ENGL 7453: Modernism In/And the Archive

Benjamin’s writing, ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ explains how the concept of art has changed along with modernity. Originally, artifacts were made by man, but as technology has developed, the way of producing artifacts has changed. Printing, and photography were such examples of technology that made and copied artifacts in a massive and instant way. For this reason, the authenticity within artwork has lost its meaning, because the process of reproduction became independent on manual reproduction, and we can access to artifacts whenever we want, regardless of the existence of original. From this, he explains that the ‘aura’ of artifacts loses its influence on the artwork, because artifacts made independent on traditional sphere, and people can easily appreciate artistic works based on their own particular situation. Because of that, masses can easily access to art, overcoming uniqueness of the art work, and the concept of pure art (art for art sake) can be contradicted. The social implication of art would become more important in the age of mechanical reproduction. We are living in a society of mass culture, and reproduced cultural stuffs can be easily accessible to anyone else. In our daily life, we can appreciate art easily, and this could be possible due to technological development. Benjamin’s analysis on the relation of art and our lives seems convincing.

Jorge Louis Borges’ writing, ‘The Library of Babel’ describes a library which contains all kinds of knowledge with every languages and its knowledge is infinite. He also says that as the library has all kinds of knowledge, human would lose their certainty and even feel themselves as phantasmal. The desire of accumulating knowledge has been started for a long time. In the age of enlightenment, people tried to record all kinds of knowledge through dictionaries and encyclopedia, and they tried to build library of Babel suggested in the story. What Borges seems to suggest is that at his age, as the knowledge made by human has become so overpowering that human cannot resistant against it. This overwhelming influence of artifacts on reality has been discussed by critics like Baudrillard, but we can also think in different way in terms of knowledge. Although knowledge exists out there, still human has their own knowledge within themselves in their particular way, and this would not necessarily need material, or external medium outside from human subject. Characters who can remember without helps from the library depicted in drama Sherlock reminds me of such counter example of Borges’ human in the library.

It feels great to be positive about a reading again. I rather like and agree with most of Benjamin's assertions about mechanical reproductions of art and the inability to capture the original piece's sense of uniqueness and singular existence in time and space. There is a vast difference between looking at a copy of transition, for example, in PDF form and acutally holding the real thing during our photography sessions for the MJP. This poses some interesting questions regarding the notion of digital archiving of not just literary works, but all forms of art. Are we actually preserving the art, or just creating a simulacrum of it that lacks what inherently makes art itself special? I don't think Benjamin is necessarily saying that the loss of the aura is a bad thing, but one cannot deny he has a point.

Benjamin also initially uses film as an launching point for the conversation. However, in the case of film in particular, I wonder if there isn't a chance for the aura to still exist. In an episode of a podcast called Lore Reasons, Waypoint's Editor-in-Chief Austin Walker posits the idea that public exhibition of film, despite all films being theatrically screened are reproductions of an original reel (which itself was editied together making it a reproduction as well), potentially creates the sense of uniqueness and place that Benjamin attributes to the aura. I wonder how valid this assertion is, and if we can see any avenue for this sort of preservation with literary works (most of which are reproductions themselves, if mass produced).

"The Library of Babel" is probably one of the most unique reading experiences that I've had - I feel like a need to read through it a couple more times and sit on it a bit before I can start unpacking it. Regarding the Walter Benjamin piece, I quite enjoyed his discussion regarding the relationship between 'aura' and ritual. Yet, for me, it's a bit difficult to think about 'aura' and authenticity in regards to literature, film, and video games, mediums to which I have only been exposed in the conext of contemporary mass production. Although first editions, director's cuts, and factory sealed video game cartridges can fetch a pretty penny (an unopened rare copy of Super Mario Bros for the NES sold at an auction this year for over $100,000), it would seem odd nowadays to judge a work of literature based on the copy you own - we even have an idiom that speaks to this point. Is this an indication, more than 80 years after Walter Benjamin's piece, of a larger societal disregard of ritual? Or, rather, should we look at 'aura' regarding literature more in terms of the physical vs. the digital? Is the 'aura' of art based in the ritual of "owning" a copy of a book, a film, or a video game? Can one even experience the 'aura' of a piece of art that was designed specifically for mass production? 

This is a basic guesstimate of the track our protagonist in "Araby" would have taken in order to get to the bazaar. This exercise really helped me understand just how hard mapping stories from a decent amount of time in the past is. This is probably easier than most stories from the early 1900's, since there are a few street/place names that remain the same. But what of stories from the mid-1800's, where names can't be assured?

The red is walking; the blue is public transport. Wow, this kid traveled far.

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Franco Moretti’s writing on map allows us to understand literary works in terms of visual aspect, and this seems to make us to rethink about the narrative and structure of the literary works in a different way. He explains that the structure of Mary Mitford’s Our Village shows circular pattern of the narrative by making connections between components of the work and geographic places. Moretti asserts that this visualization can be possible only through examining the components of literary works through mapping and the ‘mentalite’ of literature can be found from the examination of activities in the literary work. For this reason, he says that the ideology of literature can be found in the map of the works. He also explains that reducing text into a map does not just mean that it makes the text as a part of the map. Rather, by doing this, he says that we can find some relations within components and this can extend the concept of geography to geometry. He gives an example of Atlas of European Novel and examines how the characters in the novel are situated in different places and how the relationship can be found from this geographic analysis and he says that this relation can be analyzed in a geometric way. He also adds that such literary interpretation of using map not only shows us meaning extensively, but also the intrinsic characteristic of the components. His analysis of literature in terms of geographic analysis seems convincing as it deals with the structure of literature in a more dynamic and refreshing way. If we read literature only with close reading, we would not be able to conceptualize such way of examining plot structure. Because of that, such way of reading would be necessary for future studies.

So, I honestly felt like I was either being pranked or was just missing something crucial while reading this chapter. Like both Caleb and Beth stated, the idea that mapping lliterature shows recentering of villages and rural life around commerce as the Industrial Revolution progressed seems... obvious? Moretti seems to be getting excited about the concept of urban planning, which he dedicates figure 17 to showing. And while this is a basic assertion, I was not really upset at this reading until Moretti's assertion that no one had seen this trend before he put it on a map (53). First, making absoulte statements like this feels like he's asking to be proven wrong, and second, saying that mapping is REQUIRED to see these patterns is a little condescending towards the practice of close reading. Am I supposed to believe that these conclusions are unreachable without the use of maps? I remain completely unconvinced by the necessity of mapping in terms of literary analysis. Hopefully class today can change that for the better, because Moretti hasn't done a great job so far.

Like Caleb, I found this chapter a little less illuminating and more basic. Moretti discusses what makes can do and how, like networks, they help reveal hidden connections that might be missed if the object of interest was not reduced. One of the things I found useful is Moretti's detailing of maps as flexible tools for analysis; there are a lot of methods for mapping, not just geographically, and Moretti notes that maps can be used to "prepare" works for analysis. I found this interesting as he seems to be entering into another form of reduction, similar to networks. His work with geographical mapping reminded me of our earlier lab with Voyant labs and watching us trace the historical data of the issues across each place-name that cropped up. This chapter particularly interested me since I share a love of geography and a fascination with maps... I cannot wait to analyze Dubliners and I wonder if this could fit into my final project somehow.

It was only a matter of time before Moretti's writing style started grating on me. 

I'm going to be quite honest when I say that I'm not sure what Moretti's reasons were for writing this chapter. It seems to be some rather basic level stuff: with maps, we can abstract information from literature and visualize it, placing characters, places, etc. in relation to each other in the process. Also, maps are different than graphs, and the shapes of genres change with time. Maybe I'm missing something, but I just really couldn't see what type of new information Moretti was trying to present here. 

I am really looking forward to mapping out some stories from Dubliners though. 

(I am posting this even though it is late because I had it written and was delayed!)

I feel like I've kind of flip-flopped since last week, and now I'm apparently on the opposite side of the debate!  After deciding that Ramsey's methods are at the very least interesting and perhaps quite useful, I've gone somewhere from "so what?" to an area much closer to "why not?" when consider the purpose of DH investigation.  Have pinpointed my irritation as somewhere close to "let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater", I'm willing to admit that, just so long as everything that's come before isn't being devalued (as Jockers kind of did), DH explorations of data could probably provide additional illumination to the study of literature.  This, of course, doesn't negate what is probably my main issue with technology, which is simply that it eliminates the physical book, and the feel, smell, etc. that go along with this.  Are text mining and Moretti's network theory warm and comforting?  Not really.  Could they be useful in research?  Perhaps.

This is probably why I was willing to give Moretti's discussion of network theory a bit of leeway, even considering the apparent issues many of you were finding.  Or maybe I just find the blending of Shakespeare with a digital humanities approach rather charming. In any case, I found some of Moretti's thoughts quite useful, and I especially found that, rather unlike Jockers, his analysis seems to toe the line between close and distance reading quite well--examining both the what happens from just what it means that Horatio's absence can throw the play into chaos.

One thing I do wonder, at times, when we begin to read Shakespeare so very closely, or, I suppose, broadly, when "The past becomes past, yes, but it never disappears from our perception of the plot" (4), is if we're not in some way reaching too far, reducing too much.  When we've so far surpassed what the average viewer of the play could possibly have been expected to understand, and surely whose comprehension of the play its success depended upon, does our analysis actually amount to much?

I really hate Moretti's tone, in general, but I admit I liked reading this piece. I think his aims don't quite reach his results, but I think through his engagement with network systems and his emphasis on visualization, he effectively communicates the benefits of graphing networks. I particularly enjoyed his engagement with network theory, particularly that "making the past just as visible as the present: that is one major change introduced by the use of networks. Then, they make visible specific “regions” within the plot as a whole: subsystems, that share some significant property." I didn't quite understand the depth of these subsystems until he started discussing Horatio's relationship to structure. 

I thought about how this might apply to my own project, how "networks are made of vertices and edges; plot networks, of characters and verbal exchanges. In plays this works well, because words are deeds, deeds are almost always words, and so, basically, a network of speech acts is a network of actions." I'm working with Stoker's correspondences and I am in fact reducing each letter to its sender. I've struggled with the idea of such a reduction. Am I losing too much? Will I be reducing the field too narrowly? Will the Network itself just be enough? But Moretti has helped me through here with his discussion of the Chinese Guanxi where "nothing major happens here: people talk, walk around, play go, gossip... No interaction is crucial in itself. But taken together, they perform an essential reconnaissance function: they make sure that the nodes in this region are still communicating: because, with hundreds of characters, the disaggregation of the network is always a possibility." And that quote, I think, is incredibly important to my work. By the very fact that a network exists, it suggests interaction.

A network can reveal and highlight new patterns. As Moretti states, "you make a network of a play, you stop working on the play proper, and work on a model instead: you reduce the text to characters and interactions, abstract them from everything else, and this process of reduction and abstraction makes the model obviously much less than the original object." I'm moving into creating a model of Stoker's correspondences to visualize the network he was in. I think I was incredibly nervous about the implications of such a reduction and subsequent visualization, but I feel a little more at ease now.

Last week, we could find that Matthew L. Jockers explains about the difference between close reading and distant reading by making comparison of relationship between microeconomics and macroeconomics. According to him, close reading is similar to microeconomics because as microeconomics deals with individual market and individual person’s preference for the commodity, close reading tries to examine the individual text, and infer its significance from the text. On the other hand, in case of distant reading, like macroeconomics which is number driven learning, it deals with the issue of literary text in terms of numerical based data. We can find such comparison from Franco Moretti’s writing, “Literary Lab” and how such idea of close reading and distant reading can operate in Moretti’s thought.

The drawback of distant reading which uses numerical data is, as Moretti confesses, that it cannot deliver the weight of the dialogue. Although his idea of networking between characters can draw the relationship between each character, it cannot show us the aesthetics or social meaning from the line that has been uttered in the characters. For example, this distant reading cannot deliver the vivid imagery of morning given by Horatio’s speech in Elsinore or character’s mental complexity in soliloquies. In addition, according to him, his study can reveal the power distribution in the character, because all of the characters cannot be considered in general same, from his study. However, this might neglect the implication of diverse characters who do not show up often. In case of gravedigger, his significance cannot be found in his graphic line, but as we read his speech, we can find interesting point that this ordinary person can outweigh the main characters in his wit and this shows disruption of hierarchy of knowledge in that era. For this reason, Moretti’s way of reading may miss out some important scene in the play.

Of course, we can find some meaningful thought from his study. His study can easily visualize us how to conceptualize the structure of characters’ relationship. For example, his examination between the people of Hamlet, and the people of Claudius makes us convince how the plot goes on with these characters. His emphasis on Horatio’s role is also interesting, as he explains that his status shows us well the fact how the court is surrounded by characters from different countries and examined by them through Horatio. He also does not dismiss the importance of close reading by focusing on Horatio’s role. From Horatio’s line, he briefly explains that he operates as a person in the court who does not behave like people in the court, but like a figure of the state who does not elaborate his speech. Such reading style of speech can be possible, only because he used close reading.

I am having a hard time mustering up any strong feelings about Moretti's concept of network theory in either a positive or negative manner. On one hand, I think creating a network of the character relationships or whatever elements is a rather nifty notion. I can see it being extremely intersesting and useful, and Moretti's methodology seems to be egalitarian, giving each word the exact same value and weight as every other (3). However, I also share a lot of Steven's frustrations, as none of the conlcusions that Moretti comes to are particularly earthshattering. Yeah, removing some characters from Hamlet raises questions about the dyanmics between characters and why it is that some people are more central than others despite being secondary characters in terms of plot. But, as Steven said so well, this isn't really new?

I think these network maps are super cool, and could definitely prove useful. But I'm just not sold on the necessity of it all.

I kinda liked this reading. I also kinda didn't like this reading. (Good start to this post, right?) 

Look, I spent a decent amount of energy last class harping on Jockers, and a decent chunk (can you use chunk in academic writing?) of what I didn't like about Jockers is also what I don't like about Moretti, namely that they both get so far ahead of themselves in their arguments. (Steven pointed out several instances of this in his post.) Can one, as Moretti claims, say "nothing about Shakespeare’s words – but also, in another sense, much more than it..." (4). Can or should a protagonist really be considered "non-anthropomorphic" (11)? What is the benefit of seeing "different genres... as different shapes" (10)? I understand and even appreciate the enthusiasm, but there is a fine line between ambition/excitement and pedantry. Sometimes Moretti and Jockers toe that line; sometimes they cross it (ahem, "layman"). 

On the other hand, there were various aspects of this essay that I really enjoyed. I think that the network graphs and histograms are enlightening to say the least, and the article offered some much needed inspiration. Imagine creating a network graph of a novel like Catch-22. It would be fasinating to see the shapes that arise from an exercise like that. I also found Moretti's discussions of clustering, symmetry/assymetry, and the cultural import of network graphing through the concept of guanxi to be interesting as well.

However, I still find there to be some traces of interpretation devaluing here that rubs me the wrong way. "This is not a long term solution, of course," Moretti writes, "but these are small networks, where intuition can still play a role; they’re like the childhood of network theory for literature; a brief happiness, before the stern adulthood of statistics" (3). I don't know about you, but I've kinda wanted to avoid that "stern adulthood of statistics" - in fact, that's part of the reason why I chose to study literature in the first place. If one is completely honest about their process, I see no reason why intuition or interpretation shouldn't be a valid and honored part of literary studies.