Tuesday, July 20, 2010

The infinite jest of RamView

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!




Curious to find out if I have an actual literary style, I fed an old RamView to the recently highly-publicized I Write Like site, and it came back telling me I write like David Foster Wallace. Though I was expecting a sportswriter, briefly, I thought, oh, I get it. Wallace wrote Infinite Jest, which I know nothing about, other than it's like 1,200 pages long. I needed a website to tell me RamView is wordy?

So I picked a small piece of the same RamView for analysis. Result: David Foster Wallace.
I picked part of a different RamView, the end of the last one from last year. Result: David Foster Wallace. I picked one of my RamBlog entries. Result: David Foster Wallace! Apparently, I am the second coming of David Foster Wallace!

Then again, the same website says Kim Kardashian writes like James Joyce. And that Wallace, and I, apparently, write like a personal ad seeking a gym partner.

Having read none of his writing, I relied on Wikipedia to figure out why I might be considered the next David Foster Wallace (or gym partner-seeking want ad). It mentions his uses of many forms of irony. I'd be impressed with a computer algorithm that can detect that. (Is sarcasm a form of irony? It's definitely my specialty.) More likely, the site's keying on use of long multi-clause sentences, use of acronyms and abbreviations, and maybe use of jargon and vocabulary from a variety of fields. Who knew that using complex language structures like "TD" and "FG" would put me right up there with the author of one of Time's 100 Greatest Novels ever? Or one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last 20 years? (Irony! Or sarcasm! Or both!)


Wikipedia also describes Wallace as a "hysterical realist". That's a perfect description of my experience as a Rams fan. Wallace and I are kindred spirits.

Actually, I hope not. He lost a 20-year battle with depression and committed suicide in 2008. Fortunately, the Rams have only been depressing for about five years now.

(Though this footnote should really make my "style" like Wallace's, when I submitted this post to I Write Like, it told me I write like sci-fi writer and blogger Cory Doctorow now. Huh, a blog post that looks like it was written by a blogger.)

(Also, whatever the hell this font is will be the new font of RamBlog from now on, because I am SICK of setting the font to Verdana like I want and having stupid Blogger ignore me nine times out of ten.)

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