The Inchoate Reviews of Google Books
Many items in Google Books have been given a "Common terms and phrases" list, or "word cloud," with links to the text. Roughly speaking they are words whose frequency in the book is much greater than their frequency in general use.
When I discussed The Boy Mechanic recently I called this an "inchoate review ( Read more... )
When I discussed The Boy Mechanic recently I called this an "inchoate review ( Read more... )
Comments 9
The second is clearly A Christmas Carol, the second is Donkey Hote, the third appears to be the Communist Manifesto, and the fourth I'd guess to be Newton's treatise on Optics.
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In case you're wondering, here's the cloud from a Spanish edition of Don Quixote:
adarga agora Alcalá Alonso Alquife Alvaro Tarfe amigo aposento Archipámpano Argamesilla armado asno Ateca Avellaneda aventuras Bárbara batalla Belianís de Grecia bellaco Bramidán buen caballero andante Caballero Desamorado caballo cabeza calle Capítulo Carlos castillo cenar Cervantes cervantina comenzó criado dama decir dejado delante dellos diablo diciendo digo dijo don Quijote dijo Sancho doña Luisa Dulcinea del Toboso ermitaño escudero espada estaba fuese gente gigante grandísima Gregorio gusto hallar harto hidalgo honra Japelín jote jumento libros de caballerías llama llegó llevar luego Madrid Mancha mandó mano Martín de Riquer melonero metió mirando Mosén Valentín mozo mujer mundo noche paje parece pasar Perianeo Persia poco príncipe Priora proprio queda quiero recebir reina Zenobia replicó Sancho respondió Sancho rey de Chipre Rocinante rucio sacó salir Sancho dijo Sancho Panza soldado sortija suerte Tajayunque tengo tenía traía ( ... )
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"It's in, Ben. It's very in."
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I haven't read the book in decades, but, having lived in the city, I'll stake that claim.
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For me, there are three cultural divides between the Nineteenth Century and the Twentieth. Quantum physics and World War I are two, and Sigmund Freud is the third. I put Freud in that category of pioneers whose importance as a trail blazer is far more than the importance of the details of his theories. Nineteenth Century notions of perfectly rational actors are a little absurd to us; our taking for granted some sort of "unconscious" would be bizarre to someone Nineteenth Century.
One of the first Twentieth Century art movements was dada, which was prompted to delve into the unconscious by WW I.
That stuff could make good dada poetry. (iirc, dada originated as a literary movement, and only a little later went visual.) Twentyfirst Century technology "creating" Twentieth Century art is a notion I may have to chew over for a while . . .
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What, no zeppelins?
That stuff could make good dada poetry. (iirc, dada originated as a literary movement, and only a little later went visual.) Twentyfirst Century technology "creating" Twentieth Century art is a notion I may have to chew over for a while . . .
Want to see the essay you write about it.
Speaking of machine-generated literature, there was a discussion the other day of a story-generating card game Jo and Ken Walton cooked up years ago... let me rummage... here it is.
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& yeah, I saw that thing about Jo's card game. I want one. I do still have my copy of NESFA's role-playing If I Ran the Zoo Con. somewhere
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