I've never thought about Amstrad + poetry + 90s, but this reminds me that I started a poetry MA in 1994 and arrived in Bristol with a shiny new Amstrad (for essays rather than poems). The graduate centre had dial-up internet and there was much talk of a poetry database currently being created that would allow us magically to search for any English language poem by a single word. I had the impression of teams of scribes uploading poems day and night.
My Dad was a librarian and freelance indexer, so he had a green-screen Amstrad installed at home pretty early on. I remember typing up A-level coursework on it... He also brought home the English Poetry database CDs one day. I don't remember really finding much with them, but I was impressed by the story that non-English-speaking typists had been employed for text input, as they were less likely to misread than native speakers. If I've remembered its fortunes correctly, all that hard work is now incorporated into the Proquest Literature One database. The thing that intrigues me though is: what kind of model of literary scholarship did the database designers have in mind? Who is it, exactly, who needs to find poems which mention the 'moon' but not the 'night'?
Think I still have a 5” floppy disc somewhere with some early musings. The thrill of printing to a dot matrix. It was almost as if I had published my own pamphlet. We had taken control of the means of production…sort of.
I’m glad to have this validated as a real Big Deal of the time. And yes the ‘one word’ thing smacks of pre-digital minds making a great leap to try to imagine exactly how computers might possibly help with literary research. The mysteries of the inputting process loomed large. I can see why the detail about non-English-speaking typists impressed.
CD ROMS were the future for a few years, before online databases began to evolve. I still find it pretty mind blowing that all of English poetry up to 1900 could be put onto a handful of small silver discs...
I remember being an A-level student and my dad giving me All Of English Literature on a CD-ROM. I also remember how impractical it turned out to be for reading - sitting at the dining room table, using the family's shared computer...
I've never thought about Amstrad + poetry + 90s, but this reminds me that I started a poetry MA in 1994 and arrived in Bristol with a shiny new Amstrad (for essays rather than poems). The graduate centre had dial-up internet and there was much talk of a poetry database currently being created that would allow us magically to search for any English language poem by a single word. I had the impression of teams of scribes uploading poems day and night.
My Dad was a librarian and freelance indexer, so he had a green-screen Amstrad installed at home pretty early on. I remember typing up A-level coursework on it... He also brought home the English Poetry database CDs one day. I don't remember really finding much with them, but I was impressed by the story that non-English-speaking typists had been employed for text input, as they were less likely to misread than native speakers. If I've remembered its fortunes correctly, all that hard work is now incorporated into the Proquest Literature One database. The thing that intrigues me though is: what kind of model of literary scholarship did the database designers have in mind? Who is it, exactly, who needs to find poems which mention the 'moon' but not the 'night'?
Think I still have a 5” floppy disc somewhere with some early musings. The thrill of printing to a dot matrix. It was almost as if I had published my own pamphlet. We had taken control of the means of production…sort of.
I’m glad to have this validated as a real Big Deal of the time. And yes the ‘one word’ thing smacks of pre-digital minds making a great leap to try to imagine exactly how computers might possibly help with literary research. The mysteries of the inputting process loomed large. I can see why the detail about non-English-speaking typists impressed.
I suddenly feel so very old... CD-ROM?
I am going to give myself a treat now and go look for Charles Simic's book.
CD ROMS were the future for a few years, before online databases began to evolve. I still find it pretty mind blowing that all of English poetry up to 1900 could be put onto a handful of small silver discs...
I remember being an A-level student and my dad giving me All Of English Literature on a CD-ROM. I also remember how impractical it turned out to be for reading - sitting at the dining room table, using the family's shared computer...