Abstract
Topoi/Graphein represents a summary of the thoughts and work of the Swedish independent scholar Christian Abrahamsson and is based upon the identically titled Swedish PhD thesis he defended at Uppsala University in 2008. The book is composed of three parts, each holding five chapters. Each part sketches a particular time and place (topos) through a movie and then offers the author’s interpretation thereof (graphein). The first part offers a take on the world through the fixed Euclidian geometric markers which allow us to take space for granted and co-ordinate thoughts and actions. The French movie Code inconnu/Crossroads (2000) provides insights into these processes through the enactment of everyday identity politics. These are meant to demonstrate the nuances of decisions that form different relations between seemingly fixed points. The second part focuses on the relations themselves, particularly how emerging power geometries stabilize and spawn new spaces and places. Peter Brook’s movie The Lord of the Flies forms the backdrop for these ruminations. Similar to the first part, large portions of the section are devoted to transcripts of particular scenes used to expound how, in this case, fluctuating relations settle in a space void of fixed points of reference for the stranded group of boys on the deserted island. The last part of the book is devoted to eventuality itself, that is, the singular moment through which relations and fixed points can potentially emerge. Francis Ford Coppola’s classic movie Apocalypse Now is here being used, in order to bring us to this limit zone of gestation, or where the realisation of space as void of meaning and navigable co-ordinates occurs.
Through this three-part tracing of liminality, the book proceeds according to its stated aims, namely, ‘to map the paradoxical limit of the in-between’ (p. xxiv). By the nature of its logic, it does not offer clear cut guidance on how to navigate or reach conclusions using the ‘maps’ produced. Rather, the book is an event in itself, one that needs to be read through the oscillating paradoxes thrown up by the author. Following the author through his undulating lines of flight can at times be frustrating, and I feel that he tries too much in this relatively short book. Yet, the theories presented and references used will be familiar to those versed in post-structural thinking within geography. The author relies on the classics, so to speak, and makes little effort to link his endeavours with current methodological and theoretical explorations in cultural geography of similar ilk. In that sense, the book leaves a lot to be desired for the advancement of post-structural cultural geographies. At the same time though, if one is sympathetic to the endeavours of the author, then you will probably find this to be a creative and thought provoking read, providing illuminating for those wanting to delve into the ambivalences of void spaces.
