#serialisation

[mxcottonsocks]

Reading Like A Victorian

A while ago, I discovered the website 'Reading Like a Victorian', a digital humanities project from The Ohio State University and collaborators.

Since tumblr's been going through a bit of a serial-literature revival, I thought I would share...

Here are some extracts from the website's 'About Us':

RLV is an interactive timeline of the Victorian period. It focuses on serialized novels [...] and adds volume-format publications for context. 

When we read Victorian novels today, we do not read them in the form in which they originally came out. Most Victorian novels appeared either as “triple deckers,” three volumes released at one time, or as serials published monthly or weekly in periodicals or in pamphlet form. Serialized novels’ regularly timed, intermittent appearance made for a reading experience resembling what we do when we are awaiting the next weekly episode of Game of Thrones, watching installments of other TV serials in the meantime. Whenever we pick up a Penguin or Oxford paperback of a Victorian novel today, we are engaged in the equivalent of binge-watching a series that has already reached its broadcast ending [and is] a very different experience from what Victorian audiences were doing with novels. Reading Like a Victorian reproduces the “serial moment” experienced by Victorian readers [...]

More info and screenshots and so on below the cut:

[...] if reading serial installments at their original pace is valuable, it is even more valuable to read them alongside parts of novels and of other kinds of texts that Victorian readers could have been following at the same time [...] [...] a reader who, in 1847, had been following the part issues of both Dickens’s Dombey and Son and Thackeray’s Vanity Fair and then picked up Jane Eyre, published in volume form in October of that year, might notice in Florence Dombey, Becky Sharp, and Jane Eyre a pattern of motherless or orphaned girls trying to negotiate a hostile world on their own. While this figure is well known to be a character type in Victorian fiction perfectly embodied by Jane Eyre and Florence Dombey, Becky Sharp does not often emerge among the heroines who fit that type; reading the novels simultaneously foregrounds parallels between Becky, Florence, and Jane that are not at all obvious if their storylines are experienced separately

I find that, for browsing, the website is easier to use on a computer or tablet than a phone, but it's ok on phone to search for something specific.

The timeline:

Here's what the timeline looks like:

It shows 12 months at a time, and using the left and right arrows will move you back or forward by a month. You can use the 'Jump To Date' function to navigate to a different twelve-month period. Or you can use the 'Author Search' function to navigate to particular works if you know the author's name.

In the above screenshot of the timeline, which shows the period January to December 1852, there are several works shown, including:

ongoing serialised works which had at least one installment published prior to 1852;

works which began serialisation during 1852;

works published in three-volume format during 1852;

other works published during 1852

Details about each work:

You can click on the bar that represents a book's publication to get a drop-down that provides information about that book, its publication, and links to help you read the relevant serial parts.

Here's what happens if you click on Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford:

On the left of the drop-down, there's some general information about the work, its publication history, and how to use the links.

On the right, there's information and links to help you experience the book in its serial parts: it separates out the parts, indicates the month and the year they were published, and what chapters of the work were published in that part. It also provides notes on each part where helpful. There is a scroll-bar at the right of the drop-down, so you can scroll down to the later installments of the work.

[I chose Cranford as an example as it helps demonstrate the value of the Reading Like a Victorian website... From what I understand, Gaskell initially wrote 'Our Society at Cranford' as a standalone piece of short fiction, but was encouraged to write more, so further pieces also set in the fictional town of Cranford were published intermittently in the same magazine over the next year or so. While a particularly dedicated Gaskell fan who wanted to 'read along' with Cranford following the original publication could probably search 1.5-years-worth of a weekly magazine to find the 9 issues which included the material which would later be published as Cranford, the Reading Like a Victorian website has already done that work for them... and also for anyone else who might be interested, but not quite that interested.]

The links

You can then click on an individual chapter to get links to various places to read it online:

When available / where possible, the website tends to include links to:

a facsimile copy of either the relevant serial part in the original publication, or in an 'annual' or similar volume collecting together the content of that publication, or a volume-form edition of that work if the work was not published serially or if facsimile copies of the original serialised publication are not available. [Most of the facsimiles are hosted by either the Internet Archive or the Hathi Trust Digital Library, but some are hosted as part of smaller, more specific collections, such as - in the case of Cranford - Dickens Journals Online which provides online access to the journals/magazines edited by Charles Dickens);

the text, usually on Project Gutenberg (this is usually the volume-form text, so the exact content and chapter breaks and so on may be different than originally published in serial parts; the Reading Like A Victorian website will generally explain when this is the case);

audio recordings, usually volunteer recordings from Librivox (again, the recordings are usually based on the volume-form text, so the exact content and chapter breaks and so on may be slightly different than originally published in the serial parts).

So yeah, I just thought it was a cool website and worth sharing. I believe the website is already used as a resource by some University courses and for academic research, but it can also be used by book clubs and to aid personal reading, etc. I'm using it to inform a personal reading project for 2024-26 where I follow along with six or seven novels serialised in 1864-66.

To save a scroll to the top, here's the link to the RLV website again: Reading Like A Victorian (osu.edu)

[If you want to join an already-planned read-along based on the original serialisation schedule, @dickensdaily will be doing Charles Dickens's historical novel Barnaby Rudge: A Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty from mid-February 2024 to late-November 2024, to follow along with the original weekly publication of the novel in Master Humphreys Clock from February 1841 to November 1841. I personally found Barnaby Rudge a really engaging, thought-provoking read, and I'm really looking forward to reading it again. (Anyone with particular triggers or other reasons to be wary of the content or language used in older books may find it helpful to look up content warnings for the book before making a decision to read it.)]

[kisilinramblings]

Short Seasons Are Killing TV

[elexuscal]

Danny Phantom, The Show:

geeky kid gets super powers from his parents' weird inventions! now he has to fight a rogue gallery of ghosts... but uh-oh! he still has to keep his grades up, deal with his embarrassing parents, and navigate girl troubles! rap theme song!

Danny Phantom, the Fandom, After 19 Years of Fermentation:

a child dies. but not quite. the inherent tension between life and death. the obsession of the dead for faded remnants of the living. warped green shadows on the walls of a dark laboratory. having to hide your true nature from those who should be your greatest allies. the fear of the monster you could become if you let yourself. being a ghost as a metaphor for the trans experience. a cold breath on the back of your neck in the dead of the night. rap theme song!

[kkgore]

I think there's also something here about spoiler culture and how, back in the day, you were actually reliant on your friends and co-workers to "spoil" the episode for you if you missed it and didn't record it, because otherwise god only knew when you would get the chance to see a repeat of the episode and if something important happened you needed to know about it.

"binge-worthy show" man fuck that

i want my shows one episode followed by a whole ass week of going a little insane over it with the people on my phone, writing fics theorizing and going over every single scene through amazing gifs and meta, before the next ep drops and the cicle begins anew

[xisadorapurlowx]

I'VE been thinking about doing a chapter serialisation for my new book. It would be completely free of course, but I want to know what you guys thought.

[limbobilbo]

“I know writers who use subtext and they���re all cowards”

-Hideo ‘creator of characters fatman, heartman and revolver ocelot’ Kojima

[snail-friend]

Billy WHY DO YOU HAVE A PLANE

[samanthamulder]

Ray Wise in Secrets From Another Place: Creating Twin Peaks

[mxcottonsocks]

How I feel about this announcement:

[Barnaby Rudge and the Raven Grip, illustrated by Fred Barnard for the 1874 'Household Edition' of Barnaby Rudge]

What Next? Our next novel revealed!

And the winner is…

Thank you so much for joining us in reading Great Expectations! We hope you enjoyed it just as much as we did.

“Enough of that,” we hear you cry! “What happens next?”

Last month, a poll was conducted to decide just that. The people have spoken and the votes have been tallied, so we can now reveal that our next Dickens Daily novel will be…

Barnaby Rudge

What is Barnaby Rudge?

A tale of the 1780 Gordon Riots, with murders and family conspiracies to boot, Dickens’ fifth novel, Barnaby Rudge,was serialised between February and November 1841 in the weekly publication Master Humphrey’s Clock.

Beginning as a vehicle for short stories - with the framing device of an old gentleman, Master Humphrey, and his friends telling stories in their society formed around the eponymous clock - Master Humphrey’s Clock did not sell too well, and so Dickens was forced to serialise first The Old Curiosity Shop and then Barnaby Rudge to keep it going.

What does this mean?

This means that our next full-length novel will begin in February 2024. Set your watches now!

As with Great Expectations, chapters will be sent out over two days for weeks where two chapters were published.

2024 being a leap year, unlike 1841, the days of the week will change a few chapters in so we can keep sending out entries on the correct dates. Chapters 1-5 will be sent out on Tuesdays and Fridays, then from Chapter 6 onwards they will be sent out on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

What about the next 6 months?

There are no definite plans for the time leading up to the start of Barnaby Rudge. However, since the hiatus will cover the Christmas period, there is a chance we will serialise one of Dickens’ many Christmas stories. We’ll be sure to let you know well in advance if this is planned!

Goodbye for now…

Thank you once again to everyone who, in reading along with us these past few months, has replicated the experiences of the Victorian readers who waited eagerly each week for the next chapter. We look forward to getting to do it all again next year!

[expelliarmus]

YESSS BIG FINISH PODCAST COMING IN MARCH!!! 🥳🥳🥳

And the first story they're releasing is Death and the Queen aka one of my favourite Ten and Donna stories!!!! And everyone can listen to it for free!!! SO EXCITED

[mxcottonsocks]

To celebrate the beginning of @dickensdaily, a substack which sends out Dickens Novels in line with their original serialisation schedule, beginning with Great Expectations (serialised December 1860 to August 1861), here's:

Reasons to read Great Expectations

I've done my best to keep this spoiler-free, so you should be able to read without ruining anything for yourself.

The characters

PIP: a Perfectly Imperfect Protagonist

Himbo With A Hammer

Local Woman Knows How To Hold A Grudge

Out Of Your League

Cinnamon Roll with Fruit (slightly squashed)

...and more...

Queer Themes

Obviously this is very much a matter of interpretation, but Great Expectations has room for readings around:

Homosociality / homoromanticism / homoeroticism

Compulsory (hetro-)sexuality

Non-traditional families and domestic arrangements

Other Themes

Social class (especially: "What makes a gentleman?")

Trauma

Child and domestic abuse (physical and emotional)

The law (criminality, punishment, money, property, etc)

...and more...

Genres

Great Expectations fits into several genres. [Descriptions below drawn from wikipedia.]

'Coming of Age' story / Bildungsroman (a genre that focuses on the psychological and/or moral growth of a protagonist from childhood to adulthood)

Sensation novel (a genre which reached peak popularity in the 1860-70s, and which 'has been variously defined as a "novel-with-a-secret" and which combines "romance and realism"')

elements of the social novel (a "work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel".)

elements of the Gothic (a 'loose literary genre of fear and haunting', often including 'the intrusion of the past upon the present')

One of Dickens' best novels

Great Expectations was Dickens' second-to-last completed novel, so he was at the top of his game at this point.

According to wikipedia, "in the 21st century, the novel retains good ratings among literary critics."

It's also popular with the general public. In 2003, the BBC surveyed 750,000 people in 'The Big Read' to find the UK's "best-loved novel", and Great Expectations ranked 17th.

The first Dickens novel I read, it remains my favourite Dickens, both as a story and as a work of art.

One of his most accessible novels

If you haven't read any Dickens before (or have, but struggled), Great Expectations may be the place to start.

It's one of his shorter novels, so less intimidating and easier to finish than many other Dickens books.

It's also in first person which mitigates some of the things people often struggle with in Dickens' writing:

With some Dickens novels, it can be difficult to tell what the 'main story' is because there are so many intersecting plotlines. In Great Expectations, we're essentially reading Pip's memoirs from his childhood to his young-adulthood, so we can understand all the other stories through Pip's story.

Likewise, we meet all the other characters through Pip, so the feeling of "who are all these people???" I often get from Dickens novels is reduced. We know characters through their relationship to Pip.

Dicken's minor characters are often caricatures, with features of their personality, appearance or manner exaggerated to create a comic or grotesque effect. Dickens likely did this to help readers more easily recall characters over the stretched-out timeframe of serial publication, but it can be jarring to modern readers. Because Great Expectations is from Pip's point of view, his subjectivity frames the caricatures; it feels natural that they lack complexity because Pip doesn't know the inner world of everyone he passes on the street any more than you or I do.

Dickens can often go on tangents/'rants' about society and social injustice at the time he was writing. This was a force for social change at the time, but can be baffling and/or boring to modern readers. Because Great Expectations is in the first person, when these 'rants' appear they feel more like 'my friend Pip grumbles about things that affect his life and the people around him' so are easier to engage with.

Bonus: a Choice of Endings...

Dickens originally wrote one ending for the novel, and then - following conversation with another novelist - changed it ahead of publication. This means that there are two endings of the novel to choose from, which is an interest interactive element.

[a-box-of-stupid-ideas]

if you like character meta (like I do) you'd like this! another perspective on Peri and Dev relationship and why Peri was chosen to be Dev's fairy godparent. I do like the idea that Peri was chosen because he's the exact opposite of Dev and how Dev preference to Irep is cause as Peri's anti fairy and his exact opposite personality so being a lot closer to Dev's personality. Also like the idea that Dev wants a yes man that Peri isn't so that also why Dev likes Irep more. Anyway the brain rot has got to me bad.

[lithi]

I thought… this was the side story announcement….

Just like for the Japanese 8th volume of WMMAP, Spoon has illustrated a new cover for the 10th volume!

I’m just hoping the image will be clearer this time around bc Bookwalker had a very bad image resolution for the 8th volume 💀

“What a shame that you’ll end up like this.”

“You think I’ll let you have your way?”

[takethelx3]

Them ☝️

Loooong version bc I wasn't sure if I liked it. Also Wayne manor has to have lots of windows I can sit in. For me. I want to sit in the window.

Also FUCK proportions and perspective the only P I care about is.... Uh. Wait come back to me on this.

[deus-ex-mona]

scrolled a little too far back on mogetwt and found pure gold:

[twistofstory]

I see the main story as a potential comic (and wrighting it as one), but with TMA AU I just go ham with the medium and try out different ways of storytelling and presentation :) I think it works best as an animated series or RPG, but why not try visual novel format?

I would most likely give all the avatars/monsters their own stylization to emphasize their dissonance with the world around them In any case, I really like how Fish's sprite came out here, it would be cool to draw him and other characters in a similar manner