Americae Nova Tabula

http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/1665b5.jpg

Holy wow! This is an incredibly descriptive map. The fact that it is covered in texts and pictures shows that it's a map drawn later (like in 1665..). The pictures that surround the map are also very interesting. There are illustrations of towns and also the natives. Many drawings of ships are also drawn in the seas where I assume the ships were. There's also some really interesting text at the top of the map, which I have no idea what it means.

The map narrates a story especially starting with the ships. The ships show where the colonists entered from and where they sought out for. The actions of the natives in the drawings bordering the map show how the map drawer perceived them. They also show the context in which the map drawer saw them in, which leads to the drawings of the towns on top of the map. Babb insisted that "maps are material artifacts that represent cultural perceptions during particular periods of history," and Americae Nova Tabula is a perfect example of that. While being a directional guide, it's illustrations also showcase the lives of natives and the towns they lived in. These drawings act as artifacts to look back on. Babb also discusses the parts of maps that look like "a modern comic strip." The Americae Nova Tabula certainly as the modern comic strip going on.  The entire border works as "a series of pictures that relate Smith's North American escapades."

http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/1640h6.jpg

My biggest observation for this map is the animals. Animals are everywhere. Also, the illustrations in the top left and bottom left are where the eye is immediately drawn to when looking at his map, so I'm curious what the significance of that is. It's also interesting that the lines are very definite on the right side of America, but they are rather ambiguous on the left side. The map is a clear illustration that "the land is an area upon which a European presence is becoming situated." This is made clear through the animals and the ships. What's insane is that the great lakes are missing. There's also no dividing line between Canada and North America. Also, California is completely cut off.

What this map narrates is that there are still many unknowns with this land. That at this point they haven't discovered that much and there are still "unknown elements." But as Babb says there is "a growing sense of European entitlement to the Americas." The lines are becoming more evident and so is the detail in the map.

Essentially different? (Blog Activity #1)

I've never felt like I've understood Vietnam. Since we've been exploring texts about it in AP Comp, I've found that the agenda wasn't clear enough to understand. My first true experience in learning about the Vietnam was viewing Good Morning Vietnam. But now looking back on it, what I had taken away from that film was that Robin Williams was in it...and the soldiers identified with music and it was a powerful attribute to the war. However, this is something more so reaffirmed by our class project, rather than The Things They Carried. I remember that the movie focused a lot on what was happening outside of the war itself, and the effects the war had on people.

The Things They Carried digressed from that side of the war and truly focused on how the soldiers felt, the places they traveled, and the effects the war had on them. Honestly, I felt that this was a much more entrancing way to approach the Vietnam War. The lives of the soldiers that were drafted or even that volunteered were drastically changed by this horrific war, and Tim O’Brien beautifully illustrated that—certainly more than I had ever been shown or had read before.

Apocalypse Now was my second true “learning” experience about the Vietnam War. But I’m not sure how true it really was. I watched the extended edition, which was a little too extended for my taste, so some parts might’ve been…fast forwarded…and I was very distracted. However, the overall feel of the film was very similar to the feeling I inhabited when reading The Things They Carried. In Apocalypse Now a group of men are on a journey on a boat. The dynamics of the characters are so intense and real, just like the characters in The Things They Carried.

The Things They Carried was powerful in a way that I hadn’t quite experienced before. O’Brien’s words were so stunning that I fell into a trance, and I can’t say that I was completely focused on the happenings of the war, but more so how he actually described them. However, I don’t remember understanding any happenings in the war in the films I had seen, but O’Brien portrayed events that helped create a full perspective of the Vietnam War. At this point in time, The Things They Carried, is my primary source of knowledge on the Vietnam War, and it helped me feel the war in a way that any other film or text hadn’t.