I am having a hard time mustering up any strong feelings about Moretti's concept of network theory in either a positive or negative manner. On one hand, I think creating a network of the character relationships or whatever elements is a rather nifty notion. I can see it being extremely intersesting and useful, and Moretti's methodology seems to be egalitarian, giving each word the exact same value and weight as every other (3). However, I also share a lot of Steven's frustrations, as none of the conlcusions that Moretti comes to are particularly earthshattering. Yeah, removing some characters from Hamlet raises questions about the dyanmics between characters and why it is that some people are more central than others despite being secondary characters in terms of plot. But, as Steven said so well, this isn't really new?

I think these network maps are super cool, and could definitely prove useful. But I'm just not sold on the necessity of it all.