To Read Literature in New Ways?

I couldn't resist blogging about this New York Times article about the Victorian Books project that exploited Google's scanned corpus of Victorian literature. The project searched for key words characteristic of Victorian literature and attempts to draw conclusions about the nature of the Victorian mindset as exemplified in that literature.

Although the method doesn't replace good old-fashioned reading, rereading, and close-reading, it does suggest that the digital age does hold the possibility of allowing new insights into literature. I would really like our chapter to think about how the digital revolution has changed the way we read, not just what we read (blogs, websites, social networking sites).

--Felicia Steele

To Convince Others of the Value of Literature?

As the American economy seems to be in free-fall to an unimaginable bottom, I ask myself if what I am doing has any sort of real world value. If money is tight, I reason, why would anyone pay anything for the chance to read great literary works, or to argue on paper about what literature means to us, or to discuss literary themes with others? Should Americans today focus only on business concerns, and is literature or language a luxury with which no one can afford to concern themselves?

Of course, I both hope that literature is still of value, and fear that these sentiments are shared by few. We inheritors of the Western tradition "own" many of the world's literary gems -- come to think of it, we humans taken collectively own all of the world's literary gems. We need not ever experience war ourselves, but Homer's Iliad or Crane's Red Badge of Courage still have the power to teach us. We may never ourselves be the victim of genocide, but the Diary of Anne Frank moves us. We need never fall in love to enjoy Austen's Pride and Prejudice. So, keep reading, and keep believing in the value of literature.