SHARING Elven Economics 101An Analysis of Victorian Literature

Here is something from this month's Blogger Blogs of Note:The Economy of Elfland

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Important, perhaps, for Steam Punks, where technology and the paranormal are part of the  Victorian era or where the Victorian Era is influenced  by technology and the paranormal this article looks a the scientific analysis over time of word use frequency. If you write or read steam punk this could be very useful:

Analyzing Literature by Words and Numbers    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/books/04victorian.html

Here is some scary info. This is probably an offshoot of the research I studied in college. Plus, for any writer or reader gives insight into the changes in culture and what you read or write. We don't often think of how trends (long-term and short) influence fiction, and often forget  the lessons of The Children's Hour*, Animal Farm, The Crucible and all the classics we leaned about in school. But, then, growing up during the Viet Nam era, discussing literature as a protest movement in a conservative climate was seditious. Then Jane Fonda went to Nam**, protest became patriotic as we all remembered Thoreau.

 There is already a algorithm that describes which songs will go gold, or whatever they go these days. There is a fear that research and modeling like this will result in the same for literature.

*If you have never read The Children's Hour or seen the movie with Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacClaine , you should. Read this excellent review on Amazon by Gary Taylor.

** Of course there was much more to protest being seen as a patriotic rather than a seditious act.  First and foremost was the cost in lives and money of Viet Nam and the gradual realization that it was an action that could not be won. Also, the intellectual talent in this country, which held more sway then, spurred the protest on. After this period the intellectuals were painted as the East Coast left wing intelligentsia; a place where theories fester in "ivory towers."

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• Analyzing Literature by the Words, but Also the Numbers (nytimes.com)
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