Genderqueer Gets Reviewed... by, umm, I think, an AI ?!?
So I do a vanity search one day on YouTube, being too lazy to just go to my profile account and click on "videos". And up pops:
This video review of GenderQueer
... from somebody named "Novelzilla".
Which got me quite excited, because I seldom get unsolicited reviews. Naturally I'm curious to see whether they liked it and what critical observations they had to make about it, and how they saw it tie in (or fail to tie in) with the existing perspectives within the LGBTQIA community and so on.
First observation: it's being read by a text-to-speech application. Not one of the good ones. The expression and emphasis do not fit the sentences, and the cadence and rhythm aren't as good as the voice in our car's GPS.
But, okay, some people can't speak for themselves because of various impairments, and some people really don't like their own voice and prefer to have the computer read what they've written. I'm in an authors' group and some of the authors have software read their selections instead of reading it out loud themselves. Novelzilla should have consulted them -- they have better ones that they're using!
Well... then Novelzilla gets to the second sentence and informs people that "Through a combination of personal narratives, interviews, and cultural analysis, the author sheds light on the challenges and triumphs of those who exist outside traditional gender norms". Which is disconcerting, because there are no interviews in GenderQueer. I wouldn't describe it as having "personal narratives" either... just the one personal narrative, my own story.
I am told that my approach is "deeply compassionate and respectful" and that I treat genderqueer identities as "valid and worthy of understanding". That would be compassionate towards and respectful of myself, since I'm my own subject matter, and if I didn't think my identity was valid and worthy of understanding, why would I have written my story?
"Hunter highlights the journey of individuals", continues the narration. Umm, no, just the journey of one individual.
Deeper into the review, Novelzilla states that I "incorporate critical analysis of cultural representations of genderqueer individuals". That would be an interesting project: I'd be inclined to say there were no cultural representations of genderqueer individuals in the 70s when the story took place, since the word "genderqueer" wasn't in use yet. That was the point of the book! To show what the experience is like when there's no widely shared identity for such a person, no word and no concept, just a lot of inaccurate and inadequate misidentifications.
If my book has been assigned as reading for a course somewhere, I could believe some student had taken the time to write a review of a book they hadn't bothered to read, to fake their way to a passing course grade. But since it isn't, I'm quite bewildered.
My best guess is that someone is playing with an artificial intelligence program and dropping some keywords in and seeing what it comes up with for various books. The "review" is mostly generalities that would probably apply to nearly any published book about being genderqueer, including mine, but the algorithm isn't distinguishing between someone writing social-political theory and someone writing memoir, so that's where it's tripping up.
Novelzilla has other videos up, all reviews of various books, mostly nonfiction and imbued with social commentary in some sense. I see there's a review of Norah Vincent's Self-Made Man, for instance. From a brief peek, it looks like the AI is getting better; it seems more accurate in its specifics than it was for mine, although it's possible that Norah Vincent would notice things that are overly general or outright incorrect.
Maybe Novelzilla is an aspiring writer itself, and reviewing books is how Novelzilla is learning the craft. Keep an eye out for any new titles such as Sentient Software: Another Identity Like and Yet Unlike Your own, or of such ilk as that.
If they get publishing contracts, and hence payment for their work, AI's can use their earnings to buy books and hence will become a part of the market, and perhaps in a few years the bookracks will be stocked with books written by and for AI's.
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My first book, GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet, is published by Sunstone Press. It is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in paperback, hardback, and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves.
My second book, That Guy in Our Women's Studies Class, has also now been published by Sunstone Press. It's a sequel to GenderQueer. It is available on Amazon and on Barnes & Noble in paperback and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves.
I have started querying my third book, Within the Box, and I'm still seeking advance readers for reviews and feedback. It is set in a psychiatric/rehab facility and is focused on self-determination and identity. Chronologically, it fits between the events in GenderQueer and those described in Guy in Women's Studies; unlike the other two, it is narrowly focused on events in a one-month timeframe and is more of a suspense thriller, although like the other two is also a nonfiction memoir. Contact me if you're interested.
Links to published reviews and comments are listed on my Home Page, for both published books.
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This DreamWidth blog is echoed on LiveJournal and WordPress. I was going to start echoing it on Substack as well but we're not off to a good start. Anyway, please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.
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Index of all Blog Posts
This video review of GenderQueer
... from somebody named "Novelzilla".
Which got me quite excited, because I seldom get unsolicited reviews. Naturally I'm curious to see whether they liked it and what critical observations they had to make about it, and how they saw it tie in (or fail to tie in) with the existing perspectives within the LGBTQIA community and so on.
First observation: it's being read by a text-to-speech application. Not one of the good ones. The expression and emphasis do not fit the sentences, and the cadence and rhythm aren't as good as the voice in our car's GPS.
But, okay, some people can't speak for themselves because of various impairments, and some people really don't like their own voice and prefer to have the computer read what they've written. I'm in an authors' group and some of the authors have software read their selections instead of reading it out loud themselves. Novelzilla should have consulted them -- they have better ones that they're using!
Well... then Novelzilla gets to the second sentence and informs people that "Through a combination of personal narratives, interviews, and cultural analysis, the author sheds light on the challenges and triumphs of those who exist outside traditional gender norms". Which is disconcerting, because there are no interviews in GenderQueer. I wouldn't describe it as having "personal narratives" either... just the one personal narrative, my own story.
I am told that my approach is "deeply compassionate and respectful" and that I treat genderqueer identities as "valid and worthy of understanding". That would be compassionate towards and respectful of myself, since I'm my own subject matter, and if I didn't think my identity was valid and worthy of understanding, why would I have written my story?
"Hunter highlights the journey of individuals", continues the narration. Umm, no, just the journey of one individual.
Deeper into the review, Novelzilla states that I "incorporate critical analysis of cultural representations of genderqueer individuals". That would be an interesting project: I'd be inclined to say there were no cultural representations of genderqueer individuals in the 70s when the story took place, since the word "genderqueer" wasn't in use yet. That was the point of the book! To show what the experience is like when there's no widely shared identity for such a person, no word and no concept, just a lot of inaccurate and inadequate misidentifications.
If my book has been assigned as reading for a course somewhere, I could believe some student had taken the time to write a review of a book they hadn't bothered to read, to fake their way to a passing course grade. But since it isn't, I'm quite bewildered.
My best guess is that someone is playing with an artificial intelligence program and dropping some keywords in and seeing what it comes up with for various books. The "review" is mostly generalities that would probably apply to nearly any published book about being genderqueer, including mine, but the algorithm isn't distinguishing between someone writing social-political theory and someone writing memoir, so that's where it's tripping up.
Novelzilla has other videos up, all reviews of various books, mostly nonfiction and imbued with social commentary in some sense. I see there's a review of Norah Vincent's Self-Made Man, for instance. From a brief peek, it looks like the AI is getting better; it seems more accurate in its specifics than it was for mine, although it's possible that Norah Vincent would notice things that are overly general or outright incorrect.
Maybe Novelzilla is an aspiring writer itself, and reviewing books is how Novelzilla is learning the craft. Keep an eye out for any new titles such as Sentient Software: Another Identity Like and Yet Unlike Your own, or of such ilk as that.
If they get publishing contracts, and hence payment for their work, AI's can use their earnings to buy books and hence will become a part of the market, and perhaps in a few years the bookracks will be stocked with books written by and for AI's.
-----
My first book, GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet, is published by Sunstone Press. It is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in paperback, hardback, and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves.
My second book, That Guy in Our Women's Studies Class, has also now been published by Sunstone Press. It's a sequel to GenderQueer. It is available on Amazon and on Barnes & Noble in paperback and ebook, and as ebook only from Apple, Kobo, and directly from Sunstone Press themselves.
I have started querying my third book, Within the Box, and I'm still seeking advance readers for reviews and feedback. It is set in a psychiatric/rehab facility and is focused on self-determination and identity. Chronologically, it fits between the events in GenderQueer and those described in Guy in Women's Studies; unlike the other two, it is narrowly focused on events in a one-month timeframe and is more of a suspense thriller, although like the other two is also a nonfiction memoir. Contact me if you're interested.
Links to published reviews and comments are listed on my Home Page, for both published books.
-------
This DreamWidth blog is echoed on LiveJournal and WordPress. I was going to start echoing it on Substack as well but we're not off to a good start. Anyway, please friend/link me from any of those environments on which you have an account.
--------
Index of all Blog Posts