Reading 'Graphs, Maps and Trees'

Through the letterbox comes this handsomely produced volume: Reading Graphs, Maps and Trees: Critical Responses to Franco Moretti, edited by Jonathan Goodwin and John Holbo [Parlor Press 2009]. Go to the site, there, to download the book under a Creative Commons licence, or buy it for the cheap-cheap price of $18. It is, as it says, a group of essays responding to Franco Moretti's Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for Literary History (Verso 2005; 'one of the most provocative recent works of literary history' apparently), all of which originally appeared as part of a book event on The Valve, now edited into book form. My contribution is one of the least (it is exactly what its title suggests it is, 'A Brief Note on Moretti and Science Fiction'), not because I don't think highly of Moretti's book (I do), but precisely because I didn't have much to add. But you should download or, better still, buy the book: the final essay, Cosma Shalizi's 'Graphs, Trees, Materialism, Fishing', in particular is a doozy. Holbo, half the editorial team, has blogged its appearance on Crooked Timber. Check it out.