Although human reading (close) and computer (distant) reading are two different methods to understanding a text, they do have similarities. Both methods want to do a deep analysis of the text to better understand what the text is about and what kind of messages that the texts is trying to portray. Both methods also want to also understand the bigger or even the complete picture of the texts (Tonra). Also, both methods look at patterns and ask questions about those patterns as that is a way to understand what the text is trying to say.
Though these two methods have their similarities, they do have their differences. First and foremost, is who is reading and digesting these texts. Human reading is obviously done by a human while computer reading is being done by a computer. Another difference that these methods have is that human reading makes the transition from facts and details to making a conclusion or an interpretation about what the text is about to get the complete picture (Kain). Computer reading takes those interpretations and conclusions from the text and, combined with computational and data-analysis, to get the complete picture (Tonra). Basically, human reading puts more emphasis on the conclusions and interpretations while computer reading is more focused on the data analysis and even the research behind these texts to better understand them. Another difference with these two methods is that human reading can take time to understand and comprehend the text to complete the picture while computer reading to take thousands of text and be able to understand in a matter of seconds (Walsh).
Human reading’s strengths are that it can give you a deep understanding of the literary texts that as well as making the readers understand nuance and context. Human reading also forces us to pay close attention to the details and makes us look at the details, something that computer reading will generally gloss over (Walsh). The weaknesses of human reading are that it takes time to understand the text and that you will not be able to do it in seconds. Also, because human reading takes time to even read one text, you will be unable to read thousands of texts in a human lifespan (Tonra). Computer reading’s strength are that it can read thousands of texts in a matter of seconds, thereby being able to engage in many texts. Computer reading can also point out patterns and data that perhaps human reading was not able to observe or gloss over. Computer reading can also lead to new research. The downsides of negative reading are that it will not be able go into detail with the texts and that it does not really give readers the incentive to interpret the texts.
I feel that the benefits of a human/computer reading hybrid can help us with not just reading this text. It helps because the human reading side forces us to come up with our own interpretations and conclusions of the text such as by the end of the story it seems that the narrator has broken free her controlling husband but at the same time it appears that her mania has gotten worse instead of getting better. With computer reading, you cannot come to this conclusion or any other conclusion as it will nor force you to read and annotate the text. Human reading also allows us to look at the details of the text and make comments and notes about the text. For example, human reading allowed me to interpret the narrator possibly going though anxiety and/ or depression and that this factor will come to play in the story. However, computer reading also helped me with the text as it allowed me to see the patterns that I didn’t notice when reading. Like how many times she said “John”, which was forty-three times that she said “don’t” twenty-nine times. It also allowed me to see the links that some of the words have, with “John” having links to “feel”, “nervous”, and “good” (Perkins). With computer reading allows me to see the patterns and help strengthen my comprehension of the text. It can also make me go back into the text and see the patterns and help me with my understanding of the text and create new research.
These methods also help me better understand and see a little more clearly that the narrator was feeling controlled or at the very least, not understood by her husband John. It shows that women at the time were feeling oppressed and that they didn’t have a great deal of options to try and break free of that oppression. It is shown with the human and computer reading that her possible psychological problems weren’t even taken very seriously and it does lead into a discussion that if a woman wasn’t necessarily fulfilling a role that they “auditioned” for, or if they were perceived as crazy, then they could possible be taken to someone who could “fix” them as the narrator stated that John would do that if she didn’t get better. With these two methods it helped better get to this conclusion.
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