Sunday, October 6, 2013

Reflections of Text Encoding

Is 'Holy Crap!?!?!!? WTH??!!?!' appropriate language for a blog post regarding TEI and Thoreau's ancient, extremely valuable (I guess that's relative) manuscript leaves of Walden? I don't know or care - I think it's the only language to reflect what I just experienced.

Perhaps I'm being slightly melodramatic.  I "completed" leaf 0110.tif of the Walden manuscript.  There were sections that were easier than others, and I feel as though I have a general idea of what is going on with zones, lines, etc. However, actually reading Thoreau's handwriting is an enormous challenge.  That is where my biggest struggle is.  Much of it is illegible, and I am still unable to find the spot in the book that my leaf is from, making it nearly impossible to figure out what he wrote.  I do not recognize what I have read so far as an excerpt from the Reading chapter, which admittedly makes me a little nervous.

I also have some questions to bring to the class about what to do when there are notes written in the margin, how to indicate that something is underlined, and where zones should start if a strikethrough begins in the middle of a paragraph.  These questions are noted in my work in red, along with my uncertainties about words.  Below is what I have figured out so far:

<sourceDoc>
            <surface xml:id=”s_____”  n=”_________”  ulx= “0”  uly= “0”  lrx= “2856”  lry= “3424”>
                        <graphic url= “0110.tif”/>
                        <zone ulx= “176” uly= “184”  lrx= “1952”  lry= “996”>
                                    <line>Managed not advertised?, who, </line>
Note in margin – “p.62” … what do I do?
                                    <line>Too, was asunder that the floor, </line>
                                    <line>Does _____ way under the, </line>
                                    <line>Visitor while he is admiring,</line>
                                    <line>The _____ when the ____ when the mantel,</line>
                                    <line>_____ him through into? the _____, </line>
                                    <line>_____ _____ and homer, through, </line>
                                    <line>Earth’s, foundation! ____ </line>
                        </zone>
                        <zone rendition= “strikethrough” ulx= “1960” uly= “912” lrx= “1220” lry= “1372”>
                                    <line>[Often when, </line>
                                    <line>We ____ ____ for the beautiful, </line>
                                    <line>______ cultivated out of doors, </line>
                                    <line>Where there is ‘no house – and the,</line>
                                    <line>House - ______]’. </line>
                        </zone>
                        <zone ulx= “1432” uly= “1356” lrx= “2680” lry= “2368”>
                                    <line>Before we can adorn, </line>
                                    <line>Our house with beautiful objects – the, </line>   Note in margin- p. 63
                                    <line>Walls must be straight – and our lives, </line>
                                    <line>Must be straight, our? beautiful house-, </line>
                                    <line>____ and beautiful living be laid, </line>
                                    <line>For a foundation. Now _____, </line>
                                    <line>Call tools for the beautiful _____, </line>
                                    <line>Cultivated out of doors, where there, </line>
                                    <line>Is no house, and no house _____. </line> note that text “and no house____” is underlined
                        </zone>
                        <zone rendition= “strikethrough” ulx= “304” uly= “2476” lrx= “2626” lry= “3388”>
                                    <line>Though we are walls ______-, </line>
                                    <line>-Ted ____ that we might ____ live in, </line>
<line>A cave or a wigwam <zone rendition= “strikethrough”> to-day </zone> craves?, </line>
<line>Skins to-day – it is continents?, </line>
<line>Better to accept the _______, </line>
<line>Though so dearly bought, which the, </line>
<line>Invention and industry of mankind, </line>
<line>Often.  ___   In? much a neighbor - </line>

</zone>


To put it simply, this TEI stuff is TOUGH! My brain hurts.

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