Secret Cartography: Its like the Internet

My first thought of secret cartography was to write about the many pathways that weave themselves through the internet, guiding you from one page to another, revealing treasures that you could only find by crawling through the bowels of inter-web's most seedy societies. But then I thought, you must already know about that, after all, you are reading our blog.

Zach's article about the subtle musical nuances of the newest Daft Punk album strongly reminded me of my own form of Secret cartography: allusions. I love books, a lot, and nothing makes me happier then finding a book full of allusions which either test my knowledge of other works of literature, or make me curious about something I have never read before.

What brings this particular literary device to mind is my growing love of author Terry Pratchett who's large collection of works have satirized almost every famous work of literature or genre out there. I have to admit, I was not taken with Mr. Pratchett at first, but now as I read each new book, and am treated to a series of references that hearken back to Shakespeare and horrible fantasy novel cliches, and I love it. I love that there is a secret level to the books, one that makes them more interesting, more humorous, and more socially relevant. In many ways it is my version of a treasure map, one that you can only appreciate if you have the the key (being a huge nerd and having read tons of books). It makes me feel like I am some kind of explorer, following the clues and codes to some long lost document that holds information that will alter the perceptions of western civilization.

Hmm, somehow I feel this whole secret cartography thing is feeding into my life's goal of finding some history altering artifact, like a new Rosetta Stone or something.