The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion

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by Kei Miller

 

 

 

1. Introduction 

 

“The Cartographer tries to map away to Zion” is a poem anthology written in 2014 by Kei Miller.  The anthology is composed of 57 poems, some with titles, others numbered with lowercase roman numbers. The anthology begins with two epigraphs, one by Louise Bennett and the other one is a Rastafari chant. The poems are very unique and very different from one another because of their structure and content. Although at first glance the poems seem completely independent, there is a bigger story told through the flow and the succession of the poems. The anthology focuses on the relation of the cartographer (who represents Britain as an imperial power) and the rastaman (who represents Jamaica, tradition, and colonized countries), although a plethora of themes (described below) are tackled. While some poems such as “the Shrug of Jah”, “Establishing the meter” and “Place name: Edinburg Castle” seem independent from the story of the two main characters, they are implicitly related although they tell a story of their own. On the contrary, poems such as “in which the cartographer explains himself”, “in which the rastaman disagrees”, “in which the cartographer asks for directions” describe explicitly the relation and evolution of the relationship between the cartographer and the rastaman. Finally, the language of the anthology is one of the many reasons the poems are so unique as there is English combined with patois (also named “pidgin”) as well as the numerous references to both English and Jamaican cultures. 

 

 

1. The poet

 

Kei Miller was born in Jamaica in 1978 but moved to Manchester where he got his master and PhD in Creative Writing and English Literature. Now, he is in the University of Glasgow where he teaches Caribbean Literature and Creative Writing. His works of fiction, essays and poetry allowed him to win prizes such as Caribbean Rhodes Trust Fellowship in Cultural Studies and the Silver Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica. Why is the life of Kei Miller so important to comprehend his work? Simply because of his relationship with Jamaica and England. He could be considered a palimpsest of English and Jamaican culture; thus, he could be both the cartographer and the rastaman. Kei Miller’s identity allowed him to form a realistic background for both characters, and also developed each individual’s language by using English and Patois. Many small details and references used in the poems are very researched and someone very close to those cultures and their relation could use them to wisely in his works.  

 

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1. Analysis (themes)

 

RELIGION 

 

In the poems: The Shrug of Jah, in which the rastaman gives a sermon, xxv 

·       Rastafarianism, a religion in itself or a protestant religion? 

Started out as a religion on its own, morphed itself into a form of ‘counterculture’, therefore becoming a protesting religion, fighting the dominant imperial Christianity.  

·       One of the many things that separate the Rastaman from the Cartographer.  

·       Jah in a divine form incorporated in poem viii: intertextuality--> Jah’s voice in Italics 

·       Spirituality 

·       In which the rastaman gives a sermon: difference between rastafarian religion and christianity as for Rast. Zion reaches you, compared to Heaven which you find by being rewarded for the good you have spread. you do good things and you get rewarded. “lions who trod don’t worry bout reaching Zion. In time is Zion that reach to the lions”  

·       Xxv: only Jah allows you to reach Zion while Christians can reach Heaven “Only when Jah decide you trod the distance he set out for you to trod”  

·       xxvii. In which the rastaman says a benediction: “Trod Holy To I-ly I-ly I-ly Mount Zion-I Trod Holy.’’ 

 

 

DUAL PERSPECTIVE 

 

·       Let us NOT be Rasta wild and Cartographer scientific. “The cartographer says No – What I do is science” --> Cartographer starts from a Cartesian perspective 

·       British culture --> link between the two men (PhD) “the cartographer did not even know the rastaman had a PhD” 

·       The Rastaman isn’t only living a native kind of life 

·       While we tend to oppose religion and science, here both characters believe in both although the Rastaman is more religious while the Cartographer is more scientific 

·       The Cartographer possibly follows a more Cartesian way of thinking, nonetheless, the Rastaman holds a PhD which makes them both relate in the scientific field. 

·       Maps of the cartographer vs Maps of the rastaman “And what to call the blood / of hummingbirds but maps” “This island: unwritten, unsettled, unmapped” 

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IMPERIALISM 

 

·       The colonial situation in Jamaica, from the Arawak’s native culture to Plantations with harsh Slavery, to the Maroons to the present day context, it’s a long history of oppression, like 400 years of Ottoman empire. 

·       Edinburgh castle: “red haired” (Scottish), “Mad Doctor” (the serial killer)--> he built a castle, enslaved and killed the Jamaicans. 

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COSMOPOLITANISM  

 

·       Globalization and movement ts of people around the planet -well not now- has changed the perception of cultures and their standing in the wider world 

 

 

POWER OF KNOWLEDGE 

·       Jamaica’s History: Chateau Vert/Shotover  

·       Experience: Rubber ducks --> slavery --> gone through hell but found salvation (Zion) 

·       Rastaman has a PhD 

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CONFLICTS 

 

·       Vii: Aggressive tone “but” rep of “maps”x5 “break” 

 

 

CULTURAL PALIMPSEST 

 

·       X: “in which the cartographer asks for directions” - novel looking poem-poem starts with “once upon a time” tale – palimpsest of cultures 

 

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DISABILITY 

 

The cartographer can’t show the essence of Science to the rastaman, just as the rastaman can’t show the spiritual nature of Zion to the cartographer --> misunderstanding (clash) 

 

 

BOUNDARIES 

 

-       Cartographer: his job is to establish boundaries

-       Rastaman: lives in a world where boundaries don’t really matter 

-       Imperialist powers want to expand and thus break the boundaries although they are also the ones to establish them in the first place. 

-       In the poem “establishing the meter” the semantic field in composed of words such as “girths” “measure” “inches” “miles” “chains” “distance” “uncalibrated” “foot”

-       However, there are also things with no boundaries such as religion (Shrug of Jah).

 

 

 

RELATIONS 

 

·       British Empire: link between cartographer and rastaman (PhD) <-- once again... 

·       Rastaman seems to know Zion. He was chosen by Zion and has already seen the sun. 

 

LANGUAGE 

 

Oral traditions for the rastaman (I-talk) VS maps for the cartographer 

Grotesque  

-the I talk   

 

 

BELONGING 

 

Using “I is an antonym” ‘’Zion-I’’ ‘’I-dren’’ “I blood” “I chest” 

·       Xxvii: Patois : “Mannaz” manners and respect “Respeck” western values “protecshum” protection, “mickle and muckle” A Scot word for something small, relation to western words and ways imbedded in the Rastafarian culture since the words are easily mistakeable for Patois or Pidgin. 

 

 

MEASURE 

 

·       Different types of units-measurements: in Establishing the metre--> enumeration: “they did not call it inches, miles or chains” 

 

 

SIMULACRA 

·       Use the word as a representation of a reality that is invented and becomes a reality 

·       Rastafarai is a perception and could be a similacra because it is a reality that has 

 been constructed  

·       Ex: Online things  

·       Mapping is a skeleton of a simulacra  

·       Authentic, naticve cultures : Generations repeat the same cultural life, father and son repeat the same life= cold cultures (Claude levi Strauss anthropologist) // different with Warm cultures have an evolving culture when the father and son will not do the same because the society changes irremediably like after the car, life was never to be the same, after internet, in this context one can apply the simulacra, because it is  construct invented …. ON the contrary the Rastaman lives a life that reproduces itself similar between generation so there is no simulacra, it that clear????? 

·       In his Sophist, Platospeaks of two kinds of image making. The first is a faithful reproduction, attempted to copy precisely the original. The second is intentionally distorted in order to make the copy appear correct to viewers. He gives the example of Greek statuary, which was crafted larger on the top than on the bottom so that viewers on the ground would see it correctly. If they could view it in scale, they would realize it was malformed. This example from the visual arts serves as a metaphor for the philosophical arts and the tendency of some philosophers to distort truth so that it appears accurate unless viewed from the proper angle. 

 

·       Postmodernist French social theorist Jean Baudrillard argues that a simulacrum is not a copy of the real, but becomes truth in its own right: the hyperreal. According to Baudrillard, what the simulacrum copies either had no original or no longer has an original (think a copy of a copy without an original). Where Plato saw two types of representation—faithful and intentionally distorted (simulacrum)—Baudrillard sees four: (1) basic reflection of reality; (2) perversion of reality; (3) pretence of reality (where there is no model); and (4) simulacrum, which "bears no relation to any reality whatsoever"

 

 

NATURE 

 

Harmony, symbiosis, maps tend to disrupt an invite a manmade world 

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ARTS VS SCIENCE 

 

Establishing the meter 

“like tailors who must know their client’s girths”: tailors are artist, have talent, but must have scientific elements in their work 

What the Mapmaker ought to know 

“The landscape does not sit willingly (…) holding pose”: the cartographer needs the landscape to take a pose in order to map it --> art & sciences are one 

iv 

“I will draw a map of what you never see (…) Guess me whose map will tell the larger truth?”: drawing a map = artistic, talent. Truth can be seen (sciences) or unseen and felt (art) 

vii 

“maps drawn by Jah’s large hands”: even Jah draws (= art) maps as he creates and shapes the world. But is religion science? 

xx 

“we speak to navigate ourselves”: language is a scientific tool, in order to orientate ourselves. But it’s also an art: Jamaican oral tradition, poetry, music and songs 

xxi 

“How does one draw towards the heart?”: the cartographer is trying to find a way (scientific, rules, protocol) to reach Zion, but is aware it is about drawing (artistic) towards the heart (abstract, symbolic, not material) 

xxv 

“hypsometry naah guh help yu”: according to the rastaman, the scientific elements that the cartographer usually uses to reach whichever goal he has cannot function for Zion –-> sience is not always helpful, doesn’t always bring the solution 

In Praise of Maps 

“hymn then a song in praise of maps”: the symbol of sciences and the western rationalization of land is praised in an artistic form, music, a song --> arts and sciences don’t always contradict and oppose each other, but complement one another 

 

 

FORM  

 

“I&I overstand” deliberate corruption of syntaxe- Rastafarian lyanic revolutionary act to western people?  

 

 

SENSORY ELEMENTS 

 

·       “spread of guiding galaxies” poem viii: vestibular sense --> balance and gravity 

·       “our world was neither here         nor there” in the Shrug of Jah : sense of proprioception (position in space) since Miller is portraying the “here” in one side and “there” on the other side. 

·       Taste: “unsalted stew” and “unsugared” in poem Unsettled 

·       Vision and smell: “orchids and labrishing hibiscuses” 

·       Synesthesian experience of the reader: linking various senses together 

·       Sense of hearing: musicality in poems, rhythm, in Establishing the metre “foot by weary foot they found a rhythm” (alliteration) 

 

 

OWNERSHIP 

 

·       Proprioceptism :“draw me a map of what you see and I'll draw you a map of what you never see.. Guess whose map will be bigger than whose? 

·       Shotover posh area in Jamaica VS Chateau Vert: “you will discover that when victims live long enough they have their say in history”/ “Green and Fresh” can’t go with decay and colonized--> doomsday book 1086 in England near Oxford--> these elements were usually looked upon and now KM through taking the time to writing about these things he adds value to them and empowers them for the whole world to see--> connection with Angelaki Rooke: Polio Desease--> shorlisted for nobel prize: known for empowering her flaws --> indentured slaves: independent from their master--> contract 

·       X: “in which the cartographer asks for directions: determination and balance showcased through the long lines which put forward the dominance of the Rastaman-his knowledge of his own land. 

·       “Establishing the metre” hasn’t been established yet” standard measurements”, “foot by weary foot” “metre”--> puts forward an ownership of language. Language is knowledge--> μετρο from greek -Convention- standarization Greek “ “pilgrimage” and foot by weary foot they found a rhythm the measure that exists in everything”.  

 

 

 SOME MORE THEMES AND IMPORTANT TERMS

 

-        Social hierarchies 

-       Heartbless

-        Upfullness 

-       Liminal voice 

-        Work ethic 

-        Love   

-        Inner self vs reality 

 

1. Critique 

 

“The Cartographer tries to map a way to Zion” is by far one of the best anthologies I have ever read. Each poem is so unique and teaches you so much about Jamaican and English culture that the anthology because a real page-turner. I find that the poems can be read by all age groups and the meaning will change and deepen with every lecture. Many themes that are tackled throughout the anthology such as boundaries, direction, religion and other, seem mundane, however, Miller’s approach using the rastaman and the cartographer allow the reader to explore them using a different and rare point of view. I also find that the words used by the poet find a way to draw imagery in the reader’s head and thus he can picture the cartographer, the rastaman, and everything around them. Moreover, the different references seem unknown to a stranger of Caribbean culture and the search for their meaning resemble a true treasure hunt. I would absolutely recommend this anthology to any literature lover or just someone who’s hobby and pastime is reading as they will not only enjoy the story of the two characters but will at the same time learn so much about cultures and different stories, they do not hear every day.