MOVIE

A Map So Big It Blocks the Sun

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A Map So Big It Blocks the Sun is a new film by Quentin Lind, taking Jorge Luis Borges' short story On Exactitude in Science as a starting point. Borges' 1946 story was partly influenced by a novel by Lewis Carroll's Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1893), in which a character notes that they made a map on a mile to mile scale, but they have not yet used it, as farmers objected due to concerns it would cover the entire country and block out the sunlight. Instead, they "now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well."' Those in Borges' story similarly pursued 'perfection' in the form of a 1:1 scale map. Their descendants "were not so fond of the Study of Cartography as their Forebears"~ and saw no need for it. Readers of both stories are required to have a wry sense of humour in the face of impending horror.