Of the many readings this week, there seemed to be an interesting theme regarding the social and digital influence of different decisions or different kinds of similarities found across genres. Some of these similarities were measured through Amazon searches, while others were focused around looking within Shakespeare's plays and measuring the social affect certain characters have on other characters and the plot as a whole.
In the Network Theory and Plot Analysis by Franco Moretti we see this measurement of the influence on the plot or network by singular characters. As Moretti reports on a study of a Marvel Comics plot,
When a group of researchers applied network theory to the Marvel series, however,
their view of the protagonist made no reference to interiority;
the protagonist was simply 'that character that minimized the sum of the distances to all other vertices';
in other words, the center of the network.
This is in contrast to the characters of Hamlet who all have differing levels of influence on the plot and when removed, affect the plot in unique ways that don't necessarily wipe out the central focus. But this is perhaps not so different than Ed Finn's observation that David Foster Wallace creates something of a Wallace sub-net
with his genre of writing. I think these two ideas of social and social/digital influence work together and companies like Klout seem very aware of it.
Klout is an organization that claims it can measure our influence on others through highly trafficked social media like facebook and twitter. Klout believes that our influence is measured by what brings others to action (like reposting or clicking "like"). If that's the case, then perhaps we all create our own sub-net, but within that sub-net are we trying to be the central focus like the Marvel characters or are we part of a much larger web like the characters of Hamlet where "individual agency is muddled; what is truly deadly, is the character's position in the network, chained to the warring poles of king and prince" (Moretti 4)? In either case, are we searching for popularity or becoming an integral part in the web of other's lives? Both thoughts are chilling in some regard, but yet it's impossible to ignore that the digital sphere more and more asks the question to what regard we have influence, or are simply part of someone or something else's influence over the world.