Author Rebecca D’Harlingue talks with her character Anneke van Brug from The Map Colorist.

Rebecca: Hello, Anneke, I feel that I know you quite well, but there are a few questions that readers have asked me, and I thought it would be helpful to get your take on them.

Anneke: I will answer the best I can, but are you not my creator? Can you not thus divine everything about me?

Rebecca: Perhaps, but you may know that many authors feel that their characters come to have a life of their own, and that we just write down what our characters tell us to. I’m not sure I would quite say that. Nevertheless, writing a fictional character is not as precise as, say, creating a map.

Anneke:  Still, there are parts of a map in which cartographers also invent, such as placing real or imagined animals in areas about which we have no real information.

Rebecca:  True, but for your map you did have specific notes from which to work. That, in fact, brings me to my first question. How did you come to the decision to use your father’s notes, even though they were not written in his hand?

Anneke: I believe that you supplied me with some reasons. Did I not speculate that perhaps my father had hurt his hand, and thus dictated his notes to someone who wrote them down for him?

Rebecca: Yes, but did you really believe that?

Anneke:  I was looking for anything to justify my use of the notes. Perhaps in my heart of hearts I knew they were not my father’s, but have you never convinced yourself of something because that belief would allow you to do something you ardently wished to do?

Rebecca:  Well….

Anneke: Besides, I loved my father very much, and I couldn’t really accept that he had deceived us about his notes for all those years. He said that he wished a map could be created, and I did that. It was for him, but also for me. How could I work on coloring maps for all those years and not desire to bring about a new map, a map which would add to men’s knowledge?

Rebecca: I understand how that could become an overwhelming ambition.

Another thing that people ask about is your relationship with Daniel. I admit that I did not spend as much time on that as I might have. But, you did love him, didn’t you?

Anneke: Yes, though for a time I was distracted by de Groot and by my map, but as you know, I was attracted to Daniel from the first. My love for him grew as I got to know him better and came to understand the depth of his love for me, and his goodness. He is the best person that I have ever known, and for that I will always love him.

I have a question for you now if I may.

Rebecca:  Yes?

Anneke: In what year did you create me?

Rebecca:  You came into being during the years 2021 and 2022.

Anneke:  So far in the future! How are things for women in your time? Are they better? Can women be cartographers?

Rebecca:  The position of women in general is much improved since your time, though even in my society there are still inequalities. In some places there are severe restrictions on women.

In answer to your second question, the answer is “yes.” There are women cartographers, and there have even been famous women in that field. You would not recognize the way that maps are made now, nor even understand if I tried to explain to you, just as there are many things from your time that I will never understand.

I must say good-bye now, Anneke, and thank you!

Anneke:  It is I who thank you. Who among us is granted such a chance with our creator?

 

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