Gallowglass

Ethnic Discrimination

The Volokhs (most recently Jacob Levy) have been blogging about maps of imaginary places. Which is a funny coincidence, as I've just started to read a book that Maria gave me for my birthday last year, Franco Moretti's Atlas of the European Novel. Moretti takes inspiration from the Annalistes and Benedict Anderson in his rather nifty exploration of the geographies of 19th century novels, with maps showing the relationships between places in novels by Jane Austen and others. This not only shows us the places that novels describe, but also the terra incognita (spaces that are ignored in these novels), as well as the relationship between geography and plotline, and between the places described and the contemporary marketplace for these books. I have some way to go before I finish the book - but it looks like being a bit of a tour de force. Will probably stick up a review on the blog sooner or later. Simultaneously, I'm reading Edward Carey's new novel, "Alva and Irva," which shows an exemplary degree of care in constructing an entirely imaginary city - apparently the author modeled his city in clay (with eponymous protagonists as giant figures dominating the landscape) before starting to write about it.

Update: Looks like Cosma Shalizi beat me to the punch on reviewing Moretti.