Friday 19 November 2010

The truth always hurts

There is a site on the web that affects to be able to analyze one's writing style and liken it to published authors. I ran one or two of my pieces through, and discover, to my consternation, that, apparently, I write like Dan Brown. Oh, the shame!

My consternation was slightly alleviated when my friend, an Anglican priest, ran his sermons through the same analysis, to discover that his style was that of  H.P.Lovecraft, who, according to Wikipedia, was known best for 'horror and weird fiction'.

In fairness, I ran a well-known piece of Jane Austen through the test and it came up with, er, Jane Austen. Too easy. I tried its teeth on a little-known piece of Evelyn Waugh's, from his biography of Monsignor Ronald Knox, and the answer came back…………… H.P.Lovecraft!

Impolite and humourless observations will not be posted.

14 comments:

William said...

How nice (?) to be assured that my sermons sound as if they have come (albeit perhaps indirectly) from the pen of Evelyn Waugh. Mind you, one of my most recent ones was analysed as being like James Joyce. I expect that's a polite way of saying that it was incomprehensible nonsense (which, on reflection, is probably a fair comment, the only surprise being that all of them were not so characterised.)

Jane said...

I just ran a piece of Pope Benedict's "Spirit of the Liturgy" and that came up as Dan Brown too!

Crazy!

Jackie Parkes MJ said...

It was a fun thing to do! Apparently mine was Stephen King..never read one of his books..though I might now!

davidforster said...

I tried this three times with three different articles I've written, and got three different authors: Dan Brown, William Shakespeare, and Cory Doctorow. Either my style is varying wildly, or the test isn't particularly accurate! Perhaps longer articles are needed for reliable testing?

pelerin said...

That was fun! It tells me that I write like William Gibson. Never having heard of him I looked him up and it appears that he was an American Science Fiction writer. Strange, as the piece I put in was from a column I had written in a Philatelic magazine but perhaps because I mentioned the Ainu tribe from Japan, it thought that they had come from outer space!

Mike Cliffson said...

Politeness I may aim at, humour I fall short:sufficeth the following?
Of My two most recent comments in yr combox It says the first is like james Joyce, the second like W.Shakespeare.(Both men authors, mind you)
I think it's a con, like reincarnation noboby was ever an anonymous bedforshire churl, or apetty thief...
I might be like the barman who served Joyce, or shakespeare's sunday gofer.....
I'm reminded of one time when sacked , The only time I did some fancy testing organized by the dole office, took 3/4 hour alone to answer a number of very odd and disconnected questions, let alone further tests and information and personal interviews.
Apparently I was ideally suited to be the PR officer of a sewage works.I kid you not.
I wanted to be a civil engineer, have done all sorts, but 95% has been teaching, but sometimes now as a grandfather I wistfully muse on might-have-beens.

Just analyzed the above:Scots whahey! It now says PG wodehouse! Jeeves , laugh!

Anonymous said...

I'll bet that your Anglican priest friend ddidd not mention 'eldritch horror' in his sermons even once, nor Chulthu (however it is spelt) either...

GOR said...

Yes, fun indeed!

My first attempt came back as The Bard.

Then one with some Gaelic words which came back as - Vladimir Nabokov!

Finally, I tried one in Italian, which resulted in J. Joyce - most likely due to incomprehensibility.

And I was hoping for Dante... Got some work to do, obviously!

The Bones said...

It says different authors every time you try it.

Amanda said...

Hmm... Sounds like you have too much time on your hands on sabbactical!
LOL.

Michael Gollop said...

Dan Brown, too, I'm afraid.
But it seems I'm in good company!

pelerin said...

Interesting that GOR tried one in Italian that came back as James Joyce. Being a Piaf fan I just put in a couple of lines from 'Non je ne regrette rien' and it came out as James Joyce too!!

Laurence what was your first one ? -
Not another Dan Brown I trust?!

St John's, Horsham said...

I was pleased to come up as James Joyce!
What a hoot.

pelerin said...

Everyone else seems to have got somebody we have all heard of. Why did I get someone I had never heard of or am I merely ignorant? At least mine is still alive so that's a plus.

Dan Brown and James Joyce seem to be leading. And we only have one Oscar Wilde so far!