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So all of this intellectual energy in & around the field — even and especially critiques of the idea of victorian as a “field” in the first place— is v inspiring for me to see. Thanks again for the thread. 🙏💙

I remember feeling in graduate school (my PhD is ‘09) that despite the major bombshells & innovation of the 1980s/90s, the field had both consolidated — the first NAVSA happened in maybe 04?—& somewhat narrowed. (V21 was I think a reaction to that sense.) +

Thanks for this thread, Sarah—illuminating & important. One of the welcome surprises for me has been how much methodological innovation & autocritique has emerged from Victorian / C19 studies over the past decades — of which your thread & the PMLa forum are great examples. +

this is great, Andrew! honored to be mentioned here, and in such awesome company 🙏🎉

hahaha do you think they see it as sunsetting ? I love it

That seems completely reasonable to me!!!

it sincerely is DRC—you will love it

this all sounds great! i don't posit any context as originary, just that philip taught the idea to me in this context. i cd see how various kinds of extractive scenario wd produce nondevelopmental narrative forms—whaling/maritime novels seem similar in that respect, as melville seems to know! 🐳

That sounds amazing, Scott—excited to see what you do with this. Feels like the supposedly genetic aspects of 'genius' are a way of trying to mediate between the poles of random luck (problematic from the point of view of self-justification) and 'deserving' an outcome that you've 'earned'...?

As a footnote will add that, not-dissimilarly, James Ferguson describes the psychic rifts that result when ideas of development + growth propagated by a liberal-bourgeois tradition confront the boom & bust realities of extractive economies—& he tells it not from the Musk (owners') POV but from below

Expectations of Modernity by James Ferguson - PaperScholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.www.ucpress.edu

no i don't know this but will search it out-- thanks!

But chapter two of his book really shows how the randomized and picaresque logic of mineral extraction ("and then, and then, and then") defeats stadial models of characterological and also societal development. It is very, very badass:

Gold and Greater Britain (Chapter 2) - Settler Colonialism in Victorian LiteratureSettler Colonialism in Victorian Literature - January 2020www.cambridge.org

I highly recommend Philip's incredible article that previews this argument abt the discrepant narrative and economic logics of settler-colony accumulation — i can share a PDF w anybody who wants one; muse.jhu.edu/article/633459

Philip Steer observed this years ago in a genius reading of Victorian narrative forms (bildungsroman, novels of development) exported to the extraction zone of gold rush Australia—the models implode in the face of the (picaresque, romance) logic by which not hard work, but random finds make you rich

wow this has got it all -- amazing

that is so kind of you to say, lulu! i just emailed you. solidarity! 🌿

haha maybe, but i like the rambles too! 🌿

twined plants as framing device, who wore it better?

Thanks for sharing this, Seth! ✨

worth noting that the main reason they are interested in old books in the first place is that no AI was used to create them and so (as the companies know) they are better