“The ground and not
the map…is the primary document…Field work consists in comparing the map with
the actual ground.” S.W.
Wooldridge
Have you ever had a trustworthy friend give you directions
that you can’t make head nor tail of? Often even when we look at the same
ground we can orient it differently.
Once I tried giving a directionally challenged friend
landmarks to guide her way as basic roadmaps and linear directions only
confused her. I told her to make a left turn at the large tree on the corner, which could still be seen in heavy fog. However,
that particular night there was no fog and other streets had ‘large’ trees as
well. She finally turned at the biggest tree she came to hoping that was it.
(In the days after phone booths and before cell phones too)
In my own city, another friend recently texted me to pick
her up on the SW corner of a densely populated intersection where making left
turns was impossible. I had no concept of which of the four corners was the one
she meant and my passenger couldn’t see her in the crowd. She had scoped out her visit by north,
south, east, west orientation parameters. I drove oriented by street names,
landmarks and no left turns. Plus the way my city is structured there’s no real
way to tell which is east or west except at dawn and dusk. Our directional
conversation did not meld together at all. Fortunately my passenger understood
both versions so spent the day ‘translating’ for me as we navigated our
locations. It was an interesting experience because I have often had to find my
routes through unfamiliar cities, but I could not grasp her compass point
mapping.
Journal Prompt:
1. How
does your character navigate when driving, or walking, or other mode of
transportation central to your world setting?
2. Can
she adapt if given directions contradictory to her normal mode of mapping her
ground?
3. What
does that do to the emotional tension within her? Could you use a minor journey
to create added conflict?
Share: Share what
has been one of the most humorous set of directions you have ever received.
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