In the shadow of this syzygy, we might pause, for a moment, to consider the de-publication ofΒ Eclipse from the Internet. As Bruno Latour might remind us, once a punctualized actor like Eclipse breaks down, its myriad components are on rare view to the user. Of course, there is little need to turn to the Internet Archive unless one needs access to a site no longer available online. On browsing the haphazard collection of captures, date by date, a whole network of automated and variable processes can be traced over time. From a bibliographic perspective, the reader may thus contend with the trickier aspects of digital publication: continually updated (or disappearing) content, changing forms and formats, and a host of contextual and intertextual modulationsβall of which dramatically impact our understanding of the material conditions of a little database like Eclipse. |  “Archival Penumbra.” In Focus: Lost & Found, ed. Kyle Schlesinger. American Book Review, Volume 34, Number 3, March/April 2013. [PDF]
|