Here are some thoughts I have had lately:
I have been thinking lately about a software program which might
analyze any given work of literature, and profile in based on certain
criteria.
If a piece of software could take the text of a novel, and tally up
certain things; for example, simple things like first person narrative vs
third person or a raw count of verbs nouns; or how many words in the
work are devoted to pure description, and break that down further,
into nature descriptions, bodily/facial descriptions, animate,
inanimate, descriptions of feelings, moods.
Someone could analyze a work manually and establish the criteria.
But then if the analytical process could be automated to analyze
hundreds of works it might reveal something interesting.
Conceptually... it is possible to analyze a work from various criteria...
and come up with some sort of measure.
The thing to do is start with the manual process of analysis, and
define what it is we want to measure/tally emotional vs rational etc
That would be stage one. If stage one seemed fruitful/productive....
then stage two would be to attempt to automate the process.
How many romantic passages are there per author, like the
provocative flirtatious sentences in Hardy; one feels a repressed,
simpering sensuality?
The manual analysis is something any one of us could undertake. We
must define what it is we want to measure. That is a huge
undertaking though.
There are sentences which are description (and descriptions can be
broken down by category). There are sentences which are action..
something happens/changes.
There are sentences which are moral judgements or philosophical
propositions.
In the text questions are asked at times; at other times answers are
given.
One might measure passages of joy vs sorrow vs terror vs humor etc
but... then... to come up with a profile/numbers/graph for each
author, for each genre, for each historical period, enabling one to
compare Homer and Virgil with... Dante and Milton... for example
You may possibly ask how would we benefit from such statistics?
What would they tell us? But I feel that if you never seek, you shall never discover. One must look for patterns.... trends, and then ask if they have
meaning. Look how many centuries it took for us to figure out and be certain
that matter is composed of atoms (which cannot be seen)
Then there is the matter of literature which is just a good story...
vs.... symbolism hidden meanings.
I was looking at "Little Women" and thinking that perhaps there are
not hidden levels as in Milan Kundera.
Of course, not everything one reads has to be loaded with symbolism
and allegory.
There is the question of WHY each writer wrote. Some authors really
needed money. Others were independently wealthy. Some had one
agenda or another. A few were reclusive like Emily Dickenson.
I realize that not everything is deeply analyzable, certainly.
Or the question of why the author wrote the book.
My problem, or addiction if you will, is that I seek out such literature,
looking for the profound, and i attempt to write like that as well. But
there are whole other worlds, other ways, other reasons to write and
read.
Look at that long period in history where authors works were
SERIALIZED in newspapers or magazines, and where they were paid
sometimes by the word, at other times by the page. Dickens may
have been prolific based on such economic considerations.
How does that serialization affect the structure, style , plot? (you
know.... each chapter fits in a magazine...with cliff hangers)
In Hemingway's "Moveable Feast," he describes how Fitzgerald
confesses to "tweaking" his stories so the magazines will buy, and
Hemingway is scandalized by such prostitution.
What was scandelous to various generations and how did that
scandal affect the author? For example, Hardy, who retreated to
years of poetry after the poor reception of Jude the Obscure.
I simply mention Hardy as an example of someone who changed their
emphasis based on public criticism.
There are people who say that people like us who dwell upon
literature have no life of our own.
Is it the case that people who write and read are escaping from real
life/experience?
What makes one write novels like crime and punishment?
Or read them for that matter.
Mark Twain said that the definition of great literature is something
that everyone wants to be able to say they have read, but no one
wants to take the time and effort to actually read it.
What we enjoy as children vs adolescence vs young adults vs mid life,
vs old age.... acquired tastes.... we dont like something initially, but
we grow into it... because we change...
Do we change in our tastes because we have changed as a natural
function of aging ..... or is it the reading itself which changes us,
transforms us.
This is a topic to which people may bring their actual life experiences.
How I HATED Pride in Prejudice in high school, but now I can truly
enjoy it: people can bring to the table such experiences. How I LOVED
Catcher in the Rye as a teenager, but now find it tedious. Why the
difference? What changed?
Discussion of such issues offers new possibilities, potentials.
People might look at the suggested topics and find something which
really interests them but which they never would have thought about
otherwise.
If folks can get an idea of what what such discussions are like... and it
may snowball (grow larger and larger like a ball of snow rolled down a
hill)... snowball the process so that it gains momentum and size.
There are people who read the books but for one reason or the other
do not post any comments at the forum; the "lurkers."
What is it that inhibits certain people from posting comments, or
sharing their poetry or prose? Perhaps, they fear failure or criticism or
rejection.
Another topic for discussion.... "why do some remain silent lurkers..."
Some people are shy.
Some people feel that others have more to say, or say it in a more
clever manner.