That’s right. H.P. Lovecraft, the master of dark fantasy and eloquent advocate of unbridled horror, has descended from the mountain of madness to show off his editing skills and take advantage of a library spilling over with the best of the alternative press. And alas, senior editor Jeff Severns Guntzel and intern Will Wlizlo were devoured this morning by the hideous beast Cthulhu, which has taken up residence in the kitchenette. Hence begins a new era for Utne Reader.
Don’t worry. That was, of course, all fabrication. We’ve been playing with a new web application designed by Coding Robots called “I Write Like” that allows you to insert your own writing sample and, in a feat of smoke-and-mirrors meta-analysis, learn which famous author most closely shares your word choice and writing style. To test the program, we submitted actual Utne Reader editor in chief David Schimke’s most recent editorial column “We the People” and found that his closest match was H.P. Lovecraft. Who knew? Writing can be painstaking work. We all over-scrutinize our work and labor over short clauses. At least now we have someone to compare ourselves to.
(Thanks, Book Bench!)
Image by California Cthulhu (Will Hart), licensed under Creative Commons.
