“Franco Moretti is already famous in bookish circles for his data-centric approach to novels, which he graphs, maps, and charts. Now he’s going digital, building searchable databases of old books, working to write software that can mine for patterns. Instead of diving deep into a few beloved titles, Moretti aims to zip across the creative output of entire eras. He calls it distant reading, and if his new methods catch on, they could change the way we look at literary history.”