The Dickens Project

[neadods]

Last year (when it was too late to join up, darn them!) the Post ran an article on the Stanford Dickens Project. This allowed you to read an entire Dickens novel "as originally intended" - ie., in installments. You have your choice of getting it in newsprint chapters or having access to a new .pdf chapter online. Both arrive once a week, both are free to you.

I'm still bumming about being too late for A Tale of Two Cities last year, but they've just gone online with this year's offering - Hard Times. Which is one of my favorites, even though it really should be Exhibit A in "how not to write a novel" classes.

The postcard I got yesterday (the 26th!) told me you had to sign up by January 18th for the newsprint edition, but when I logged on this morning I think I got in. It's never too late to get the .pdf version, and the novels from the last two years are still available at the site:

http://dickens.stanford.edu

Comments

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

That's okay the Catholic church has done the same thing with the bible....and they're a little more than 8 days late ;)

-=Jeff=- ...so you wanna switch jobs; I'll sit at your work and LJ and you can sit at mine and LJ ?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

so you wanna switch jobs; I'll sit at your work and LJ and you can sit at mine and LJ ?,/i>

Aren't you in Hawaii? In a heartbeat - even if I would be spending all my off-hours time sucking up to archivists instead of surfing.

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

I'm in So Florida until mid April, then I transfer to Hawaii. I tried convincing Tor books to give me the intern position; only condition being that they move their offices to the Islands on my behalf...but noo-o.
-=Jeff=-

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I am *so* sucking up to you after April to help me track some documents down. (see my LJ userinfo for The Missionary Project.)

[neutronjockey.livejournal.com]

You mean you are so visiting so I can introduce you to the professor of religious studies, hawaiian cultural studies and the polynesian cultural center (run by BYU )...but if you just want books and reference material...
-=Jeff=-

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Finances and leave time willing - that's always the problem when I want to go somewhere fun.

[cybergelfling.livejournal.com]

I think I'm in (I got the postcard too) because I signed up around Christmas. I hope I didn't get confused and ONLY signed up to get the postcard.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's a great idea, but not the world's best execution.

I'm half tempted to make up a rival broadside, in the nature of the old lit magazines - a newsprint foldover with running chapters from some (other) old books, a poem or two, some clip art. Spend a week pulling 104 together, and then send 'em out biweekly to anyone who's interested.

[cybergelfling.livejournal.com]

That would be pretty durn cool. I'd offer to help, but time is not on my side these days.

Do you think there would be significant cost associated with the project? There has GOT to be grants for that sort of thing...

[neadods.livejournal.com]

The significance of the cost would depend on the print run size. If ~10 people are reading it, it would only cost pennies an issue. If it were being used in a dozen classrooms, it would need some serious printing & postage money, plus a dedicated website.

If I ever get to the point of defining what it would be or who it would be for, I'm sure I could make a run at a grant or two. "Because I wanna and Stanford has annoyed me" isn't quite a selling point, though.

Can't get the idea out of my head, though. Can't decide if I'd want to go the Great Lit route, with chapters, a full short story, and a poem from Famous Names per issue, or the Historical Lit route with said chapters, shorts, poetry and maybe an actual news article all dating from the same period in time. The first would be fun and easy to get info for, but the second would be really cool.

If I took the historical route and started it around the early 1800s, I could even tie it into long-term missionary research, as I'm already looking into the culture of America/England/Hawaii circa 1812-1822. But that would cut out Pride and Prejudice - I'd love to kick off with Pride & P - unless I sorta bent the rules and said "In this year, Jane Austen died. Her most famous novel..." (Because if I go the historical route, I'd have a timeline as part of the thing.)

I can't believe I'm even considering this. I'm mental. But if I tie it into the missionaries, I'd be mental in a useful-to-me way...