Huckleberry Finn has always been one of my favorites...probably my first "favorite novel". While this was enjoyable to browse, and I had several fun little moments of, "Oh, yeah! I remember that!", I was hoping for something a little more technical than artistic. Something one could literally follow in the real world.
It's one of my odd life goals to actually float the Mississippi river on a raft (probably more of a house boat), and has been since I first read Huckleberry Finn. I've been traveling in RVs off-and-on for several years (I'm back on the road in an RV after a couple years sitting in one place), and doing it by boat is my next big plan, or series of plans, since traveling the Mississippi and traveling around Central and South America or island hopping the Caribbean are very different processes requiring different preparation and, most importantly, very different boats.
Anyway, while I know the Mississippi has drifted some over the years, and visiting some of the little islands in Huck Finn is probably impossible today, I still think it'd be a lot of fun to follow the river, stopping in the same major towns. Surely someone has done it and documented it. But, I guess one really doesn't need much guidance. You just get on the river and float, stopping in the right places. Maybe the book itself is documentation enough.
Cool article, with some nice insight into Huckleberry Finn (the novel), as well as the promised maps. Which is why I don't understand the responses here on HN.
One says the maps where "metaphorical." No the maps were extremely precise, or at least as precise as could be for being based on a novel. The maps did take some liberties with scale and distortion, but that was for two obvious reasons: 1) to fit all the information at several scales into one set of maps, and 2) to be pieces of art in themselves. So you could say these were very precise maps with a highly unusual and non-regular projection and lots of embellishment, but they very literally map the journey in the novel. I would argue that they are actually very effective at displaying large and small scale details in the same frame.
Notice I said projection. There certainly exists a mathematical function that would transform these maps into WGS 84, or whatever datum you are more used to. Actually, it's intriguing to think about that function and how it would work.
To the one who thought this had something to do with github, I say you need to be a bit more open and less focused on tech--a common problem on HN, despite the proliferation of non-tech articles. Plus, it's not like startups haven't been copying each other's domain names since forever. I mean it's one thing to be surprised that the content is not what you expected from the name alone, it's another to leave a comment about it.
Finally to SwellJoe, I admire your sense of adventure, but I urge caution. From my own investigations, even with a well-found boat, navigating the Mississippi is beyond novice-level. It's been channeled and dredged, has lots of currents, and is plied by commercial traffic. I'm afraid that even a house-boat wouldn't have the power or maneuverability to deal with that--better to get a regular live-aboard motorboat. Search for information on the Great Loop. It seems like most pleasure craft take the Tenn-Tom to avoid the lower Mississippi.
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[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 22.1 ms ] threadThe amazon (heh) reviews of the ebook and pbook aren't great either, problems with both formats
It's one of my odd life goals to actually float the Mississippi river on a raft (probably more of a house boat), and has been since I first read Huckleberry Finn. I've been traveling in RVs off-and-on for several years (I'm back on the road in an RV after a couple years sitting in one place), and doing it by boat is my next big plan, or series of plans, since traveling the Mississippi and traveling around Central and South America or island hopping the Caribbean are very different processes requiring different preparation and, most importantly, very different boats.
Anyway, while I know the Mississippi has drifted some over the years, and visiting some of the little islands in Huck Finn is probably impossible today, I still think it'd be a lot of fun to follow the river, stopping in the same major towns. Surely someone has done it and documented it. But, I guess one really doesn't need much guidance. You just get on the river and float, stopping in the right places. Maybe the book itself is documentation enough.
One says the maps where "metaphorical." No the maps were extremely precise, or at least as precise as could be for being based on a novel. The maps did take some liberties with scale and distortion, but that was for two obvious reasons: 1) to fit all the information at several scales into one set of maps, and 2) to be pieces of art in themselves. So you could say these were very precise maps with a highly unusual and non-regular projection and lots of embellishment, but they very literally map the journey in the novel. I would argue that they are actually very effective at displaying large and small scale details in the same frame.
Notice I said projection. There certainly exists a mathematical function that would transform these maps into WGS 84, or whatever datum you are more used to. Actually, it's intriguing to think about that function and how it would work.
To the one who thought this had something to do with github, I say you need to be a bit more open and less focused on tech--a common problem on HN, despite the proliferation of non-tech articles. Plus, it's not like startups haven't been copying each other's domain names since forever. I mean it's one thing to be surprised that the content is not what you expected from the name alone, it's another to leave a comment about it.
Finally to SwellJoe, I admire your sense of adventure, but I urge caution. From my own investigations, even with a well-found boat, navigating the Mississippi is beyond novice-level. It's been channeled and dredged, has lots of currents, and is plied by commercial traffic. I'm afraid that even a house-boat wouldn't have the power or maneuverability to deal with that--better to get a regular live-aboard motorboat. Search for information on the Great Loop. It seems like most pleasure craft take the Tenn-Tom to avoid the lower Mississippi.