Monday, 18 May 2009

• Which World is Better?

  
  

  I'm currently reading a book called "Don't Know Much About Geography," which, despite being written for eejits has actually got me thinking lots about the world. Today, it reminded me of sitting in a geography lesson when I was about 10, and being shown two maps. Both of the world.
  

  It didn't make sense to us as a class of ten-year-olds why Asia should have to be sliced down the middle so that America could claim central position. It didn't make sense that the International date line should appear as an unseemly squiggle across the near-center of the page, to fuel Americaphilla.

  We thought, and I still think, that the map familiar to Brits looks more correct. And not because "Our country is in the middle! Therefore it must be right!" but because the British map doesn't show a complete disregard for the Greenwich Meridian, from which standard time is calculated. And because on our maps everything known to us as "the West" is in the West. And everything known as "the East" is in the East.

  I always felt the British map looks tidier. I find it more aesthetically pleasing.

  I'm also aware that I probably only hold these views because the British map is the one I'm familiar with and have grown up with.

  Which map are you more familiar with? Do American maps generally involve America taking center stage? Which map do you think is better? What do other country maps look like?

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