This looks very cool, but statements like "Suppose someone took every meaningful detail from all the books you love" are hyperbolic, given what this actually does, which is to reductively model a "storyverse" out of the people, places, food, music, and movies referenced in works of fiction. I realize that a lot of people derive some kind of satisfaction when the fiction they read acknowledges their pop cultural reality, but I don't think that this goes to the heart of the myriad ways by which fiction can be emotionally and intellectually resonant. Certainly not for everybody, at least.
Having said that, I can see how it would be hard to go further; it must be relatively easy to both identify people, places, movies, etc. in a text and to locate pertinent data for them out on the Web. It's much harder to do this with historical events, intellectual currents, literary tropes, and so on. The Web is still an ontologically simple place.
I would personally see Small Demons as a fun research and exploration tool, sort of a very special kind of concordance. I could see literary scholars of the "distant reading" school popularized by Franco Moretti finding some use in this. I really do think this is cool.
Yes, I agree, it's a very interesting concept. I wonder how their app will look and behave. Sounds kind of like imdb or freebase, but maybe with a different ui, or a new set of views into that sort of data.
Having said that, I can see how it would be hard to go further; it must be relatively easy to both identify people, places, movies, etc. in a text and to locate pertinent data for them out on the Web. It's much harder to do this with historical events, intellectual currents, literary tropes, and so on. The Web is still an ontologically simple place.
I would personally see Small Demons as a fun research and exploration tool, sort of a very special kind of concordance. I could see literary scholars of the "distant reading" school popularized by Franco Moretti finding some use in this. I really do think this is cool.