Perhaps the most resonant of the concepts I’ve read for this week is the concept of Two Cultures – that is, the Culture of the Scientist and the Culture of the Humanist. As far as my narrow wording can describe it, this alludes to the choice students make at some point either late in high school or sometime in their college careers. Like many of my literary colleagues might attest to, it has something to do with our predisposition towards the stereotypical division of mental processes- the left hemisphere and right hemisphere of the brain. I’m not scientifically qualified to discuss the differences, but the gist is that each “Culture” has a specific lean in their professional life. One is geared towards data collection, calculation and manipulation for various purposes (those who major in science, mathematics, business, economics etc). The other simply likes to spin, analyze, and read some great tales, thinking about the “why” and not so much the “what” or “how much”, telling numbers, results and the scientific method to piss off, because let’s face it, numbers are the little bastards that got us into our current economic crisis, and yet none have been brought to justice.

Myself being included among the Culture of the Humanist, reading about something called the “Digital Humanities” thoroughly offended my literary-analysis-geared sensibilities. The vagueness of the DH label combined with the prospect of attempting to learn the language of computers set off my internal alarm. Was no major sacred anymore? Is there no respite from the long arm of numbers?

It was not until I read the Q&A with Brett Bobley that I began to grasp the general goal of DH, not so malign as I once thought. In spite of the article’s questionable editing, what especially piqued my interest was his allusion of the ultimate goal of DH to the changes digital distribution has made to the music business. Bobley’s interpretation was that “[students would] have access to materials from all over the world. You won’t have to send a book via airmail from New York to Chicago because you’ll have instant access to it on your PC (or your mobile device). If you want to study materials in China,you’ll be able to view them (or for that matter, find out about them) using the Web”.

Now compare this prospect to the way music and videos are so unimaginably widespread, with an incredible ease of access. No longer would college students have to put up with ridiculous prices on textbooks, only to have them publish a new edition with five more pictures and a $100+ markup the following year. We’ve seen just the tip of this with online library databases; what if such a thing were made available to all students with small fees, the ability to have it all in one place, no wasted paper, and with a much wider range of material? I’d kill to be able to have my textbooks contained in their entirety on a Kindle. To me, DH isn’t about labeling things as outdated and secretly turning us into engineering majors; it’s about convenience and making the life of a student less of a hassle and (hopefully) much less costly. If any of these hypotheses are an intended result of this program, I say yes please!