...felt so technologically inept as I do now while trying to navigate all these fun new tools (*cough, Gephi) I never knew existed, so I might as well blast all my shame here for everyone to see. Once upon a time I might have rated myself as technologically proficient (although even that seems like a stretch now), but I have permanently disabused myself of any notions of ever being 'tech-savvy.' I used to laugh when my Dad struggled with basic computer usage because I didn't get how hard it was for him to navigate unfamiliar territory, but I'm sure not laughing now (sorry Dad!).
To add insult to injury, that blank space ↑ is where the picture of my Gephi Little Review is supposed to appear; apparently I don't even know how to share an image of how much I don't know how to use Gephi. (I uploaded it to Shutterfly & copied the link because I don't know how else to get an image url.)
I have muddled my way through Gephi as much as possible, but I honestly have no earthly idea what I'm doing and nothing really means much. I can't tell if there's anything missing, or how the nodes really relate to each other through the edges; because of this, I can't offer an educated opinion on the genre and topic connections. I thought the Fruchterman Reingold layout was more aesthetically pleasing than the Yifan Hu layout, but I didn't really glean anything different from one or the other. Despite this, though, I think Gephi is a veritable treasure trove of potential for literary analysis of all kinds; the samples show how well it works with Les Mis and it would be really fun to see Moretti run his Hamlet analysis through Gephi. I get the idea even if I don't actually get it.