About two-thirds of the way into the project I thought I had better read the seminal tome on the subject of deep mapping: ‘Prairyerth’ by William Least Heat-Moon. I’m about half way through it, and although it’s very interesting I’m not sure that I’m enjoying it. It’s an in-depth account of the author’s investigations into a single county on the Kansas prairie, with interviews, documentary research and a lot of walking. It is not a book to read at speed: it needs to be savoured – or plodded through. What bothers me at the moment is the feeling that quite a few of the people (and they are/were real people) in it are not very pleasant, and in trying to be objective the author is coming over as a bit of a voyeur. I’ve put the book down for a week or so, and am not sure whether I’ll pick it up again. I ought to give it the benefit of the doubt, and carry on with it – all 460 grammes of it. (Over a pound weight. For a paperback.)
Edit: I did finish it, eventually, and I’m still in two minds. However, there is no doubt that it has been massively influential: the ideas and methodology contained within the concept of “deep mapping” can be traced through the work of artists and writers from Clifford McLucas onwards, spawning a mass of interdisciplinary academic activity – some of which is interesting, and some of which is incomprehensible.
