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Norman Mailer: Works and Days/Project Introduction: Difference between revisions
Norman Mailer: Works and Days/Project Introduction (view source)
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=== By: Gerald Lucas === | === By: Gerald Lucas === | ||
In the Spring of 2014, Mike Lennon and I had lunch at a small café in Atlanta and talked about the future. | In the Spring of 2014, Mike Lennon and I had lunch at a small café in Atlanta and talked about the future.<ref>This introduction was originally written for the first version of ''W&D'' that was implemented on a Wordpress installation.</ref> | ||
I had been acting as the voice and advocate of the digital life of the Norman Mailer Society since I joined in 2006. Even before that, my interests and research were catalyzed by the nascent digital world. My graduate work centered on the pinnacle of print culture — literary studies — but simultaneously I dabbled in the revolutionary world of the digital. I spent frustrating hours trying to make my university network account work on my ancient Mac Classic through its 28.8K dial-up connection — fast for the early nineties. My first reaches through cyberspace were limited to a text-based terminal, through which I was introduced to the robust powers of UNIX that seemed light-years behind my Mac’s GUI, yet somehow much stronger, like the difference between a Toyota Tercel and a Mercedes diesel sedan. After earning my M.A., my upgraded 56K modem and the university’s new Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) fit the Internet to my Mac. Mosaic suddenly opened up my small studio apartment to the World Wide Web and its promise, and I have never looked back. | I had been acting as the voice and advocate of the digital life of the Norman Mailer Society since I joined in 2006. Even before that, my interests and research were catalyzed by the nascent digital world. My graduate work centered on the pinnacle of print culture — literary studies — but simultaneously I dabbled in the revolutionary world of the digital. I spent frustrating hours trying to make my university network account work on my ancient Mac Classic through its 28.8K dial-up connection — fast for the early nineties. My first reaches through cyberspace were limited to a text-based terminal, through which I was introduced to the robust powers of UNIX that seemed light-years behind my Mac’s GUI, yet somehow much stronger, like the difference between a Toyota Tercel and a Mercedes diesel sedan. After earning my M.A., my upgraded 56K modem and the university’s new Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) fit the Internet to my Mac. Mosaic suddenly opened up my small studio apartment to the World Wide Web and its promise, and I have never looked back. | ||
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It seems apropos that Mike and I decided to collaborate on the first DH initiative for Project Mailer: a digital version of ''[[Norman Mailer: Works and Days]]'' (W&D). Its foundation uses an updated version of Mike and Donna’s 2000 edition of Norman Mailer: Works and Days as a digital, open resource for all interested in Mailer studies. W&D is a bio-bibliography that contains primary and secondary resources, a life chronicle, reviews of Mailer’s work, and a selection of photographs. The fact that Works and Days is a rare, out-of-print text makes it ideal for this project. The “works” section is a bibliography of primary and secondary texts; the “days” is a chronicle of the major events of Mailer’s life. Mike gives more details in his introduction. | It seems apropos that Mike and I decided to collaborate on the first DH initiative for Project Mailer: a digital version of ''[[Norman Mailer: Works and Days]]'' (W&D). Its foundation uses an updated version of Mike and Donna’s 2000 edition of Norman Mailer: Works and Days as a digital, open resource for all interested in Mailer studies. W&D is a bio-bibliography that contains primary and secondary resources, a life chronicle, reviews of Mailer’s work, and a selection of photographs. The fact that Works and Days is a rare, out-of-print text makes it ideal for this project. The “works” section is a bibliography of primary and secondary texts; the “days” is a chronicle of the major events of Mailer’s life. Mike gives more details in his introduction. | ||
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|title=A Word about Print | |||
|quote=In my digital translation of Mike’s print resource, I only use what makes sense in a digital document. This DH version of W&D has been designed as a “native digital” application, so the remnants of print culture have not been included. For example, many of the posts contain links to full-text versions of the references, but no URLs will show up in a printed version. This version of W&D is consciously part of a digital paradigm: meant to be read and used on the screen. (I can hear Mailer cursing at me from beyond.) | |||
For more about this idea, see my post on "Distributed DH." I plan to default to this approach in all of my efforts for Project Mailer, including my translation of The Mailer Review to its online form. Additional consideration may be needed to help researchers cite the project’s content in print documents that use MLA, APA, etc. More on this later. | |||
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The design of W&D uses a “Distributed DH” approach. Unlike other DH projects, this one was not built from the ground-up using proprietary, one-off software. Instead, it uses open, prebuilt “containers” combined for the specific needs of the project. W&D uses the World Wide Web as its primary platform, but a later e-book or app would not be out of the question. | The design of W&D uses a “Distributed DH” approach. Unlike other DH projects, this one was not built from the ground-up using proprietary, one-off software. Instead, it uses open, prebuilt “containers” combined for the specific needs of the project. W&D uses the World Wide Web as its primary platform, but a later e-book or app would not be out of the question. | ||
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Mike outlines the basic structure of the database in his introduction: | Mike outlines the basic structure of the database in his introduction: | ||
Each item is numbered chronologically within a year. For example, 87.2 cited above refers to the second item (of 39) in 1987 [. . .]. To the 1110 items in the first edition, approximately 400 new ones have been added to this revised edition of Works and Days. A new item that appears chronologically between two items in the first edition is identified by a letter after the number of the preceding item. For example, 87.2a, a 1 February 1987 article-interview in the Manchester Guardian by Henri Behar, follows the Dinita Smith article-interview, 87.2, noted above. In a number of cases, letters beyond “a” are needed for new items. There are 132 such new items from the years 1941–1998. | {{quote|Each item is numbered chronologically within a year. For example, 87.2 cited above refers to the second item (of 39) in 1987 [. . .]. To the 1110 items in the first edition, approximately 400 new ones have been added to this revised edition of Works and Days. A new item that appears chronologically between two items in the first edition is identified by a letter after the number of the preceding item. For example, 87.2a, a 1 February 1987 article-interview in the Manchester Guardian by Henri Behar, follows the Dinita Smith article-interview, 87.2, noted above. In a number of cases, letters beyond “a” are needed for new items. There are 132 such new items from the years 1941–1998.}} | ||
[[File:87-2.png|thumb|87.2 on Wordpress]] | [[File:87-2.png|thumb|87.2 on Wordpress]] | ||
Each item, then, is its own post in the database, and any cross-references are linked. For example, here’s how entry [[87.2]] appears in the database: | Each item, then, is its own post in the database, and any cross-references are linked. For example, here’s how entry [[87.2]] appears in the database: | ||
The items in blue, like the reference to 84.17, link to those entries. Each post has links to the previous and next entries, and tags for the year and source type. Social media buttons allow for easy sharing, emailing, and printing. Livefyre allows the addition of user sidenotes, similar to this | The items in blue, like the reference to 84.17, link to those entries. Each post has links to the previous and next entries, and tags for the year and source type. Social media buttons allow for easy sharing, emailing, and printing. Livefyre allows the addition of user sidenotes, similar to this site's. | ||
One advantage that the digital bibliography has over print is space. Since storing bits is inexpensive and virtually effortless, bibliographies should not only be annotated, but also contain the full text of the resource whenever possible. As you can imagine, many of the later entries may also be found online; when they are, I have linked to them and tagged the entry with “fulltext.” While the site has no full-text content of its own, this could change if content becomes available to fit the format. | One advantage that the digital bibliography has over print is space. Since storing bits is inexpensive and virtually effortless, bibliographies should not only be annotated, but also contain the full text of the resource whenever possible. As you can imagine, many of the later entries may also be found online; when they are, I have linked to them and tagged the entry with “fulltext.” While the site has no full-text content of its own, this could change if content becomes available to fit the format. | ||
Similarly, while Mike’s print version contains images, many more have been included in the digital W&D. In most cases these have been supplied by Mike Lennon and graciously scanned and uploaded by Donna Lennon. Many of the images contain notes from Mailer and his signature, so they are truly unique to the project. All entries that contain images are tagged with | Similarly, while Mike’s print version contains images, many more have been included in the digital W&D. In most cases these have been supplied by Mike Lennon and graciously scanned and uploaded by Donna Lennon. Many of the images contain notes from Mailer and his signature, so they are truly unique to the project. All entries that contain images are tagged with "image." Hopefully we will continue to add more. | ||
What have I missed? | What have I missed? I'd love your feedback — particularly if you're a member of the [[Norman Mailer Society|Society]], a Digital Humanist, or a Mailer researcher. So hit me up by leaving a note on my talk page. As of July 1, 2015, we have released the beta version of ''W&D'' for feedback. We hope to have version 1.0 published by this fall's Conference of the Norman Mailer Society in Provincetown. Consider, then, this document as also a beta, in that it will likely be updated as we make changes and updates to the project. | ||
== Notes == | == Notes == | ||
{{reflist}} | |||
{{reflist | |||
[[Category:Works and Days]] | [[Category:Works and Days]] | ||
[[Category:Introduction]] | [[Category:Introduction]] | ||