Last weekend I mentioned wanting to take a refresher course at ACC to punch up my writing skills. Then last night my friend Kate plugs this site which “analyzes” one’s style and pairs it with a famous author. She got David Foster Wallace. I guess that was a good result, I never heard of him until he committed suicide.
Curious, I took a shot…and got the same result! What a crock was my immediate reaction. Either it only gives one result or it’s random. I tried the same entry, still received Wallace. Then I took a snippet from The Economist…Arthur C. Clarke. Agreed, dry, matter-of-factly, pompous and stubborn in its views (Clarke hated any other fiction with FTL travel). So I fed the site my last ten Picayune entries:
- David Foster Wallace – 7
- Stephen King – 1
- William Gibson – 1
- Isaac Asimov – 1
Now I was even more puzzled, and insulted because Asimov is boring. However, confusion reigned. How can my writing be similar to three authors I’ve never read and one I have but he only co-authored the book with Bruce Sterling (The Difference Engine, a key piece of Steampunk ficition)? An English PhD could do better.
Again, I think the algorithm used is rather simplified. I am curious to see who the other authors are and what can I do to get Douglas Coupland, Margaret Atwood or Gordon R. Dickson without moving to Canada.