Crossroads Metaphor
The Map of the Crossroads is a metaphor. More generally, "the metaphor of the map does not prefer any one metonymic system. Rather, it enables the reader to construct a large number of such systems, even when ... these constructions have not been foreseen by the text's designer" (Moulthrop, 1991, p. 129). The point is not really about how selected terms and concepts might be interpreted. Instead, the plotted points enact a choral writing strategy that illustrates the possibilities of electracy.
The choral writing strategy, as illustrated by both the map and this webtext, serve as a model as well as an invitation to create like-minded crossroad maps. This pedagogical possibility is both specific and general. It provides a specific assignment that can be recreated in the composition classroom, and it also provides a general course in electracy.
Visiting the Crossroads
Contemporary legend has it that Robert Johnson's crossroads are located at the intersection of Highways 61/49 in Clarksdale, MS or at the intersection of Highways 8/1 in Rosedale, MS. The debate over the exact location of the crossroads is riddled with great complexity and competing stories, but what is important in this context is that it remains a staple of rock and roll folklore. It spans the length of blues and rock from Howlin Wolf's Highway 49, Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, Eric Clapton's Crossroads, and is portrayed in popular movies such as "Crossroads" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou." While there are surely other examples, the cultural pervasiveness of this myth is indisputable.
The Map of the Crossroads was created from my own personal experience after living for a brief period of time in the Mississippi Delta, and specifically after taking a blues "pilgrimage" to these two crossroads. What prompted the creation of the map was a moment of "punctum," which Roland Barthes defines as what "pierces the viewer" (Barthes, 1981, p. 3), usually in response to an image. This personal sting resulted from an overwhelming discrepancy between the two images of Clarksdale and Rosedale.
Clarksdale is clearly marked as a crossroads. The pictures on this page show two guitars crossed at the intersection of Highway 61/49. Just as well, there is a blues museum and everything from convenience stores to barbecue joints benefiting from the city's reigning title as the home of the crossroads.
Rosedale remains completely unmarked as a crossroads. The pictures on the next page show an absence of any historical marker. It took considerable effort to even find the supposed site of the crossroads. In fact, I only learned about Rosedale through word of mouth, but online searches reveal the long-standing debate about the exact site of Johnson's crossroads.
The point of conjuring this physical crossroads and its accompanying mythology into the Map of the Crossroads is to suggest the power of this legend and its ability to be reborn in different cultures, different times, and in different contexts. While the physical landscape may look the same—similar to the way the Google Map is relatively unchanging—the thoughts and memories that people attach to these places is ever-changing. It is not the landscape itself that brings meaning to a place, but rather the thoughts and memories of the people. My intention is that this exercise could serve to record punctum; the Map of the Crossroads is like leaving a rhetorical imprint that can be shared and discussed without manipulating the physical landscape itself. If done in a classroom setting, this exercise could help students engage place and memory beyond the constraints of print literacy.
GO TO THE RHETORICAL CROSSROADS
