In one of my classes, our professor had us analyze Middlemarch using a technique called distant reading. We constructed models of different aspects of the novel and used these models as the basis for our class discussions. I appreciated the approach as a way of looking at literary works through a new lens, but an article in the New York Times seems to imply that the pioneers of distant reading want their models to replace other critical approaches like close readings of the text. Does anyone here agree with the idea that distant reading should be the dominant approach to literary criticism? As a first-year student at my university, I really have no idea how popular this approach is or how often it is used in academic writing on literature.