Scientific Studies Applied to Literary Hits

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Monique GOLAY

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Some time ago I read something rather interesting regarding how scientific studies brought out what verbs are most used in literary hits (e.g. to remember) in contrast with flops (e.g. to want). I tried to find that study back but only fell on this link: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/10/key-hit-books-discovered-highly-successful-literature. It seems that literary hits bring out more the historicity of what has already been written in the text. You have that in music, too, as that is what I gathered from my acoustic guitar lessons. Pieces that have repetitions (without being repetitious as in rock "music") form the ear and get better appreciated.
Perhaps something to bear in mind.
 
Oh, do I? I am interested in physics, but I meant it in another sense of the word: this;
  1. an underlying or pervasive quality of a particular type, esp. in a work of art or literature: an apocalyptic resonance
 
I find this sort of thing worrying, as I can well believe that marketing types would use such software to coerce writers into doing their bidding. And what would happen if one's manuscript was fed into a computer to be edited in this way, with the carefully chosen words and phrases replaced by buzz words? I have problems enough battling inept spell-checkers and doltish Google search results - I did a search for a Millet painting recently, and half of the results showed Miley Cyrus exposing herself!
Apparently computers are being used to write novels. I chortled at the awful computer-generated poem in this article - http://uk.businessinsider.com/novels-written-by-computers-2014-11
That phrase 'you can be replaced' has sadly come true for many occupations with computer driven technology. But any artistic activity requires the human touch - don't you agree?
 
I find this sort of thing worrying, as I can well believe that marketing types would use such software to coerce writers into doing their bidding. And what would happen if one's manuscript was fed into a computer to be edited in this way, with the carefully chosen words and phrases replaced by buzz words? I have problems enough battling inept spell-checkers and doltish Google search results - I did a search for a Millet painting recently, and half of the results showed Miley Cyrus exposing herself!
Apparently computers are being used to write novels. I chortled at the awful computer-generated poem in this article - http://uk.businessinsider.com/novels-written-by-computers-2014-11
That phrase 'you can be replaced' has sadly come true for many occupations with computer driven technology. But any artistic activity requires the human touch - don't you agree?

Frightening, BUT I think there would be mass rebellion among artists of all stripes. Think the indie music scene--with mainstream music being little more than autotuned synth, actual musicians turned to making seriously real music.

For us writers, I would think those of us who aren't in it to be superstars or what have you would do the same, and should.
 
My intuition is that computerized literature cannot be funny, humourous or ironic. At least, nothing in the quoted article, http://uk.businessinsider.com/novels-written-by-computers-2014-11, made me chuckle or really grasped my imagination. What worries me more is the possibility that computers may beat Go masters (the game of Go is a 4000-year old Chinese game a bit like Chess, except vaster, as the program Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in 1996; but no program has yet beaten a Go master). Putting such artificial intelligence into the hands of goverments may be worse still, if possible, than having put atomic and H bombs into their hands. Oh well, better laugh than cry. It inspires me to write a story about robots possessing such artificial intelligence in whose hands atomic bombs are given.
 
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Ah, there I go! Somebody has already had the idea before me. It's easier to have an idea than to fructify it, not only in literature, but also in sciences. There's a lot of idea stealing in physics. Miguel, a friend who taught physics at a college level, told me that the famous Isaac Newton litterally stole the ideas from an another fellow whose name I don't even know anymore.
 
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