Maps to Anywhere

       As I was reading maps to anywhere, many of the stories stood out to me, though some more so than others.  I really enjoyed reading it, I found it more enjoyable than most other creative nonfiction essays we have read so far.  They make sense to me, they aren't some entirely abstract foreign concept.  I feel like Bernard Cooper went for the greater connection with his reader, rather than alienating them just to strive for a more artistic feel.

       One of the essays that I enjoyed was on the air, how he spoke of the futuristic cities that are always depicted as bright, clean, floating cities.  He spoke of how he wasn't fond of the cities, how the urban jungle, the less than perfect underground scene was preferred.  Then he started to talk about the Hindenburg's crash, and a man who witnessed it, survived it.  How he would paint him, with such detail the the scene around him.  How "...his passionate voice gave me chills. He said, "Disaster," and his voice shattered. He said, "Oh, no. Please, please," and you knew he wanted to stop time..." I love his description, how he portrays even the most horrible disasters so well.

       Utopia is similar to On the Air.  He talked about the different ideal families, and how he wished for them when he was little. He would play his his miniature sets of people and would go about the day playing with them, being the perfect family.  Cooper started by saying he was always set into a certain routine, something most people are, how he would rather go home than try and maneuver his was through unfamiliar streets to find a library.  I think the way he spoke of the different ideals of the perfect family during childhood really resonated with me. Things might seem like theyre better on the other side, but that isn't always the case, it's often best to love what you have.

       I enjoyed reading this and feel like analyzing it further could really help me come up with even greater insight to the author, as it does seem like a personal type of essay compilation.  I think Cooper did a good job portraying the everyday actions of people, and the wild imagination of children, how they see the world so differently than those that have grown up.