Plain text : the poetics of computation

281 Pages·2017·3.325 MB·English

by  Tenen, Dennis

PLAIN TEXT
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PLAIN TEXT
THE POETICS OF COMPUTATION
> DENNIS TENEN
STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 2017 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Tenen, Dennis, author.
Title: Plain text : the poetics of computation / Dennis Tenen.
Description: Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2017. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016052467 (print) | LCCN 2016054558 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781503601802 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781503602281 (pbk. : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781503602342 (electronic)
Subjects: LCSH: Literature and technology. | Digital media--Philosophy. |
Electronic publications. | Electronic publishing.
Classification: LCC PN56.T37 T47 2017 (print) | LCC PN56.T37 (ebook) |
DDC 809/.93356--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016052467
Designed by Bruce Lundquist
Typeset at Stanford University Press in 8.5/14 Euphemia
To Bill Todd and Elaine Scarry,
whose influence on my thought grows with time
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Computational Poetics: An Introduction 1
Thesis and Archive 4
Theory 7
Method 15
Plan of the Present Work 18
Chapter 1: Metaphor Machines 23
Verisimilitude 26
Death and Incongruence 33
Dissimulation 36
Mimesis 42
Speculative Formalism 51
Chapter 2: Laying Bare the Device:
The Modernist Roots of Computation 55
Technique 58
Thought Experiment I 67
Thought Experiment II 71
Thought Experiment III 79
Device 84
viii CONTENTS
Chapter 3: Form, Formula, Format 93
Digital Formalisms 93
Concrete and Universal 98
Format Theory 104
Tactics of Reading 109
Composite Media 115
Smart Contracts 124
Chapter 4: Recondite Surfaces 131
Programmable Media 134
Textual Laminates 145
Legibility 157
Chapter 5: Literature Down to a Pixel 165
Digital Wake (My Two Terminators) 167
Spiritual Telegraph 172
Soap Opera Effect 179
We Have Always Been Digital 185
The Medium Is Not the Message 192
Conclusion: Human Grounds for Computation 197
Space 197
Time 199
Global Perspectives 202
Notes 205
Bibliography 231
Index 259
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The book’s faults, to quote Will Durant, are all mine. Its strengths, however,
derive from the support of a community.
This project would not have been possible without the generous support of
Harvard University’s Comparative Literature Department. Publication was subsi-
dized in part by Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature. Initial sketches of
the book appeared in conversation with Aleksey Berg, Jacob Emory, Anders
Engberg-Pedersen, Elena Fratto, Natalia and Ilya Kun, Guy Smoot, Simos Ze-
niou, and many others who made Dana-Palmer House their home away from
home. Readers will recognize the influence of Svetlana Boym, Peter Gallison,
Richard Moran, Elaine Scarry, William Todd, and Roberto Mangabeira Unger.
Their thought was formative in the manuscript’s early stages.
A fellowship from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society gave me
the time and means to develop a deep research archive. I would like to
thank Yochai Benkler, Urs Gasser, John Palfrey, Rebecca Tabasky, Jonathan
Zittrain, and especially Jeffery Schnapp for their support. Members of the
Cooperation Group in particular had a profound, if not an obvious, intel-
lectual impact on my work. Echoes of discussions with Mayo Fuster, Jerome
Hergueux, Benjamin Mako Hill, Andrés Monroy-Hernández, and Aaron Shaw
can be found on the pages of every chapter.
The book came to fruition at Columbia University. Junior colleagues Ratik
Asokan, Emily Fuhrman, Jessica Hallock, Tobias Pester, Phil Polefrone, and
Zachary Roberts helped with line edits and gave insightful feedback. Senior col-
leagues Sarah Cole, Nick Dames, Michael Golston, Stathis Gourgouris, M arianne