It's only when you look really closely at the family cartological heirlooms, the yellowing atlases from the early 20th century, that the changes startle. Many of the outlines are familiar (plate tectonics and continental outlines metamorphosing at a dawdle by comparison) but closer scrutiny of the borders takes you into alien territory. It's as if a giant eraser has been applied to scrub out the (deceptively brittle) barrier lines (colonial remnants from the bad old days) and left spaces for refreshed a la mode versions. Yet, there are still borders each, somehow, epitomising territory, geographical, philosophical, each making a statement of both adherence to tradition and, each to an extent, introverted.
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