Draft:The Hofmann Wobble

"The Hofmann Wobble" is a short story by Ben Lerner that was published in the 20 November 2023 issue of Harper's Magazine. In the story, which thinks aloud about the use of Artificial intelligence in literature, the narrator considers making a Wikipedia page entitled "The Hofmann Wobble," describing "a period of instability in our collective metaphorical frames," which refers here to the thinking of the fictional linguist Elaine Hofmann, a character in the story, who encourages the radical reframing of discourse that the narrator endeavors to effect through creative engagement with Wikipedia during the early years of the popular use of the crowd-sourced encyclopedia.