Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
contents—the geography, the history, the people—they're all completely different.” When
Benjamin talks about his world, his is not the enthusiastic chatter of the evangelist but the
cool, knowledgeable tone of the expert. I wonder if that's part of the appeal of document-
ing your own alternate world: the knowledge that, despite your tender years, you are the
greatest living authority on some subject. More than that, in fact—that you are the unques-
tioned master of the entire realm. The godlike feeling of dominion that comes when chil-
dren look at a map must be amplified when they know that the maps are entirely their cre-
ation, that they can erase cities, raise up volcanoes, and flood river deltas at will.
*
The mean streets of downtown Augusta, hand-drawn by Benjamin Salman, the only per-
son who's ever been there
“Do you feel like you know your world as well as you know any real place?” I ask.
“Yes. Better! Because I made it up.”
Benjamin has been living in his world almost as long as he's been living in ours. Even
asababy,heinsisted onspeaking alanguage ofhisowninvention. “Wejust hadtopretend
we didn't understand him, and then he'd answer us in English,” sighs Sarah. His country
was born as a home for his childhood stuffed animals—Blue Roo the conductor, Day-Glo
the inventor. The original residents are probably all in attics and thrift shops now, but their
homeland has vastly expanded. It's not just the hundreds of neat city and country maps
