Mapping and Writing

Through reading and analyzing Servant's of the Map I think it can be said that mapping and writing have many commonalities. Max was a surveyor who drew up maps and he also spent time writing letters to his wife. He mapped his travels through the cartographer's work and he also mapped his mind in a way through his letters. In both the maps and the letters he included some information while leaving some out. He was giving insight into his mind and his emotional state, but only as much as he wanted to. There were aspects he did not include but that did not make his writing false but rather something that could not be a completely reliable source. In the mapping there is also a similar style in that cartographers include some aspects of the land where another cartographer may chose to leave that out. These differences don't make one map right and one wrong, rather they are just different versions. Just as maps can have different versions, I think people's writing can show them in different versions of themselves. Writing for oneself and writing for others can be completely different and therefore show different sides of a person. We don't always write everything we are thinking if it is going to be public for others to read. I think blogs can show this greatly if you were to compare a blog entry to a diary for example. Some people may want to blog about a certain event in their life or situation but they might leave out intimate thoughts about it because they are too personal. A diary would be much more revealing because it would be only for the writer's eyes and not the public. Therefore people feel free to write any kinds of thoughts or opinions they have because they will not be judged for them.