Too Big to Fail

This chapter explores the importance of magnitude as a theme in Laurie Anderson’s work, particularly Big Science. It begins by tracing histories of the titular phrase and then investigates the semiotics of bigness. Particularly with reference to individual identity, big systems, big edifices, and big collections of data all suggest superhuman states of consciousness. Accordingly, big knowledge systems such as linguistics, artificial intelligence, and the occult are all discussed. The chapter then reconciles their superhuman scale (and the attendant kinds of awareness it implies) with the paradoxical fact that such tokens of bigness are themselves human-made. Throughout, it draws connections between these notions and the album.