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Slides from a talk written for the Permissive Archive conference hosted by the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters.
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Visible Prices: Archiving the Intersection of Literature and Economics
Visible Prices: Archiving the Intersection of Literature and Economics
Paige Morgan
The Permissive Archive Conference
Centre for Editing Lives and Letters
9 November 2012
Paige Morgan
The Permissive Archive Conference
Centre for Editing Lives and Letters
9 November 2012
What is a price?What is a price?
A statement of value, usually expressed in numeric terms
A statement of the cost of an interaction between two or more individuals
A statement of value, usually expressed in numeric terms
A statement of the cost of an interaction between two or more individuals
What is a price when found in a document?What is a price when found in a document?
A number
A point of intertextuality between the document and the external world
An item of information whose rate of recognition decays quickly
An accurate or an inaccurate fact
A number
A point of intertextuality between the document and the external world
An item of information whose rate of recognition decays quickly
An accurate or an inaccurate fact
How are prices in literature
meant to be read and understood?
How are prices in literature
meant to be read and understood?
What needs to be done to
make them legible?
What needs to be done to
make them legible?
Visible Prices Interface (Alpha):
Main
Visible Prices Interface (Alpha):
Main
Visible Prices Interface (Alpha):
Main
Visible Prices Interface (Alpha):
Main
Visible Prices Interface (Alpha): DetailVisible Prices Interface (Alpha): Detail
Visible Prices Interface (Alpha): Table
View
Visible Prices Interface (Alpha): Table
View
Visible Prices Interface (Alpha): Map ViewVisible Prices Interface (Alpha): Map View
Visible Prices Interface (Alpha): Map View
Detail
Visible Prices Interface (Alpha): Map View
Detail
Vis
ible
Pri
ces
con
tain
s d
ata
from
:
Vis
ible
Pri
ces
con
tain
s d
ata
from
:
Literary texts, i.e. novels, poetry, plays
Private unpublished personal narratives,
i.e. journals, letters, and commonplace
books
Printed pamphlets and tracts
Accounting ledgers, receipt books, and
private reports
Newspapers, magazines, and trade
journals Advertisements
Literary texts, i.e. novels, poetry, plays
Private unpublished personal narratives,
i.e. journals, letters, and commonplace
books
Printed pamphlets and tracts
Accounting ledgers, receipt books, and
private reports
Newspapers, magazines, and trade
journals Advertisements
Richardson’s Pamela(by the prices)Richardson’s Pamela(by the prices) 4 guineas: Amount given to Pamela by Mr. B as wage after his mother, Lady B's
death
5 guineas: Amount given by Mr. B to Mrs. Jervis as annual bonus on her salary
as housekeeper
4 guineas: Amount which Mrs. Jervis says Pamela has earned by flowering a
waistcoat for Mr. B.
50 pounds: The annual income given to Pamela's parents by Mr. B for caretaking
his Kentish estate
5o pounds: The salary for a chaplaincy in Lincolnshire
20 guineas: The amount given by Mr. B to Pamela’s parents to buy themselves
new clothes appropriate for celebrating Pamela’s marriage
200 pounds: Income paid annually to Pamela as Mr. B’s wife
500 pounds: Amount raised by Sally Godfrey from friends to fund her flight from
England to Jamaica
1000 pounds: the amount that Mr. B says he would give his sister if she would
acknowledge Pamela (possibly rhetorical rather than actual)
5 guineas: Amount given by Mr. B to the crew of a ship carrying Sally Godfrey
and two female companions, as inducement "to be good to the ladies."
4 guineas: Amount given to Pamela by Mr. B as wage after his mother, Lady B's
death
5 guineas: Amount given by Mr. B to Mrs. Jervis as annual bonus on her salary
as housekeeper
4 guineas: Amount which Mrs. Jervis says Pamela has earned by flowering a
waistcoat for Mr. B.
50 pounds: The annual income given to Pamela's parents by Mr. B for caretaking
his Kentish estate
5o pounds: The salary for a chaplaincy in Lincolnshire
20 guineas: The amount given by Mr. B to Pamela’s parents to buy themselves
new clothes appropriate for celebrating Pamela’s marriage
200 pounds: Income paid annually to Pamela as Mr. B’s wife
500 pounds: Amount raised by Sally Godfrey from friends to fund her flight from
England to Jamaica
1000 pounds: the amount that Mr. B says he would give his sister if she would
acknowledge Pamela (possibly rhetorical rather than actual)
5 guineas: Amount given by Mr. B to the crew of a ship carrying Sally Godfrey
and two female companions, as inducement "to be good to the ladies."
5 guineas would also buy...5 guineas would also buy...
A small paper edition of the Complete Works of Robert Boyle
Two years’ tuition at a boy’s school in Yorkshire on the track for university study or business; and one year’s tuition on the track for an army or navy career
One man’s large-sized suit in London, plus approximately twenty-five days of dining out on meat and wine in London; or twelve days of dining out in London with twelve viewings of an automata show featuring Merlin the magician
One year’s maintenance for a child at the Foundling Hospital, plus six doses of a patent medicine guaranteed to cure deafness
A small paper edition of the Complete Works of Robert Boyle
Two years’ tuition at a boy’s school in Yorkshire on the track for university study or business; and one year’s tuition on the track for an army or navy career
One man’s large-sized suit in London, plus approximately twenty-five days of dining out on meat and wine in London; or twelve days of dining out in London with twelve viewings of an automata show featuring Merlin the magician
One year’s maintenance for a child at the Foundling Hospital, plus six doses of a patent medicine guaranteed to cure deafness
What happens when we read for prices?What happens when we read for prices?
Contextual clarity ... and risk of authorial credibility?
• “...mid-[19th]-century novelists subjected economic matters ... the monetary value of gold -- to the alchemy of a moral lesson by emphasizing the connotative capacity of language -- that is, the elevation of figuration and suggestion over denotation and reference.”
--Mary Poovey, Genres of the Credit Economy, p. 383
• How widespread is the cavalier attitude that Poovey describes?
Contextual clarity ... and risk of authorial credibility?
• “...mid-[19th]-century novelists subjected economic matters ... the monetary value of gold -- to the alchemy of a moral lesson by emphasizing the connotative capacity of language -- that is, the elevation of figuration and suggestion over denotation and reference.”
--Mary Poovey, Genres of the Credit Economy, p. 383
• How widespread is the cavalier attitude that Poovey describes?
What happens when we read for prices?What happens when we read for prices?
A network of intentional collisions and archival noise:
• “While libraries that contain more than one million items are not unusual, print libraries never possessed a million books of use to any one reader.”
--Gregory Crane, “What Do You Do With A Million Books?”
• When you turn up the volume loud enough on a stereo speaker, sound becomes visible.
A network of intentional collisions and archival noise:
• “While libraries that contain more than one million items are not unusual, print libraries never possessed a million books of use to any one reader.”
--Gregory Crane, “What Do You Do With A Million Books?”
• When you turn up the volume loud enough on a stereo speaker, sound becomes visible.
What happens when we build an archive for prices?What happens when we build an archive for prices?
How do you record economic tension?
Informal declarations of price value
Different language used by men and women to discuss price
Is the combination of text fragments an anthology, or a single text, or both?
Is such an archive better suited as a starting point or an ending point?
How do you record economic tension?
Informal declarations of price value
Different language used by men and women to discuss price
Is the combination of text fragments an anthology, or a single text, or both?
Is such an archive better suited as a starting point or an ending point?
Thank youhttp://www.paigemorgan.net/visibleprices/
@paigecmorgan // paigecmorgan@gmail.com
Thank youhttp://www.paigemorgan.net/visibleprices/
@paigecmorgan // paigecmorgan@gmail.com
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