1. What surprised you most in this article?

What surprised me most in the article is how the writer perceives maps as a form of literature.
In the story, the writer states that maps are “an interpretation” from “a point of view” like
fictions. She then proceeds to discuss the similitude of maps with literature works using
examples such as the bio-map drawn Walter Benjamin, which was a biography as excellent as
it could be if it were in verbal form. Additionally, she illustrates that people should view each
map as telling a story by giving the example of the Treasure Island. The author of Treasure
Island initially used maps to tell his story. This is shown by “‘Treasure Island’ did not begin with
Billy Bones or Jim Hawkins, but with a map.” Such perspective and attitude towards map are
surprising for me, since I had always taken the value of maps to be solely its navigational
function.

2. Why does Cep say that many fiction writers have a fascination with maps?
She did that because she wanted to argue for her point that map is a form of art and literature.
She argued that since map is the creator’s abstract and miniature interpretation of a physical
or mental place, maps are similar to fiction literature which also results from a writer’s abstract
interpretation of reality. Due to this similarity, writers fascinated with fiction writing are
naturally obsessed with maps.

3.What maps have you interacted with the most in your life? What places are being mapped?
Were they digital, paper, or both? Do you feel any sort of way about some map of someplace?
The maps I had interacted with in my life are mainly digital maps with impressive accuracy and
variable scale that depict places like my hometown, Guangzhou or countries in the world.
Disregarding that the maps I encountered are mostly google maps, I am most infatuated with
the map of Middle Earth drawn by Pauline Baynes, due to my identification with the journey in
The Lord of The Rings: going out of one’s comfort zone and facing challenge, destiny and
eventually walking on a better path of life. After reading this article, I realized that this map
exactly matches what Cep states in her article. This symbolic journey is communicated
abstractly by the map of Middle Earth, making it more of a piece of art itself that is comparable
to the book. This matches with “they reduced my text to a commentary on the drawings” as
confessed by Tolkien, meaning that the map tells a more concise and symbolic story than the
text.