(1) Overview

Context

This data was produced as part of the research article:

Martin Paul Eve, ‘“You have to keep track of your changes”: The Version Variants and Publishing History of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas’, Open Library of Humanities, 2(1), http://dx.doi.org/10.16995/olh.82.

(2) Methods

Steps

The dataset was created by close-reading the two versions of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas [, ] side-by-side and making subjective/hermeneutic/interpretational judgements about the functional equivalence, or otherwise, of passages. I then transcribed this into a JSON dictionary.

The methodology for this transcription was as follows:

  1. Assign a name to each edition (I used “E” and “P” to represent “Electronic” and “Print” respectively).
  2. For each “question” posed by the archivist, assign a sequentially incremented identifier. The first question in the P edition, then, becomes PQ1. The second is PQ2 etc. For the Electronic edition, this would be EQ1 and EQ2.
  3. For each “answer” or “response” provided by the Fabricant Sonmi ~451, assign a sequentially incremented identifier. The first answer in the P edition, then, becomes PR1, the second PR2 etc. In the E edition, this would be ER1 and ER2.

This methodology for identifying textual passages works well for this chapter of the novel, since the text is strictly divided into alternating question and answer sections.

The final part of the methodology was to match sections between the two editions and to map crossovers. This is the most contestable part of this dataset but a reference table for how this has been achieved can be found in the appendix of the associated article at: http://dx.doi.org/10.16995/olh.82.

Those who wish to move from this dataset back to the original text should count questions and responses from the start of the respective edition. Verification that the correct point has been reached can be made with reference to the aforementioned appendix.

Sampling strategy

The dataset covers the section of Cloud Atlas entitled “An Orison of Sonmi ~451” in its entirety. A side-by-side comparison of the texts indicated that this is where the primary differences lie between the versions.

Quality Control

The data was checked at multiple stages by the author.

(3) Dataset description

Object name

CloudAtlasVariants.json

Format names and versions

JSON

Creation dates

Start: 2015-12-15

End: 2016-01-10

Dataset Creators

Language

English

License

CC-BY

Repository name

Figshare

Publication date

2016-07-20

(4) Reuse potential

Further studies of the editorial processes surrounding works of contemporary fiction may wish to re-use this dataset as a case study in the editorial practices of David Ebershoff (and others) as well the potential de-synchronizations that can occur between versions. It may also be of use to those studying version variance in other early novels by David Mitchell and other works of contemporary fiction.

Other scholars may wish to check and revise the interpretations of functional equivalence that I have posited in this dataset and re-issue future versions that have greater community consensus around the interpretation.

Perhaps most importantly, though, this dataset serves as a base on which others may draw in tracing the textual genetics of contemporary fiction. This dataset is also deliberately designed to be ingested by various D3.js tools for visualization and I hope that others will re-use this dataset within novel visualization paradigms for textual genetics. Digital humanities courses that wish to pursue visualization of textual genetics may also find this dataset of use as a relatively small and manageable corpus that can be set as in-class exercises.

There are no barriers to the re-use of this dataset as no copyright portions of the fictional work are here reproduced.