Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
stacked on a bookshelf: Benjamin's Australia is a whole world. Whatever he's currently
learning about in his homeschool classes—the Cyrillic alphabet, colonial history, plate tec-
tonics—gets incorporated into the fabric of his imaginary continent. During the 2008 elec-
tionseason,hebecamesofascinatedwiththepoliticalprocessthathefillednotebookswith
his own fictional districts and candidates and their vote totals.
“The Conservative Democratic Party's presidential candidate has just resigned,” he an-
nounces abruptly, later, as we're chatting over cheesecake. His update doesn't sound like a
creative decision he's made but like a genuine news flash beamed in from another world.
Time is passing there, just as it does here.
Do Benjamin's parents worry about his unusual dual citizenship? I suspect their concern
isn't really their son but the possibility that outsiders (like me) will see him as weird. “It's
eccentric, but that's okay,” says Sarah. “For us, it's more interesting to have children who
are”—she gestures vaguely—“whoever they are.” After all, Benjamin's doing just fine.
He'sanimpossiblybrightteenagerwithawidearrayofinterests—notjustmapsbuthistory
and science and old Marx Brothers movies and classical music. He wants to be a pianist
like his dad when he grows up and has just finished composing his first symphony, which
he wrote—and orchestrated for fifteen parts—almost entirely in his head, not noodling at
the keyboard. (Benjamin has perfect pitch.)
I wonder if Benjamin's Australia will survive adolescence into adulthood, the way
Islandia did but Oofer and Uffer did not. Maybe his parents would be relieved, in a way,
if the maps and ledgers and histories joined Blue Roo and Day-Glo in the attic, but I can't
help thinking it would be a tragic loss, almost like the fall of a real empire.
All that time and knowledge gone forever, without even ruins left to commemorate their
passing.
Maps of fictional places are a peculiarity of childhood, but among adults, they're a pe-
culiarity of geek culture as well. Harry Potter's Hogwarts and the starship Enterprise have
been mapped in more detail than much of Africa, and many kinds of gaming rely on maps,
from the beautifully elaborate maps of 1970s “bookcase” games to the quickly sketched
dungeons of a fantasy role-playing campaign to the pixel art that maps computer games,
both classic and modern. * Even comic books aren't immune: as a kid, I once came across
an Atlas of the DC Universe in a bookstore and eagerly scooped it up, unable to believe
that someone had finally combined my two great loves: (1) atlases and (2) he-men in long
underwear punching each other. But I was ultimately disappointed by the topic: Gotham
City and Metropolis seemed more mythic to me somehow before I knew that they were of-
ficially located in New Jersey and Delaware, respectively. C'mon, DC Comics. Superman
would never live in Delaware .
 
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