Project Mailer

Norman Mailer: Works and Days/Project Introduction: Difference between revisions

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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>
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>
[[File:Wdv1.png|thumb|V.1 of ''WD'' on Wordpress.]]


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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The Digital Humanists look for logical extensions of print culture. They are academics, expert amateurs, researchers, writers, facilitators, curators, and hackers. Their main tool is still language — including its metatext: the code. These humanists are also experts, but they invite collaboration from all, regardless of expertise, background, and formal education. All voices are potentially valuable in DH. Digital Humanists recognize how media shape our understanding of the world and our place in it. They consider not only the content, but the technology that shapes it, working in an incunabular space between print and digital, where the rules are not fixed nor agreed on. Digital Humanists bring their print past with them, remediating artifacts with new digital techniques, like text mining, visualization, juxtaposition, and collaborative interpretation. DH’s primary tool is the computer, which allows texts to be (re)presented, remixed, and (re)read in new ways.
The Digital Humanists look for logical extensions of print culture. They are academics, expert amateurs, researchers, writers, facilitators, curators, and hackers. Their main tool is still language — including its metatext: the code. These humanists are also experts, but they invite collaboration from all, regardless of expertise, background, and formal education. All voices are potentially valuable in DH. Digital Humanists recognize how media shape our understanding of the world and our place in it. They consider not only the content, but the technology that shapes it, working in an incunabular space between print and digital, where the rules are not fixed nor agreed on. Digital Humanists bring their print past with them, remediating artifacts with new digital techniques, like text mining, visualization, juxtaposition, and collaborative interpretation. DH’s primary tool is the computer, which allows texts to be (re)presented, remixed, and (re)read in new ways.
{{quote box
|title=Project Mailer Goals
|quote=In my original proposal, I suggested that all projects built for PM should:
* Curate an archive of primary and secondary data relating to Norman Mailer and his work;
* Build a solid foundation to demonstrate the validity and usefulness of such a project, with the intention of securing potential funding and * permissions for additional (full-text) content;
* Invite the Mailer community to contribute original content to the project, like out-of-print monographs, essays, photograph collections, and so on; and
* Engage new generations of students and enthusiasts in the study of Norman Mailer.
|align=right
|width=50%}}


Both an emerging discipline and a practice, the Digital Humanities (DH) brings the artifacts of pre-digital culture into the digital age and builds new interfaces for understanding these artifacts. It combines textual criticism with data analysis to produce new insights and understanding. For example, DH projects might be as simple as curated collections of searchable primary documents and multimedia; employ meta content to highlight a particular qualitative interpretation of the data; utilize algorithms to analyze the recurrence of words and phrases and display these data visually; ask for user participation and collaboration; or employ several methods of archiving and retrieving data that corresponds to the needs and interests of the user community.
Both an emerging discipline and a practice, the Digital Humanities (DH) brings the artifacts of pre-digital culture into the digital age and builds new interfaces for understanding these artifacts. It combines textual criticism with data analysis to produce new insights and understanding. For example, DH projects might be as simple as curated collections of searchable primary documents and multimedia; employ meta content to highlight a particular qualitative interpretation of the data; utilize algorithms to analyze the recurrence of words and phrases and display these data visually; ask for user participation and collaboration; or employ several methods of archiving and retrieving data that corresponds to the needs and interests of the user community.
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A major focus of DH is curation. It collects and represents primary materials, allowing for open access, collaboration, multimodal convergence, and participation. Digital curation (re)presents knowledge for the benefit of the specific communities of users.
A major focus of DH is curation. It collects and represents primary materials, allowing for open access, collaboration, multimodal convergence, and participation. Digital curation (re)presents knowledge for the benefit of the specific communities of users.


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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