Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 16, No. 249.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
Submit to: humanist@princeton.edu
Date: Sun, 06 Oct 2002 07:18:00 +0100
From: Willard McCarty <w.mccarty@btinternet.com>
Subject: gross measurements & stylistics
Surely Norman Gray is right about *some* papers in physics or mathematics,
say, taking as long and as much care to write as a book in the humanities
though they be considerably shorter. And I grant the fact that the
implications of some very brief, eloquently clear papers may take many
years to work out -- i.e. I am not saying that papers in the sciences
always consist of small ideas quickly tossed off. Einstein's 1905 paper on
special relativity is a pellucidly brilliant example of what we should all
hope to do: rock the intellectual world by saying something very important
very simply. Alas, some papers in the humanities consist of small ideas, or
none, in heavy language laboriously heaved off. But I would suppose that if
in a given university you compared the average number of publications per
person per year in, say, physics and English, the number in the former
would be MUCH greater than in the latter, everything else being equal. That
was the extent of my claim about rhythm of publication. Does this mean that
the e-medium by nature better suits the sciences for purposes of serious
publication?
A more interesting question, I think, is whether the e-medium has intrinsic
qualities that push us in the humanities, quietly but relentlessly, toward
faster turnaround of shorter papers, i.e. toward a more conversational
style? Or might we better say, as some have argued, that the e-medium
represents an opportunity, currently being realized, for a long-suppressed
or at least unexpressed style to emerge -- in addition, not instead of?
Yours,
WM
Dr Willard McCarty | Senior Lecturer | Centre for Computing in the
Humanities | King's College London | Strand | London WC2R 2LS || +44 (0)20
7848-2784 fax: -2980 || willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk |
w.mccarty@btinternet.com | www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/wlm/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sun Oct 06 2002 - 02:32:05 EDT