Moretti's Graph, Maps,Trees

In Moretti's article, "Graph, Maps, Trees," he proposes a new way to study literature. Instead of the usual close reading we are all accustomed to, Moretti believes that studying literature as a whole will provide a broader analysis because we will only read less than one percent of all the novels in the world in our lifetime. By using graphs and statistical data he collected, Moretti describes the trends of literature according to historical and geographical factors.

This approach to analyzing literature can be helpful because it covers all the novels as a whole and provides information about the timeline of novels from different areas. This way, we can incorporate the novels that we will never get a chance to read. This method also provides logical reasons as to why there were fluctuations in the popularity of the novel and popularity of what genres the novel took. Since this method is based on facts and solid data, it cuts out the arguments and disagreements among interpretations of the novel.

Although facts are irrefutable and provide some insight on these trends, they do not encompass the essence of what literature is meant for. Authors did not write novels to simply tell a story that reflects their time period or popular genre at the time. Novels were written so that every reader can experience something different. By using a quantitative approach, it degrades the greatness of a single novel and its author. In other words, novels, even in a collective view are not simple enough to explain with data.

Other interdisciplinary projects that combine literature with numbers, graphs, and data should always keep an open mind on the events that cannot be put into numbers and curves. Even though accurate data can provide solid theories, there are two sides to a story. As long as there is equal attention to both the objective and subjective side of the project, there will be less information missed.

Another way to approach SSTLS is to compare the book with other dystopian or futuristic novels. We can compare the book to the genre it is in and discover why it is this type of novel instead of another. Instead o analyzing the subthemes in the novel separately, we can compare SSTLS’s themes with the similar themes in other novels within the same genre. This way we can explore more than one novel at a time as well.

M Butterfly and SSTLS

In both M Butterfly and SSTLS, there are similarities in their themes about culture, gender, and politics. Even though M Butterfly is set in the past approximately 50 years ago and SSTLS 50 years ahead from now, the depiction of Asian women is similar. They appear to be delicate and tragic if they fall in love with a white man. This was surprising because the roles of Asian countries and the United States/ European countries have switched dominancy roles and I expected some stereotypes to disappear. I think this is also because culture plays a big role in Asian countries. In M Butterfly, the women are not allowed to let a man in their home because it is taboo to do so. Similarly in SSTLS Eunice's parents are always concerned about her "mystery." This shows that certain aspects of Asian culture have persevered through time. In both stories, the women hold loyalty in their role, which is a custom in Asian culture. While Butterfly held loyalty to her/his own country, Eunice tried to fulfill her role as the person who takes care of her family. Both also did not let love interfere with their roles. Butterfly still carried out her betrayal even though she seemed to love Rene in the end. Eunice did not let Joshie or Lenny steer her away from her family until she knew that they were okay. However, in both stories, political turmoil and issues brought the lovers together and it also tore them away from each other. From this film and SSTLS, I learned that some things in humanity do not change over time. Even if the settings and historical periods are different, there will be certain aspects of society that will persist due to culture and love. Those aspects are what makes us human.

Effects of Living Life Through Your Apparat

In Shteyngart's novel, Super Sad True Love Story, everyone who is anyone owns an apparat. On the apparat, people can shop, check stocks, search up people, view ratings, and basically do anything in the virtual world. Despite how convenient and useful this device is, it has turned human beings into shallow people with low self-esteem.

"The world they needed was right around them, flickering and beeping, and it demanded every bit of strength and attention they could spare." (p.86)

When Lenny meets up with his friends, they are in a bar hanging out, but buried in their devices and paying very little attention to one another. This is not a very social thing to do when we go out with friends today, but later we see how Noah came out to broadcast his show and is only worried about his number of viewers. In this case, his friends seem less important than the anonymous people viewing his show.

"My father looked away in some shame...So this was at the heart of their anger with me. i had told them so many times not to look at any streams or data about me."(p.141)

When Lenny visits his parents, they confront him about being on the list of people to feel sorry for and his low rankings. Even his own parents are judging their own son. Since there is practically no privacy anymore, everyone is able to access information about another. Since it is his own parents criticizing and judging him, Lenny has developed a low self esteem as we can see in his character throughout the book so far.

"So he's brain-smart. Who cares??? It's not like he's some superstar Media guy or VP at LandOLakes... Anyway, looking good is the new smart, and i don't think you should have kids with him because you'll have really ugly children." (p.147)

Precious Pony writes to Eunice who feels intimidated by Lenny's smartness. Normally, a guy who cares a lot and smart is a good catch. In their world, even though the nation is full of poor and unsuccessful people, the youth is still hypnotized by the good looking, rich, successful, and famous people. Eunice's low self esteem and her friend's shallowness is a good example of the side effect of being exposed to so much artificial culture made accessible by the apparat.