Turchi holds that mapping is a metaphor for writing: "Every writer...is asked for directions; and to the extent that he offers them, he takes on the role of guide in another way, outside of his work." He strings his metaphor out to manuscript length, establishing the correspondences in both writing and mapping: conventions, inclusion and order, shape or matters of form, and the balance of intuition and intention. As he notes of writers: "We want our writing to reflect the world in which we live, and of which we must constantly make sense. We impose order on chaos....we test traditional forms." And yet much as Edward Tufte has noted (in a more succinct and entertaining way I might add), Turchi observes "The tension between our vision for the work and the form we choose mirrors the tension between the world in its incomprehensible vastness and our attempts to make sense of it." Turchi should have done a nice little article for The New Yorker rather than making and remaking his same point. He tries to sound poetic, but - in my opinion - ends up merely sounding turgid and abstruse. The quality of his illustrations, on the other hand, is glorious. And the quotations he selects from other authors are well-written and well-chosen. Buy the book for the pictures and the quoted gems; read Tufte alongside them, and you will have cobbled together a "guide" worth following.

(JAF) ( )