I always thought that mapophilia was a lonely affliction until I started my blog, Strange Maps, in 2006. I remember the first map I posted – it was a map of the location of asylums for the insane in Pennsylvania. It provided a bizarre geography of insanity, and it interested me because it was not the kind of map that would have a place in mainstream cartography. Equally, the map didn’t tell us much about mental health. I loved it because it was such an interesting juxtaposition of a condition that is so difficult to define with something as cool, rational and delineated as cartography.
我過去一直以爲，地圖癖是一種孤獨的怪病，直到2006年我開始寫部落格「奇異地圖」(Strange Maps)。我還記得自己在部落格上貼出的第一張地圖——那是一張賓州精神病院的分佈圖。它提供了精神病的一種詭誕地理佈局，我之所以覺得它有趣，是因爲這不是那種會在主流製圖史中佔有一席之地的地圖。同樣，地圖並沒有告訴我們很多有關精神健康的資訊。我喜歡它，是因爲它將一種如此難以界定的精神狀態與極其冷靜、理智和精確的製圖學糅合在一起，非常有趣。