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Ebook269 pages3 hours
Beyond the Map: Unruly Enclaves, Ghostly Places, Emerging Lands and Our Search for New Utopias
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this ebook
New islands are under construction or emerging because of climate change. Eccentric enclaves and fantastic utopian experiments are multiplying. Once-secret fantasy gardens are cracking open their doors to outsiders. Our world is becoming stranger by the day—and Alastair Bonnett observes and captures every fascinating change.
In Beyond the Map, Bonnett presents stories of the world’s most extraordinary spaces—many unmarked on any official map—all of which challenge our assumptions about what we know—or think we know—about our world. As cultural, religious and political boundaries ebb and flow with each passing day, traditional maps unravel and fragment. With the same adventurous spirit he effused in the acclaimed Unruly Places, Bonnett takes us to thirty-nine incredible spots around the globe to explore these changing boundaries and stimulate our geographical imagination. Some are tied to disruptive contemporary political turbulence, such as the rise of ISIL, Russia’s incursions into Ukraine and the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom. Others explore the secret places not shown on Google Earth or reflect fast-changing landscapes.
Beyond the Map journeys out into a world of mysterious, daunting and magical spaces. It is a world of hidden cultures and ghostly memories, of uncountable new islands and curious stabs at paradise. From the phantom tunnels of the Tokyo subway to a stunning movie-set re-creation of 1950s-era Moscow; from the caliphate of the Islamic State to virtual cybertopias—this book serves as an imaginative guide to the farthest fringes of geography.
In Beyond the Map, Bonnett presents stories of the world’s most extraordinary spaces—many unmarked on any official map—all of which challenge our assumptions about what we know—or think we know—about our world. As cultural, religious and political boundaries ebb and flow with each passing day, traditional maps unravel and fragment. With the same adventurous spirit he effused in the acclaimed Unruly Places, Bonnett takes us to thirty-nine incredible spots around the globe to explore these changing boundaries and stimulate our geographical imagination. Some are tied to disruptive contemporary political turbulence, such as the rise of ISIL, Russia’s incursions into Ukraine and the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom. Others explore the secret places not shown on Google Earth or reflect fast-changing landscapes.
Beyond the Map journeys out into a world of mysterious, daunting and magical spaces. It is a world of hidden cultures and ghostly memories, of uncountable new islands and curious stabs at paradise. From the phantom tunnels of the Tokyo subway to a stunning movie-set re-creation of 1950s-era Moscow; from the caliphate of the Islamic State to virtual cybertopias—this book serves as an imaginative guide to the farthest fringes of geography.
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Unruly Places: Lost Spaces, Secret Cities, and Other Inscrutable Geographies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond the Map: Unruly Enclaves, Ghostly Places, Emerging Lands and Our Search for New Utopias Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Elsewhere: A Journey into Our Age of Islands Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for Beyond the Map
Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars
4/5
18 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beyond the Map (from the author of Off the Map): Unruly enclaves, ghostly places, emerging lands and our search for new utopias by Alastair Bonnett
I know I shouldn't really say this sort of thing out loud, but this was actually a lot more interesting than I thought it might be. It consists of 39 short stories about the author's travels around different parts of the world to places that are often uncharted, forgotten, or lost. Actually, there are quite bizarre and spooky stories, too. It has made me want to visit these places to see if I can feel myself surrounded by ghosts (The Phantom Tunnel of Shinjuku Stat ion, British Graveyard- Shimla, and Magical 'ley-lines' of London for starters!) or hidden places like Doggerland (nope, not what you're thinking - relates to Dutch boats) in Suffolk that has a road that just disappears off a cliff edge into the sea! Yes, climate shifts are a scary thing for little islands like the UK...
As you can tell I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's interesting to not only discover these new tales of old, but to realise how some micro-nations are struggling to survive, as new islands emerge, and borders and boundaries come and go changing our world faster than ever before.
A fascinating book that's also quite alarming! - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The idea is fascinating--to visit odd places around the world--and many of the places are indeed fascinating. But Bonnett's book, with its short vignettes, barely scratches the surface. It will have you doing all sorts of internet searches to find out more about some of these places, whether it is the Indian city, Chandigarh, designed by Le Corbusier, which also includes the amazing Nek Chand rock garden, the new islands appearing in the Arctic as the ice recedes, or the breakaway Russian part of Ukraine, Bonnett usually chooses his subjects well. His writing is very scattershot, however, and his knowledge of some of the places he goes is severely lacking. The book presents lots of facts but very little insight, and for someone who has had the good fortune to travel to so many places, he seems to have a strange lack of curiosity. Compared to the way a writer like Ian Sinclair (one of whose books I recently reviewed) can make the most out of the way, and even unfashionable places, interesting, Bonnett is severely lacking. Perhaps this is because the book tries to visit too many places (39). Each one deserves three or four times the space it gets. Bonnett's writing style is okay, and he manages to be poetic on occasion, but there remains a curious disconnect between the writing and its subjects. As a reader, I was getting the insights I expected.I will give him credit for one very good thing however. When asked which of the 39 places would make a good holiday destination, he advises, "...my advice is not to drive or fly anywhere at all. Set off on foot from your own front door and head in a new direction. Don't walk quickly or have your head down, and don't give up after half an hour. Let it happen and give it time. I'm increasingly convinced that walking is the only real form of travel: everything else is just speeding past."