Selective vision

In 1904, the great Halford Mackinder, founder of the modern academic discipline of geography, published one of the most subversive maps of the century. It might seem unlikely that a scientific representation of the physical world projected according to mathematical principles onto a two-dimensional surface could mess with your head, but that is the unmistakable conclusion of Professor Jerry Brotton’s exhilarating book.

From Hereford cathedral’s Mappa Mundi, with its depictions of enigmatic griffins and bloodthirsty manticores and the Himannopods ‘who creep along rather than walk’, to Google Earth’s satellite view of the world showing it in such detail that the result rivals Jorge Luis Borges’s absurdist vision of a map as large as the earth itself, maps prove to be less conveyors of information than theatrical performances. Indeed the first really popular atlas put together in 1570 by Abraham Ortelius was named Theatrum orbis terrarum. And the influence of Mackinder’s map illustrates how mind-altering the plays can be.