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Private unpublished personal narratives,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Private unpublished personal narratives,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