In this special introductory episode, we dive into where all the amazing stories in the series come from.

Host Dr Rod Lamberts speaks with Australian National University’s Dr Katherine Bode about how the massive database that inspired this podcast came about and how her work as a historian has helped her understand the hopes and dreams for the future people had through the fiction they were reading and writing.

The 'To Be Continued' database project aims to gather all the fiction that was published in Australian newspapers during the 19th and early 20th centuries, together Rod and Dr Bode discuss she is attempting to recreate the reading culture of Australia during this era, where newspapers, rather than books, were the primary source of reading material.

But the ‘To Be Continued’ project relies on searching through Trove, the National Library of Australia's digital collection. Trove is publicly accessible, and volunteers can help correct optical character recognition (OCR) errors, enhancing the quality of digitised texts.

The conversation then veers towards the influence and role of AI technologies like Chat GPT in literature. Bode acknowledges the intriguing possibilities presented by these technological advancements but also emphasises the human touch's irreplaceable value in interpreting what's relevant or significant in fiction to different contexts like Australian history or specific readership groups. The future potential of AI in reshaping reading and writing experiences is an exciting thought for Kath.

Mentioned in the episode

Dr Bode’s piece at humanities.org.au: To be continued: making (and discovering) Australia’s literary history

Elizabeth Braddon's ‘Vixen’

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