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Abysmal: A Critique of Cartographic Reason
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Abysmal: A Critique of Cartographic Reason Hardcover - 2007

by Gunnar Olsson


From the publisher

People rely on reason to think about and navigate the abstract world of human relations in much the same way they rely on maps to study and traverse the physical world. Starting from that simple observation, renowned geographer Gunnar Olsson offers in Abysmal an astonishingly erudite critique of the way human thought and action have become deeply immersed in the rhetoric of cartography and how this cartographic reasoning allows the powerful to map out other people's lives. A spectacular reading of Western philosophy, religion, and mythology that draws on early maps and atlases, Plato, Kant, and Wittgenstein, Thomas Pynchon, Gilgamesh, and Marcel Duchamp, Abysmal is itself a minimalist guide to the terrain of Western culture. Olsson roams widely but always returns to the problems inherent in reason, to question the outdated assumptions and fixed ideas that thinking cartographically entails. A work of ambition, scope, and sharp wit, Abysmal will appeal to an eclectic audience--to geographers and cartographers, but also to anyone interested in the history of ideas, culture, and art.

Details

  • Title Abysmal: A Critique of Cartographic Reason
  • Author Gunnar Olsson
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition First Edition
  • Pages 584
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL
  • Date 2007
  • Illustrated Yes
  • ISBN 9780226629308 / 0226629309
  • Weight 2.89 lbs (1.31 kg)
  • Dimensions 10.24 x 7.47 x 1.84 in (26.01 x 18.97 x 4.67 cm)
  • Library of Congress subjects Rhetoric, Philosophy, Modern - 20th century
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2006016776
  • Dewey Decimal Code 190

About the author

Gunnar Olsson is professor emeritus of geography at Uppsala University, Sweden. He is the author of ten books in Swedish and English.
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Abysmal: A Critique of Cartographic Reason
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Abysmal: A Critique of Cartographic Reason

by Olsson, Gunnar

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Abysmal: A Critique of Cartographic Reason

Abysmal: A Critique of Cartographic Reason

by Gunnar Olsson

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Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. 1st. Hardcover. Good/Good. Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket. 553 pages, b&w illustrations. A spectacular reading of Western philosophy, religion, and mythology that draws on early maps and atlases, Plato, Kant, and Wittgenstein, Thomas Pynchon, Gilgamesh, and Marcel Duchamp, Abysmal is itself a minimalist guide to the terrain of Western culture. Olsson roams widely but always returns to the problems inherent in reason, to question the outdated assumptions and fixed ideas that thinking cartographically entails. A work of ambition, scope, and sharp wit, Abysmal will appeal to an eclectic audience—to geographers and cartographers, but also to anyone interested in the history of ideas, culture, and art. Name written on front fore-edge of book, otherwise clean. Record # 382141
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Abysmal: A Critique of Cartographic Reason
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Abysmal: A Critique of Cartographic Reason

by Gunnar Olsson

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780226629308 / 0226629309
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Abysmal: A Critique of Cartographic Reason
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

Abysmal: A Critique of Cartographic Reason

by Olsson, Gunnar

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ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780226629308 / 0226629309
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