#distantreading

The advent of Web 2.0 has allowed for a much more considered and categorised means of collecting data. As a result of the surfeit of information produced by our cyber footprint, a newly developed concept known as ‘big data’ has emerged. Big data is the development of information formulated from digital and electrical footprints. Almost everything one does on the internet, from posting a status on Facebook, to searching through Google or making an online transaction, is monitored to produce mass predictions. “And so a veritable Big Bang has set off, delivering an epic sea of raw materials, a plethora of examples so great in number, only a computer could manage to learn from them.” (Siegel 2013, 3)

Siegel (2013, 4) describes the raw data as malarkey; it is only after processing that the real benefits of the data emerge. These predictions have infiltrated every facet of our lives. The analysis of big data can predict the success of a certain political leader or party; it can predict energy demand in particular areas; it can also predict student essay grades, crime hotspots and general estimates regarding health, wealth and human behaviour (Siegel 2013, 5-9). However, these predictions are not 100% accurate but produce indicators that are far reaching and influential. 

Similar to business predictions based on big data, academics and university students are using the abundance of information gathered to assist in research. As Don Tapscott (The Economist 2012) stated, “this is not an information age, it is an age of networked intelligence and one of collaboration.” An interesting repercussion of big data is the development of ‘distant reading’ and as Tapscott alluded to, it is indeed an intelligent form of collaboration.

“Distant reading identifies what something says without actually reading it,” and is the practice of using programming analysis of big data to pinpoint useful information on a subject, in an age where there is an over-abundance of knowledge (PHD Comics 2013). Franco Moretti, Italian literary scholar and founder of the Stanford Literary Lab, hypothesises that in order to accurately understand literature in a digital age we must stop reading books (Schulz 2011). In a test of distant reading, Moretti placed 30 novels of specific genres into two different computer systems. Through big data analysis, he then tested six separate works of literature in an attempt to pinpoint their genres. Both programs succeeded and interestingly utilised methods dissimilar to that of a person to identify the genres. Instead of human focus on landscapes and atmosphere, the computer system identified the genre through repetition of specific words. “[Big Data] suggests that genres ‘possess distinctive features at every possible scale of analysis.’ More importantly for the Lit Lab, it suggests that there are formal aspects of literature that people, unaided, cannot detect.” (Schulz 2011)

Big data has revolutionized the way we approach learning and qualitative analysis of data. The result of big data analysis has insinuated itself into the day-to-day development and operation of society. The concept of big data is in a constant state of flux and distant reading is but one offset of this new and highly informative area of digital evolution.

Further Reading:

Big Data + Distant Reading in relation to Art: http://5702x.graeworks.net/?p=437 

 References

Harrington, Stephen. 2013. “Ch 18 Tweeting about the Telly: Live TV, Audiences, and Social Media.” In Twitter and Society edited by Katrin Weller, Axel Bruns, Jean Burgess, Merja Mahrt & Cornelius Puschmann, 237-248. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

PHD Comics. 2013. “Big Data + Old History.” Youtube video, posted on September 6. Accessed May 8, 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tp4y-_VoXdA

  Schulz, Kathryn. 2011. “The Mechanic Muse: What is Distant Reading?” The New York Times, June 24. Accessed May 8, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/books/review/the-mechanic-muse-what-is-distant-reading.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

  Siegel, Eric. 2013. “Introduction – The Prediction Effect.” In Predictive Analytics, edited by Eric Siegel,1-16. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons Inc.

I completed my study in distant reading on Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.  Before I began the word analysis, I read a brief description of the novel so that I would have some elementary knowledge of its framework.  The book is about an engineer from Connecticut who is accidentally transported back in time to the era of King Arthur; the engineer, thought to be a magician, uses modern technology to fool the people from that time period into thinking he is a magician (wiki).  Knowing a little about the plot, and even reading the title, prepared me to expect certain words in my findings.  So, it was no surprise that the second most common word in the entire novel—sir—is used three hundred fifty-three times.  Not far behind are words like king and knight(s).  The most commonly used word (apart from stop words) is said.  This is a word I would expect to be common, but not the most common.  Significant finding number one: because said is used four hundred times, I can only assume that this novel is significantly heavy with dialogue. 

            Another one of the top five most common words in Twain’s novel is time.  It is used three hundred-nine times.  At first, this did not seem particularly significant since the book is about a man who goes back in time.  No matter how general the word, though, some significance lies in the use of that word in over three hundred instances.  I wanted to know more about how time is used in the novel.  Is Twain referring mostly to specific time—in measurements of seconds, minutes, and hours?  Is Twain referring mostly to a more general time—in terms of an “era” or “period”?  In order to find out more about the use of time, I searched for related terms: year(s), month(s), day(s), night(s), young, old, new, etc. First, I will note that time is used three hundred-nine times; times is used thirty-nine times.  “Times” has a different connotation than “time.”  Specifically, “times” bears the implication of a broad scope of time and is not typically associated with units of measurement (such as seconds, minutes, etc.). Rather, it is usually conceptually synonymous with terms like “zeitgeist” (the spirit of an age).  There is a big difference between “What time is it?” and “The times, they are a’changin’.”  Because times is used significantly less than time, I figured most of the references to time in the novel are specific and measured.  Sure enough, century occurs thirty times; year(s) is used one hundred twenty times; month(s)—23; day(s)—205; night(s)—69; minute(s)—45.  Significant finding number two: The book is very concerned with specific measurements of time.

A book that has always intrigued me but that I have unfortunately never read is Dante’s The Divine Comedy.  Since I have not yet satiated my curiosity to explore the poem as most English majors would—by opening up the covers of the book--I have followed the steps of how not to read a novel in order to make generalizations about a text I actually know very little about. In so doing, I can present a visual analysis but not a literary understanding; for my knowledge of the text does not expand beyond my understanding of how many times it uses specific words.

According to my word cloud, the most frequently used word in the novel is “thou.” This in and of itself is not very interesting, but it does place the novel within a very specific time period. Although I did not know exactly when Dante was alive and writing, I was able to deduce from his heavy use of the words “thou,” (772) “thee,” (423) and “thy” that he wrote during the medieval ages.  Upon further research I learned that Dante Alighieri was an Italian poet writing during the 14th century, which confirms my assumption of the text’s context. Although such trivial words such as “thou” and “thee” may have seemed irrelevant during the 14th century, I find it interesting that they were not removed by Wordle among other “common English words.” This is demonstrative of the tremendous transformation of the English language from formal and reverent to informal and colloquial as the centuries have gone by.

Among the more interesting words that I discovered were frequently used were words referring to light. The word “light” itself is used 155 times, and “sun” is used 91 times. My minimal knowledge of Dante’s epic poem informs me that the first two parts of it recount the journey through Hell and Purgatory, therefore it is interesting that his text refers more frequently to light than it does to dark. In fact, the word “dark” does not even show up on the word cloud. Perhaps this reflects Dante’s own confidence in the light waiting at the end of one’s life; while hell and purgatory may be real places to him, they do not have as much control over the soul as heaven does—which is where the light is.

I found it surprising that the word “God” only appears 103 times since The Divine Comedy, by my understanding, deals heavily with religion and theology. Again, though, it is important that words such as “Satan” or “devil” do not appear in the word cloud, which again reveals Dante’s assurance that God, good, and light ultimately conquers evil and the devil, which he will not mention by name. The word “love” frequents the poem 148 times—even more than “God” and almost as much as “light,” which causes someone such as myself who has never read the poem to consider Dante to be somewhat of a sentimentalist. Surely enough, my assumptions seemed to be confirmed when I looked into the background of the poem. I noticed the word “Beatrice” showed up in my word cloud, and upon further investigation I learned that Beatrice was a woman who Dante loved by did not marry, and who suddenly and mysteriously died. The fact that she found immortalization in an epic text alongside the common use of “love” reflects Dante’s inner passion towards a woman he could never have.

Finally, I am intrigued by how many times words such as “eyes” (182), “see” (102), “sight,” “seen,” and “look” seem to appear in the poem. This project has been all about visual analysis, and even in the 14th century authors were registering how important sight and seeing was for understanding. To completely journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven requires visual attention; this is how one gets through the darkness back into the light. Navigating through the digital realm often times feels like trudging my way through purgatory and Hell, but the visual cues that take me from one place to the next eventually lead me to the light of Heaven as I understand the register of sight that a machine has created in order to get me to my desired technical destination.

For this distant reading project, I chose Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass, which was published in 1871.  The only prior knowledge that I had of this book is that it can be considered a sequel to Alice in Wonderland and that it is linked to children with disabilities.  My prior knowledge of the text allowed me to understand some of the word choices found in the novel. 

            Since I knew that the novel was about Alice from Alice in Wonderland, I was not surprised when Voyant calculated that “Alice” is used 434 times in the texts.  Some other words like “tweedledee” and “tweedledum” did not surprise me, either.  If this had been a text that I knew was not about Alice, I would definitely question those words’ place in the text. 

            The title of the novel is Through the Looking-Glass.  I decided to see how many times that “looking-glass” is used in the text.  The term is used 20 times throughout the text.  Some similar words were used less often than “looking-glass.” “Glass” was used 7 times and “glasses” was used 3 times.  I wanted to draw a conclusion about what the “looking-glass” referred to.  Because of the title stating Through the Looking-Glass, I thought that the term might be used for a window.  I used the word frequency search in Voyant to find that “window” was used on 6 times and “window-panes” was used once.  The frequencies of those words are not high compared to other words used in the text.  However, I allowed a “window” to suffice as a synonym for “looking-glass.” 

            I wanted to make sure that I tried every synonym that I could think of for “looking-glass,” so I searched for the word “mirror,” or its plural form.  Not one time did Voyant show that “mirror” is in the text.  I thought that this would support my theory that “looking-glass” is synonymous for “window,” without reading the text.  Just looking at the text by the word frequencies, I believe that is a logical conclusion.  However, I was wrong.  When I used the “Keywords in Context” search tool on Voyant, it showed “looking-glass” being used in the following statement:” …held it up to the looking-glass, that it might see how…”  The corpus reader took me to the spot in the text where this passage is at.  I read the entire statement that says, “She held it [the kitten] up to the looking-glass, that it might see how sulky it was.”  Contrary to my inference, this statement used “looking-glass” to refer to a mirror.  Some of the uses of the word in context after that one did not give any inference to whether it is a mirror or window. I was not able to decipher until I found “looking-glass” used in to describe a book that Alice lifted to another looking-glass so that the words would not be backwards.  This, again, proved to me that “looking-glass” is a mirror.