April 4, 2023

Illin’ Updates!

For the last few days, I have been under the weather. I caught whatever funk Autumn had last week, and I’ve been as gray and gross and wet as the weather. Fortunately, it’s not COVID-19. I thought I’d be better by today, but I had to call off teaching. I’m certain my students are disappointed. There is a bright side, however, of being relegated to the couch: I have totally updated—well I should say updating as the process remains ongoing—my resources for Epic Poetry and Greek Tragedy. Like my CompFAQ, I have been getting the writing help of ChatGPT, but this time most of the writing remains my own. These resources are still in-process, but I like what I have so far. The way I’ve structured them gives me an idea or template for how I might revise more of my literary resources on this site, specifically for the texts I teach frequently, like those in World Literature.

I live doing stuff like this. It’s real work, but enjoyable. And, as I mentioned a couple of days ago, it’s an enjoyable challenge to get ChatGTP to give me what I need. It’s a great tool. I’d love to see a large language model AI geared specifically for literary studies, complete with full-text primary and secondary documents, theoretical texts, historical reviews, and critical essays. What a boon for researchers that would be. Man, just the stuff we already have on Project Mailer would make a great model for an Norman Mailer AI—a Digital Norm, if you will. Well, if I can’t do it, at least the information is there on Project Mailer for consideration at a future date.