Reader's Digest: April 26, 2025

There’s an informative, well-written piece by Zoe Guttenplan, on the NYRB website, about the New York City subway map. As the saying goes: if this is the sort of thing that interests you, this will be the sort of thing you’re interested in.

Guttenplan’s essay revolves around a public debate between Massimo Vignelli and John Tauranac, held in Cooper Union’s Great Hall, April 1978. Vignelli stood for schematism:

When it debuted in 1972, his subway diagram (it is, technically, too abstract to be a map) met with almost immediate controversy. He had taken geographical liberties—the landmasses are perfectly rectilinear; Manhattan is far too wide—and New Yorkers weren’t happy.

Tauranac made a case for geographical fidelity. He “criticized the lack of street names and other aboveground information on Vignelli’s diagram”:

“Form follows fiasco,” he said at the Cooper Union debate. “You can’t take a subway unless you can find the subway station.”

Which is both manifestly true and utterly misleading.…