roleplaying games): technologies that have no business existing in the era being portrayed. Of course maps are mentioned, and at length\u2014otherwise why would I mention it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4697,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/08\/in-defence-of-fantasy-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787384,"position":1},"title":"In Defence of Fantasy Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"28 August 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"Paul Weimer offers up a defence of fantasy maps, at least the good ones. It might be facile to hashtag #notallmaps, but, really, not every map is a geologic mess, not every map is a Eurocentric western ocean oriented map, with an eastern blend into problematic oriental racial types. Not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/one-night-in-sixes-724x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/one-night-in-sixes-724x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/one-night-in-sixes-724x1024.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/one-night-in-sixes-724x1024.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5239,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2011\/08\/sf-signal-on-fantasy-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787384,"position":2},"title":"SF Signal on Fantasy Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"24 August 2011","format":"link","excerpt":"The role of maps in fantasy is an ongoing interest of mine, one I've begun researching in earnest. (Watch this space: I'm up to something.) So I was naturally interested when SF Signal asked a number of authors, illustrators, other publishing professionals and readers, as part of their Mind Meld\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1136,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/03\/when-fantasy-authors-arent-fans-of-fantasy-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787384,"position":3},"title":"When Fantasy Authors Aren’t Fans of Fantasy Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"7 March 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"The\u00a0Book Riot piece I linked to in January by A. J. O'Connell dealt with the editorial decision on whether to include a map in a fantasy novel. That\u00a0article appears to have followed up on\u00a0O'Connell's piece from last August, which I missed. It explores why some fantasy\u00a0authors may or may not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1789658,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/11\/lord-of-maps-more-real-world-fantasy-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787384,"position":4},"title":"Lord of Maps: More Real-World Fantasy Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"22 November 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"Here\u2019s another map artist who draws maps of real-world places in the style of fantasy maps: Isaac of Lord of Maps has around 30 maps\u2014mostly of U.S. states, but also a few countries and one city\u2014available for sale as prints of various sizes. Style-wise they\u2019re dead ringers for Christopher Tolkien\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/lord-of-maps-ky-1024x499.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/lord-of-maps-ky-1024x499.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/lord-of-maps-ky-1024x499.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/lord-of-maps-ky-1024x499.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1785164,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/03\/new-orleans-totally-unrealistic-fantasy-city\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787384,"position":5},"title":"New Orleans: ‘Totally Unrealistic’ Fantasy City","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"22 March 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jameslsutter\/status\/975550946884268032 Don't miss writer and game designer James L. Sutter critiquing New Orleans as though it was a city from a fantasy novel.\u00a0A major criticism of fantasy maps, whether of cities or worlds, is their lack of realism: unrealistic rivers, mountains and so forth. New Orleans, with its totally unrealistic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1787384"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1787388,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787384\/revisions\/1787388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1787384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1787384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1787384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}