{"id":1791562,"date":"2021-10-13T19:01:55","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T23:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1791562"},"modified":"2021-10-13T19:02:23","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T23:02:23","slug":"elsewhere-the-age-of-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/10\/elsewhere-the-age-of-islands\/","title":{"rendered":"Elsewhere (The Age of Islands)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ElsewhereIt\u2019s ostensibly another quirky book about islands\u2014there are, to be sure, a lot of them out on that subject\u2014but Alastair Bonnett\u2019s latest book has an urgency and pertinence to it that is belied by the relatively anodyne title it bears in its U.S. edition. Elsewhere: A Journey into Our Age of Islands<\/a><\/em><\/strong> makes it sounds like any other light travelogue with an innocuous point of view. Far better is the title it had for its original British edition: The Age of Islands: In Search of New and Disappearing Islands<\/a><\/strong><\/em>. Which is what it\u2019s about: islands that have been created, and islands that are going away\u2014by artificial and natural means.<\/p>\n

Though when it comes to building islands, the artificial gets the bulk of Bonnett\u2019s attention\u2014but then people have been building islands at a rather brisk clip lately; volcanoes can\u2019t keep up. Bonnett visits the various kinds, from the Netherlands\u2019 polders to Dubai\u2019s crass luxury archipelagos\u2014and its imitators in Panama and Hainan\u2014to China\u2019s various military islands built up to buttress its claims to the South China Sea, to the expansion of Hong Kong\u2019s airport. There\u2019s a lot of money involved in these projects, not least because people pay a premium for proximity to the sea, but Bonnett repeatedly makes the point that climate change means these islands will be short-lived. \u201cIt\u2019s odd, then, that building small flat islands in warmer latitudes is such big business. One day the dots will join.\u201d<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

In the book\u2019s smaller second part, Bonnett turns to a consideration of islands that are disappearing. And while volcanoes, earthquakes and even nuclear tests can be the cause of islands being removed from the map, the main point here is anthropogenetic climate change. Bonnett travels from Panama\u2019s San Blas Islands to Tonga to the Scilly Isles southwest of England to survey the imminent and the inevitable. The contrast is stark and deliberate. The map is being remade in both ways: islands are being built while others are on the brink of disappearing, but the benefits and damages are not evenly distributed. Bonnett does not pull his punches, but he is less angry than he ought to be. \u201cWe keep building islands even as natural islands are disappearing. The new ones are not very high and they are vulnerable to storms and sea-surges. Are we crazy?\u201d<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> The question more or less answers itself.<\/p>\n

I received an electronic review copy of this book from the University of Chicago Press.<\/p>\n

\n

\"ElsewhereElsewhere: A Journey into Our Age of Islands<\/em><\/strong>
\nby Alastair Bonnett
\nUniversity of Chicago Press<\/a>, 17 Nov 2020
\nAmazon<\/a> (Canada<\/a>) | Apple Books<\/a> | Bookshop<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"The Age of Islands: In Search of New and Disappearing Islands<\/em><\/strong>
\nby Alastair Bonnett
\nAtlantic Books<\/a>, 7 May 2020 (U.K. edition)
\nAmazon UK<\/a> | Apple Books<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s ostensibly another quirky book about islands\u2014there are, to be sure, a lot of them out on that subject\u2014but Alastair Bonnett\u2019s latest book has an urgency and pertinence to it that is belied by the… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[30,1379,1077],"class_list":["post-1791562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-books","tag-islands","tag-unusual-places"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5193,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/10\/the-un-discovered-islands-comes-to-north-america\/","url_meta":{"origin":1791562,"position":0},"title":"‘The Un-Discovered Islands’ Comes to North America","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"12 October 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"Last year I told you about\u00a0The Un-Discovered Islands, a book by Malachy Tallack that told the stories of some two dozen islands that were once thought real but are now no longer on the map. It existed only as a British edition, though a U.S. edition was said to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Map Errors"","block_context":{"text":"Map Errors","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/map-errors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/undiscovered-islands-us-223x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3146,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/10\/mapping-scottish-andor-nonexistent-islands\/","url_meta":{"origin":1791562,"position":1},"title":"Mapping Scottish and\/or Nonexistent Islands","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"24 October 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"The Scotsman\u2019s review of\u00a0Scotland: Mapping the Islands\u00a0 focuses on the\u00a0Scottish islands that didn't exist, particularly\u00a0in a 1560 map by Italian mapmaker Giorgio Sideri (aka Callapoda). On the other hand: \"In contrast to Callapoda\u2019s chart, many genuine Scottish islands were omitted from maps of Scotland altogether until only 150 years ago.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"scotland-mapping-islands","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/scotland-mapping-islands-143x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":217,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/01\/pocket-atlas-of-remote-islands\/","url_meta":{"origin":1791562,"position":2},"title":"Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"12 January 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"Judith Schalansky's\u00a0Atlas of Remote Islands first appeared (in English translation) in 2010. Since then it seems to have achieved a longevity few books of any sort manage. A pocket edition came out\u00a0in 2014.\u00a0On Wikipedia (of all places) there's a companion to the book, linking to entries for each of the\u00a0Atlas\u2019s\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":"pocket-atlas-remote-islands","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/pocket-atlas-remote-islands-199x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1832269,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/06\/islario-an-atlas-of-islands\/","url_meta":{"origin":1791562,"position":3},"title":"Islario, an Atlas of Islands","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"21 June 2024","format":"link","excerpt":"Islario, Alejandro Polanco\u2019s latest Kickstarter project, is a collection of 16th- to 19th-century maps of islands\u2014some real, some phantom. \u201cIn Spanish, the word \u2018islario\u2019 means something like a \u201ccompendium of islands\u2019 or an \u2018atlas of islands\u2019. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, many \u2018islarios\u2019 were created, books that contained only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/alpoma-islario.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/alpoma-islario.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/alpoma-islario.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/alpoma-islario.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3370,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/11\/the-un-discovered-islands-reviewed\/","url_meta":{"origin":1791562,"position":4},"title":"The Un-Discovered Islands Reviewed","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"14 November 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"The Spectator reviews\u00a0Malachy Tallack's new book,\u00a0The Un-Discovered Islands. \"This book is an account of 24 non-existent islands, yet is suffused with the same elegiac frostiness as before. Tallack\u2019s style is precise without being perjink, and the overwhelming feeling is of something lost, or disappearing. It\u2019s just this time, what is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Map Errors"","block_context":{"text":"Map Errors","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/map-errors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"undiscovered-islands","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/undiscovered-islands-113x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":320,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/01\/phantom-islands\/","url_meta":{"origin":1791562,"position":5},"title":"Phantom Islands","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"15 January 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"Here are two pieces on phantom islands\u00a0(i.e.,\u00a0islands that appear on maps but were later proved never to have actually existed; some of\u00a0them\u00a0persisted on charts well into the 20th century) from\u00a0Atlas Obscura and\u00a0Intelligent Life magazine.","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bradley-Land","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Bradley-Land-139x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791562","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=1791562"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1791903,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1791562\/revisions\/1791903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1791562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1791562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1791562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}