The value of a term like “distant reading” for me, then, isn’t so much that it names a specific method or technique. Rather, it’s that it introduces the “proximity dial” at the same time that it expands the possibilities available to us on the “scope dial.”
Boom goes the dynamite. That just helped click a few things into place.
It really is interesting that cranking the proximity dial toward the individual text opens up a whole new “scope.” That’s what Krista and I were trying to get at in the title of our DH chapter, “The Trees Within the Forest.” Each tree becomes its own forest of information when you crank that proximity dial. It’s almost like fractals. You think you’re at a middle level, but then you zoom in and you realize you’ve just reached another level from which you can zoom in. Of course, the differences here are a) that, unlike fractals, each scale shift actually changes the nature of what you’re looking at, and b) the shifts aren’t endless.
Maybe it’s because I just spent 8 hours trying to learn to visualize phylogenetic trees, but I think there’s a connection between your thoughts in this post and–wait for it–this visualization of the Mollusk family:
(Set your Java security to medium strength if your browser is blocking you from viewing this.)
On the left-side, you can use the Y+ and Y- buttons to zoom in and out. Just zoom waaay in, then zoom waaaay back out. For a second, you get that fractal effect. Zooming in gives you not less but more scope, to a point.
Likewise, I think, distant reading works whichever way you go from the individual text—into it, or out from it. Maybe. Trying to connect those two scales is, I think, going to be the fun part for Moretti disciplines. Moretti himself hints at this connection in one of his editorial introductions in Distant Reading (pgs. 121-122).
Seth Long
March 7, 2014 6:38 pmBoom goes the dynamite. That just helped click a few things into place.
It really is interesting that cranking the proximity dial toward the individual text opens up a whole new “scope.” That’s what Krista and I were trying to get at in the title of our DH chapter, “The Trees Within the Forest.” Each tree becomes its own forest of information when you crank that proximity dial. It’s almost like fractals. You think you’re at a middle level, but then you zoom in and you realize you’ve just reached another level from which you can zoom in. Of course, the differences here are a) that, unlike fractals, each scale shift actually changes the nature of what you’re looking at, and b) the shifts aren’t endless.
Maybe it’s because I just spent 8 hours trying to learn to visualize phylogenetic trees, but I think there’s a connection between your thoughts in this post and–wait for it–this visualization of the Mollusk family:
https://sites.google.com/site/cmzmasek/home/software/archaeopteryx/examples/mollusca-taxonomy
(Set your Java security to medium strength if your browser is blocking you from viewing this.)
On the left-side, you can use the Y+ and Y- buttons to zoom in and out. Just zoom waaay in, then zoom waaaay back out. For a second, you get that fractal effect. Zooming in gives you not less but more scope, to a point.
Likewise, I think, distant reading works whichever way you go from the individual text—into it, or out from it. Maybe. Trying to connect those two scales is, I think, going to be the fun part for Moretti disciplines. Moretti himself hints at this connection in one of his editorial introductions in Distant Reading (pgs. 121-122).