I Knew I Shoulda Taken a Left Turn in Albuquerque...

Moretti’s Graphs, Maps, Trees serves as a means to approach literature from a different angle, one of concreteness through abstraction. In his book, literary history becomes interpretable through objective analysis and visual representation, rather than wordy subjective interpretations which imbue the text with sometimes unfounded meanings. I was particularly drawn to the “Maps” section of the book. What interests me is the way in which locations in novels become significant sections of analysis, a way to relate seemingly unimportant points of contact into substantial indicators of interaction. The visual of the map lifts the sometimes banal list of places a character visits into an abstract form where one can discover hidden relationships and mini-truths. It is as if the map is a coded umwelt and by analyzing what it tells us, lifted out of the rest of the story, a variety of relationships can be revealed about the novel: Morreti indicates that it can translate into things like the type of land, the economy, the land’s politics, level of self-sufficiency, and even its ideologies (42). I like this concept that the map is abstracted from the rest of the novel so that it can stand alone and reveal hidden patterns or points of contact that may have been overlooked originally.

I did a brief YouTube search with “maps” in the search bar just to see what popped up. From Bugs Bunny to Criminal Minds, it is a common thread that words can be deceivingly subjective and that maps will reveal where we go astray. Often, Bugs Bunny winds up traveling to a strange location from faulty directions and is corrected by referring to his trusty map, to discover that he should have taken a left turn in Albuquerque. In Criminal Minds (my personal favorite) and other crime dramas, the FBI profiler maps where the suspect has committed crimes, thus enabling him to discover a hidden pattern in the attacks. Witness statements and cryptic notes from the killer serve as interference, but the map is solid information. The FBI can then analyze this information to get one step ahead of their criminal and justice is served. Maps serve to get us back on track, to open us up to new possibilities. Words and the like are subjective and whether it is intentional or not, can lead one astray. Cue Dane Cook’s comedy skit. In the BK Lounge section, the comedian instructs a woman at the Burger King drive-thru to pull ahead to the window. The woman is confused and says “...where do I go?” Frustrated, the comedian gives her faulty information, exasperated at her inability to follow the same road around the corner. His words are sarcastic, misleading and disingenuous. I'm guessing that the poor girl needed a map. Maps are seemingly neutral and lend themselves to enhancing what one already knows or to put them back on track, to give more depth by displaying truth through pattern. However, it should be noted that there is a chance to misinterpret and that leads to a whole new slew of problems, but primarily it appears as if the map is a resource which, until recently, remained unused by literary scholars. The use of a map serves to increase our understanding and simultaneously break us out of the narrative structure and into the realm of the visual.