Hayley's Research Report
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Abstract:
In his article The Kind of ‘Secret Readers’: Edgar Poe, Cryptography, and the Origins of the Detective Story, Shawn Rosenheim suggests that cryptography, and related puzzle-like writings such as hieroglyphs, ciphers, conundrums, etc., are key to understanding the theory of Poe’s writing. Solving cryptographs or “secret writings”, according to Rosenheim, was Poe’s way of experimenting with signification in general thus cryptography served as model for Poe's construction of language and development of plot.
Description:
Poe's Theories:
Shawn Rosenheim’s article The King of `Secret Readers’: Edgar Poe, Cryptography, and the Origins of the Detective Story shows the connection between Poe’s understanding of cryptography and his understanding of language helps us understand his written work in the detective fiction genre, including such stories as “The Gold-Bug”. The mental or analytic skills required to solve cryptograms are required in reading Poe’s writing because theories of language evolved from and are modeled on cryptography. Rosenheim’s article generally suggests that cryptography influenced Poe’s theory on language, it influenced the way Poe wrote and the way he understood the meaning behind what he wrote. In other words, the act of decoding cryptographs and the thought process required for such an activity offered Poe a way to model “essential semiotic operations” in language (376). Furthermore, the theories Poe constructed about language from cryptography served as a model for construction of language and development of plot. Indeed, much of the generic form of the detective story emerged indirectly out of Poe’s understanding of signification from cryptography. Rosenheim also suggests that the analytic aspect of solving these kinds of language puzzles is of major importance to Poe because he believed that these secret writings exercised the mind in a way that “gives tone to important powers of the mind” (377).
Solving Cryptograms:
The analytic method necessary to solve a cryptogram, Rosenhiem believes, gave Poe a paradigm for experimenting with signification in language. The concept of cryptography provides several possibilities for the project of the English 194 Gold-Bug team, which is studying Poe’s story “The Gold-Bug” (which even includes a cryptograph). By including cryptograms anywhere in the project, either by creating one, or solving one, we be would relating the significance of cryptography to the story. However, we could take the idea further by making the project as a whole a kind of “puzzle” with cryptograms that either must be solved in order to move ahead or are solved by moving through the project via various clues, information given, etc. With this approach, the concept of the mystery plot in “The Gold-Bug”, the idea that the reader must decode Poe’s language just as his characters must decode the “secret writing” to find the treasure, is recreated in a kind of interactive exploration in our project. Just as the analytic aspect of Poe’s writing, the significance of solving plays a role in “The Gold-Bug”, so it would in our project as well. Hopefully, the viewer would make the connection between the action in our project and the action in the story or at least recognize that cryptography is a significant aspect of the story “The Gold-Bug”. As mentioned earlier, cryptography plays a significant role in understanding Poe’s writing and work in all his detective fiction thus Poe’s theories and models according to Rosenheim are not just limited to “The Gold-Bug” but stretch across all of Poe’s works and his understanding of language and meaning in general. Hence, by including cryptography in our project we are not only conveying a significant part of the work “The Gold-Bug” but are relating a significant aspect of Poe as well.
Evaluation:
As with any new media resource or medium, there are always limitations and complications especially when working with a virtual space, such as the Internet, where not all components are in the user's control. Often limitations to a project or use of a program are due to a learning curve or lack of knowledge of how to fully utilize that particular resource. As virtual and new media resources remain a new and developing field, there is still a limit to who has the accessibility and ability to utilize these sources.
Hence, there are limitations that the Goldbug team might encounter while pursuing the concept of cryptography in the team project. First, the team will have to make the project linear besides just being interactive to make sure the user solves the puzzles in the correct order. As once concept behind Hyptertext is the outside linking, this could become frustrating or boring to the user as well as create limitations with how much outside information we could included. Furthermore, the original plot of The Gold-Bug text is not in chronological order. Thus, with a strict linear structure, the project would loose that aspect of Poe's text. There is also a possibility that the meaning behind using the cryptograms in the project, the idea they embody about Poe’s theories and understanding of language, could be lost to the user if he or she lacks prior knowledge of Poe or is not familiar with the text. Another limitation to consider is the creating and construction of cryptographs will be time consuming and difficult. It is possible that the Goldbug team would have to limit the size of the project or number of “puzzles” used because of time lef tin the course. A final limitation the concept of cryptography might present is whether or not the user takes the time to actually solve the puzzles in order to move through the project. The Goldbug team has little control over this situation and therefore is completely dependent upon the user’s involvement and interest in the project. Thus, as a team we must do the best we can to engage the user and make the project interesting as well as informative. Images, music, and animation are all ways to make sure the user stays involved.
However, the concept of solving puzzles, of using the theme behind cryptography, does provide our team with many possibilities to explore concepts in Poe's text The Gold-Bug. Besides using actual cryptograms for the user to solve, the project could include similar problem solving devices. Certain excerpts from the text that the reader must interpret or, with a program like Flash, specific buttons which could reveal clues or ways to move forward, are examples of devices that would still be utilizing Poe's concept of the cryptogram as a mental game. According to Rosenheim, Poe's theories for writing, his construction of language and development of plot, are directly influenced by his interest of Cryptography. Likewise, in the construction of the Goldbug team project, including cryptograms or at least applying the same concepts utilized by Poe, not only will reflect aspects of the text The Gold-Bug itself, but the project will also exemplify Poe's theories in action.
Resources:
Resources for further study on the topic of cryptography include a source I also cited on my annotated bibliography, Michael Williams’ "The Language of the Cipher" which also discusses the relationship of the signifier to the signified in language, and how language can be decoded to discover meaning, such as in a cryptograph. There are many works relating to cryptography’s influence on Poe, as it was a well known hobby of his, but also there are endless sites online that explore cryptograms and even allow you to build your own. The sites [cryptograms.org] or [puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com] lets you create your own cryptograms thus provides a better understanding of how they work and what they entail.
Sources For Further Study:
Carlson, Eric W. A Companion to Poe Studies. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1996>
Rosenheim, Shawn. “The King of ‘Secret Readers’: Edgar Poe, Crytography, and the Orgins of the Detective Story. EHL, Vol. 56, No.2. (1989),pp. 375-400. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/
Williams, Michael. “The Language of the Cipher”: Interpretation in “The Gold-Bug”. American Literature, Vol. 53, No.4. (Jan., 1982), pp. 646-660. Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/
