Anthologies at Scale: Reading, Fast and Slow

Co-authored with J. D. Porter.

Digital systems are associated with the fast and easy transfer of data. However, the creation of that data is often slow and difficult.

In this essay, we argue for the intellectual and cultural benefits of reading slowly during the production of data, observations we made through methodology we adapted to create the database that underwrites our research on The Norton Anthology of American Literature.¹ At the same time, we also point to the benefits of that slow but confident data production process to use as validation data for automation. Here again, slow is a precondition for fast.