Greenland.

Setting aside Tender Is The Night for a moment, I just went for a little stroll through the mega-bookstore and there is a guy over there signing books, like an author. As I walked past, I noticed his book is one of those larger-than-life coffee-table photography books, and his is called _________. [deliberately deleted title]. The front cover is gorgeous.... I kept walking, then I froze with a question I have wondered for YEARS.... maybe a decade.... and so I turned around and went back to him.
I said... “Excuse me, but is it true that South America is something like nine times larger, land-mass-wise, than Greenland? Like I mean.... on flat maps of the world, Greenland is so huge-normous, it is actually spatially presented as being considerably bigger than South America.... yet it is NOT. It is much smaller. Is this true?”
And.... for the life of me..... he does not really know.
And I said “But, I assume you have lived there? In Greenland like?”
“Yes, I lived there for eight years, and have been back there about eighteen times since, mostly to photograph the images for this book. But I am not sure about what you are saying, perhaps flat maps are not drawn to scale?”
I was sort of boggled, I must say.
I mean, yes, flat maps are not drawn to scale, I know that.... but sheesh.... I mean, this fact about the presentation of Greenland on flat maps is not sort of miniscule. I mean.... it is presented as if it is half the dang size of the whole Northern hemisphere! And this guy has LIVED THERE and he does not know this? I don’t understand. It is the kind of “factoid” that if I were ever Greenlandian.... even for one day.... I would know this. I would.