{"id":5583,"date":"2013-06-09T08:10:26","date_gmt":"2013-06-09T12:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2013\/06\/review-here-be-dragons\/"},"modified":"2018-04-08T16:08:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-08T20:08:00","slug":"review-here-be-dragons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2013\/06\/review-here-be-dragons\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Here Be Dragons"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Stefan Ekman<\/a>\u2019s Here Be Dragons<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(Wesleyan University Press<\/a>, February 2013) is a book-length examination of the use of maps and settings in fantasy literature. Maps and<\/em> settings. Which is to say that maps are not the sole focus of this work: mark that. There are four main chapters, only one of which deals with maps; the remaining three deal with the issue of borders and territories, the relationship between nature and culture in fantasy cities, and the relationship between ruler and realm. Taken as a whole, this book discusses the role of place<\/em> in fantasy.<\/p>\n

But I won’t be discussing that whole here: I am no literary scholar, and can’t say much of value about the chapters that do not discuss maps\u2014nothing that would rise above the level of a last-minute undergraduate paper, anyway. But maps are something I can<\/em> say something about, especially fantasy maps, since I myself have been paying attention to them over the past decade, first during my time blogging at The Map Room<\/strong> (see the [old]\u00a0Imaginary Places<\/a> category) and since then more sporadically, but with more focus, for my fantasy maps project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And what I can say is that Ekman has done something rather new here. His analysis does not plumb the depths of the subject as deeply as I would have liked, but what he does<\/em> do has not been done before, and represents the necessary first steps toward a proper critical understanding of fantasy maps.<\/p>\n

As Ekman points out, little academic work has been written about fantasy maps (which, to be honest, is what all academics say: why write a book that has already been written?), and not much of that deals with the subject in a critical fashion. (Nor, I might add, having read much of that secondary literature myself, is there much specific focus on contemporary genre fantasy: an essay on fantasy maps is more likely to cover Schlaraffenland than Randland.) Into that relative void Ekman brings G\u00e9rard Genette’s concept of the paratext<\/a><\/i>\u2014the bits of a work that surround the text\u2014and Niels Windfeld Lund’s concept of the doceme<\/i><\/a>\u2014an object that is part of a greater document but never something in and of itself\u2014as ways to relate the map to its text.<\/p>\n

Ekman attempts to say something about the current state of fantasy maps: what they look like, what elements they contain. To achieve this, Ekman went and did something unusual: he brought statistics into the mix, and based his analysis on a random sample of two hundred fantasy novels. That sample turned up at least one surprise: only a third of the sampled books came with a map\u2014which is to say that two-thirds of them did not. Received wisdom says that it’s hardly possible to have a fantasy novel without one, so this is very interesting indeed\u2014though Ekman is at pains to point out that his study did not allow him to drill down further to see whether high fantasy\u2014secondary world fantasy\u2014was more likely to have maps than other forms.<\/p>\n

Feature by feature, Ekman builds a portrait of the modern fantasy map by showing how many maps from the sample have a given attribute.<\/p>\n

In brief, a typical fantasy map portrays a secondary world, a compass rose or similar device showing its orientation with north at the top. It is not set in any given hemisphere (not necessarily in a spherical world at all), although there are reasons to believe that clues in the text would indicate north as the direction of colder climates. Apart from topographical map elements such as rivers, bays, islands, and mountains, such a map would also contain towns and other artificial constructions. The hill signs used are typically pre-Enlightenment (either profile or oblique). (p. 66)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, how fantasy maps show mountains and hills<\/a>\u2014using profile and oblique signs, rather than contours, hachures or shaded relief\u00b1is the least modern aspect of modern fantasy maps:<\/p>\n

\"Table
Ekman, Here Be Dragons<\/em>, p. 42.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This sort of work can seem a little obvious, but it’s noteworthy: first for not having been done before, and second for laying the groundwork for future research. It’s an important beginning.<\/p>\n

The second part of the maps chapter involves a close reading of Tolkien’s maps\u2014the maps accompanying The Hobbit<\/em> and The Lord of the Rings<\/em>\u2014that serves as a case study for the theoretical concepts mentioned above and an example of what Ekman found statistically. Tolkien’s maps are an excellent choice for this, not only for the quality of the maps and the text to which they are attached, but also because these maps will almost certainly be familiar to anyone interested in reading a book like this. (Who is interested in fantasy maps but has never seen a map of Middle-earth? Honestly, who?) If the critical terms are unfamiliar, at least the subject isn’t.<\/p>\n

Ekman admits himself that his sample is a little small, and that he would have liked a smaller margin of error. He establishes what the current state of fantasy map design is but does not interrogate its history or origins. Which is to say that there is a lot of ground left to cover. (To be honest, I’m relieved: I was kind of worried Ekman was going to answer all my questions, leaving me nothing to work on.) As far as the scholarly study of fantasy maps is concerned, this is the first word, not the last.<\/p>\n

Previously: A Scholarly Work on Fantasy Maps<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stefan Ekman\u2019s Here Be Dragons\u00a0(Wesleyan University Press, February 2013) is a book-length examination of the use of maps and settings in fantasy literature. Maps and settings. Which is to say that maps are not 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":[2,4],"tags":[30,31],"class_list":["post-5583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-maps-and-literature","tag-books","tag-fantasy-maps"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5322,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2012\/06\/a-scholarly-work-on-fantasy-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":5583,"position":0},"title":"A Scholarly Work on Fantasy Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"20 June 2012","format":"link","excerpt":"I knew that Swedish literary scholar Stefan Ekman has been studying fantasy maps\u2014see, for example, this blog post of his\u2014but I only found out today (thanks to the Locus forthcoming books listings) that he has a book coming out on the subject: Here Be Dragons: Exploring Fantasy Maps and Settings\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":5582,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2013\/06\/the-sixteenth-century-origins-of-fantasy-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":5583,"position":1},"title":"The Sixteenth-Century Origins of Fantasy Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"7 June 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the things I'm interested in for my fantasy maps project is the origin of fantasy map design: where does that tell-tale fantasy map look come from? Look at enough fantasy maps, and it's hard not to notice certain commonalities in design. As Stefan Ekman demonstrates in Here Be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6001,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2015\/08\/fictional_maps_conference\/","url_meta":{"origin":5583,"position":2},"title":"Fictional Maps International Conference","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"28 August 2015","format":"link","excerpt":"The Fictional Maps International Conference, an academic conference on the use of maps in fiction, will take place from January 21 to 23, 2016 at the University of Silesia's Scientific Information Centre and Academic Library in Katowice, Poland. Stefan Ekman, the author of Here Be Dragons: Exploring Fantasy Maps and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conferences"","block_context":{"text":"Conferences","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/conferences\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5302,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2012\/02\/how-readers-use-fantasy-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":5583,"position":3},"title":"How Readers Use Fantasy Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"14 February 2012","format":"link","excerpt":"It occurs to me that how readers use fantasy maps should be another line of inquiry for my science fiction and fantasy maps project. Take, for example, Donald Petersen's comment on the Boing Boing post about Victoria Johnson's map essay (posted here last week). One of the few downsides to\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":5651,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2013\/08\/here-be-blank-spaces\/","url_meta":{"origin":5583,"position":4},"title":"My New Article on Fantasy Maps: ‘Here Be Blank Spaces’","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"26 August 2013","format":"link","excerpt":"My short essay on fantasy maps, \"Here Be Blank Spaces: Vaguely Medieval Fantasy Maps\" appears in issue #300 of The New York Review of Science Fiction, out today. I wrote it in response to several books I read rather closely together earlier this year: Reinhart's Art of the Map, Van\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":4860,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/09\/the-territory-is-not-the-map\/","url_meta":{"origin":5583,"position":5},"title":"The Territory Is Not the Map","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"27 September 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Critiques of fantasy maps have more to do with the shortcomings of fantasy worlds than the maps that depict them.","rel":"","context":"In "Book Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Book Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/book-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"From Jared Blando, How to Draw Fantasy Art and RPG Maps (Impact, 2015).","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/blando-example.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/blando-example.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/blando-example.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/blando-example.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/blando-example.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/blando-example.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5583","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=5583"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1785327,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5583\/revisions\/1785327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}