Part II Limitations and Future Directions
Limitations:
The focus in this project is to display a close analysis of the revision Malamud did on A New Life. As such, we utilized line-by-line editing to showcase the differences between editions. As with other aspects of this project, this endeavor brought its own share of limitations. For example, if Malamud changed the order of events in a scene, this was particularly difficult to display while keeping with the focus of the project and often these moments were not emphasized to the extent we would have liked. Because of copyright constraints, we relied heavily on excerpts we chose based on our data. As a result, there are many moments of significant change we were not able to include. Additionally, our hybrid sections are merely simulations of Malamud's editing process and we have no evidence, outside of his comments on the manuscript, that the line-by-line editing is fully representative of the way Malamud edited and revised his work. We think that, while they have significant value in providing visual representations of Malamud's revisions and providing a more accessible way to do analysis, they best serve as a suggestion of the writing and revision processes for authors such as Malamud. Finally, we recognize that the sample analyses we have provided likely contain biases and are certainly not exhaustive.
Suggestions for future directions:
In an effort to leave this section of the project open for future contributions that will ensure that it continues to evolve and stay relevant in ongoing studies of Malamud, we intentionally left many of our pages with only brief contextual notes rather than full-length analyses. We wanted to have at least one "sample analysis" per section to provide a starting point in creating new content and we hope that by labeling them "sample" analyses, we will encourage users to build from or challenge our interpretations so as to bring forth a more complex, multi-directional understanding of the novel. We hope that by leaving some pages without in-depth analysis, we will encourage user participation and further conversation around the moments we have chosen. By having a transparent attitude where the project's limitations are concerned, we also hope that users will be inspired to seek out other moments in the novel for analysis or even utilize other strategies to showcase Malamud's edits that may not have the same limitations line-by-line edits have. While we have put a lot of time and care into this project, our ultimate goal is to further the study of Malamud's work and we recognize and welcome the need for continued development on the groundwork laid down here.