Digital Humanities

Swimming with the Stanley Fishes: Mullen’s “Spectrification” of DH

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 1 Mullen’s assertion that everyone is a DH regardless of their age is a valid one because unless you’re Amish (and not watching a big screen TV in your barn), or the member of some obscure cult, more than likely you incorporate DH aspects into your life on a daily basis whether it is checking email, surfing the internet, etc. Where he really proves this however, is in the claim that we all need to think of DH like a spectrum and put ourselves within it based on either the type of DH or the role that we play.

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 1 A potential spectrum to my mind would have the actual builders like Ramsey who think that time is spent idly if you’re not engaged in the building of things, at the top and someone like Stanley Fish —growl, snarl, DH, *uses DH invention to gripe about it* after MLA conventions— at the bottom.  Since it is not specified whether this is a spectrum or degrees or field contributions, I’m choosing to interpret as a spectrum of degrees of involvement based on the article’s implication.

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 2 Ramsey’s argument that one cannot be a DHist unless they’re building stuff puts him at the elitist top without question, right alongside McGann, Terras, etc. who also either are in the process of building things, making similar claims in their texts, or providing proof positive that DH can be construed as a discipline. This spectrum to my mind consists of  four degrees: 1) Those who are in the active process of contributing to the DH landscape by way of novel software such as IVANHOE or collaborative projects like NINES, (McGann &Ramsey) 2) Those who aren’t building things but are staunch defenders of DH such as Terras, 3) Individuals like us who dabble in it by way of Blackboard, email, etc. While we see the value of DH, we do not necessarily have the resources to create something totally awesome like a collaborative, digitized project. We do however use things like Blackboard, email, etc., and 4) Cranks like Stanley Fish who begrudgingly use the software created by people like McGann to complain about DH’s existence, question its usefulness, and argue that it will be as fleeting as a spark on wet kindling.

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