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.
我过去一直以为，地图癖是一种孤独的怪病，直到2006年我开始写博客“奇异地图”(Strange Maps)。我还记得自己在博客上贴出的第一张地图——那是一张宾夕法尼亚州精神病院的分布图。它提供了精神病的一种诡诞地理布局，我之所以觉得它有趣，是因为这不是那种会在主流制图史中占有一席之地的地图。同样，地图并没有告诉我们很多有关精神健康的信息。我喜欢它，是因为它将一种如此难以界定的精神状态与极其冷静、理智和精确的制图学糅合在一起，非常有趣。