I write like...

[Zoom]

I don't know if I trust its results that much - I get either Mark Twain or David Foster Wallace, depending on which sections I put in - but it's kind of cool.

iwl.me/

[Raphael]

So for my poetry I get J.R.R. Tolkien which I will definitely take. But one of my things also got Anna Rice, whom I do not know. My school papers are like P.G. Wodehouse. And my favorite short story, it is actually a short story and I put a lot of hrs into it, is like Dan Brown.

[sapphire]

This is pretty cool, actually. Though every different story got me a different author.
I do tend to vary quite a bit, style-wise, though, so I suppose that makes sense. The list I got:

Steven King
Ursula K. LeGuin
Lewis Carroll
David Foster Wallace (two very different sections of my novel both got him)
Jack London
James Joyce


I'm sort of doubting the accuracy, here. Heh. I also did a more academic piece just for fun and got H.P. Lovecraft. So that's ironic.
Fun idea, though.

[Zoom]

Or maybe it means we have the combined talents of all the writers we get. Yeah I'm going with that

Though actually he always did seem fairly academic and highbrow to me, ha. Love the idea of like writing an essay about such as like the role of postmodernist performance art in America's Korean war and then just CTHULU.

[Zoom]

Oh here is something interesting though: I put in several actual samples of HP Lovecraft's work and it invariably spat out Lovecraft.

[sapphire]

Ooh, interesting experiment. I wonder how many authors that would actually work for.

(Also, how do they determine that? Word choice, but what exactly do they mean by writing style? How many aspects of style do they use? Sentence structure, point of view, dialogue, long vs. short paragraphs...?)

[Zoom]

Yeah, really. It would have to be something relatively easy to define and then parse...common words used, I guess, sentence length...I'm just thinking like if I was going to code an app like that what would I be capable of making it do?

I miss the CBOX btw Although v5 is looking nice! I'm not super used to it yet but I bet in time it'll be natural

[sapphire]

We'll be able to get a new chat box - actually, v5 was supposed to just come with one, I think, down at the bottom of the home page. I'll try to get that figured out.

[A Mask Among Many]

I got:
Dan Brown
James Joyce
Arthur Conan Doyle (I'll take that any day of the week)
David Foster Wallace
And Finally J.R.R. Tolkein

I'm pretty happy. I don't know who a couple of those people are though...

[sapphire]

Ooh, all names I recognize, though not many I've read.
Actually, pretty sure the only one of those I haven't read is Dan Brown, but I went to school with all kinds of literary types, so I've been exposed to a ton of authors that I never would have come across otherwise.

Which ones don't you recognize?

[A Mask Among Many]

Dan brown and Wallace.

[sapphire]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Dan Brown write The Da Vinci Code?

David Foster Wallace is one I'd never have come across had I not been a writing major surrounded by literary-type people.
He wrote Infinite Jest, which is one of the books I had to go through to tag quotes for my internship with Small Demons. I've never read the whole book cover-to-cover, but I feel like I got a good look at his writing style from the many, many quotes in that monster of a book.

[Zoom]

Dan Brown wrote that and Angels and Demons, yeah. I think he has a new one coming out?

I've read Infinite Jest twice now and it is seriously one of the best books I've ever read. He's the smartest and sweetest person I've ever even heard of and I think I'd give just about anything to have been able to meet him. Like I'm reading The Corrections by Franzen now BECAUSE THEY WERE FRIENDS AND I WANT TO BE CLOSER TO HIM.
</rave>

Hey Saph do you have any reading recommendations?

[sapphire]

I must admit, I tried reading The Corrections and I couldn't finish it. Just didn't pull me in.

Ooh, recommendations.
Let's see...

You might like Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson. (It's a collection of short stories about the same character.)
Also anything by Tobias Wolff, though I most enjoyed This Boy's Life, his memoir. His short story "Bullet in the Brain" is spectacular for examining narrative technique, too - I think you can find it for free online.
If you're interested in sort of weird hyper-real stuff, Aimee Bender is excellent.
Oh, and George Saunders! Weird, weird stuff, but always worth a read.
Haruki Murakami has some good stuff. "A Shinagawa Monkey" is fascinating.

... I'll stop now.

[GiannaRose]

I put in two of my poems and got Jack London and Daniel Defoe