August 26

"Most great stories of adventure, from The Hobbit to Seven Pillars of Wisdom, come furnished with a map. That's because every story of adventure is in part the story of landscape, of the interralationship between human beings (or Hobbits, as the case may be) and topography. Every adventure story is conceivable only with refence to a particular set of geographical features that in each case sets the course, literally, of the tale."-Michael Chabon

http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2009/10/09/segments/142239

In a course which explores the ways we represent the "places" we inhabit and the implications of those representations it makes sense to begin with mapping--to start by exploring the way we visually depict geographical spaces. What is gained by mapping a place? What is represented? What is lost? What does the map portray about the mapmaker?

This American Life: Episode 110: Mapping

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/110/Mapping

"Maps have meaning because they filter out all the chaos in the world...and this is the age of maps...something like 99.9 percent of all maps have been made in this century. Every map is the world seen through a different lens."-Ira Glass

Check out How Stuff Works: Maps:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geophysics/map.htm

What lens do you see the world through? What places are you able to map through memory?

In class: Sketch a map of a place you've lived or traveled to. It can be your dorm room, your hometown, your childhood neighborhood, your family's vacation route, or any place that your remember well. Add as many details and memories into your depiction as possible.

Writing prompt: (To go with memory map--taken from Tell it Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Nonfiction ) Write down every element of a place you can remember, quickly, with as much detail as possible. What odd details do you remember (e.g the gargoyle-shaed knot in the wood, a gray rug with a dark stain the shape of Brazil)? Now fill in the emotional tone of each detail: Did the wallpaper make you feel safe or frightened? What were your favorite things to look at in this place? Your least favorite? Why? What felt like yours and what felt like someone else's?

To Create your blog:
http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g

Connect your blog to the class page by clicking "Follow."

Homework:
-Set up your blog and link it to our 250 class page. Please copy/paste the link as a "comment" on our class schedule
-From Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams, pp. 739-752. (Kyle Anderson, Dillon Baker)