jjh@se-sd.UUCP (jjh) (04/29/86)
> A few years ago, a computer somewhere (a college, i believe) was > programmed to write a book - a work of fiction, generated by the > computer itself -- i believe it was a mystery, titled something > very unusual, like: THE POLICEMAN'S PARTIALLY-CONSTRUCTED > MOUSTACHE -- The book in question is entitled "The Policeman's Beard is Half Constructed", and is a collection of sort-of-free-verse poetry generated by a Basic program called Racter (short for Raconteur). It's great fun to read; I highly recommend tracking it down, or ordering it if necessary. A couple of small samples: An eagle flies high, it flies higher than a sea gull. But the crow wings rapidly from tree to bush to hedge. The same can be true of life and of death. Sometimes life flies high, sometimes death wings rapidly. Sometimes it is spoken that death wings from tree to bush to hedge. Sometimes it does not. ------ Slide and tumble and fall among The dead. Here and there Will be found a utensil. The publisher is Warner Books. I'm not sure if Racter or William Chamberlain (Racter's author) is listed as the book's author. A program called Racter is available for the IBM PC and the Mac from Mindscape Software. I've played some with the PC version; it seems to be a very limited subset of the book-writing program (more along the lines of ELIZA). I really can't recommend going out of your way to buy it, although I've heard that the voice synthesis the Mac version uses makes it a lot more fun. Jim Hayes
lenoil@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU (Robert Scott Lenoil) (04/30/86)
In article <57@se-sd.UUCP> jjh@se-sd.UUCP (Jim Hayes) writes: > A program called Racter is available for the IBM PC and the Mac from > Mindscape Software. I've played some with the PC version; it seems > to be a very limited subset of the book-writing program (more along > the lines of ELIZA). I really can't recommend going out of your way > to buy it, although I've heard that the voice synthesis the Mac version > uses makes it a lot more fun. > > Jim Hayes The May issue of Byte reviews Racter, and their opinion is don't buy it. The review includes some snips of the session with Racter. It's perhaps a little better than Eliza, but that's not saying very much. -Robert Lenoil
jack@cca.UUCP (Jack Orenstein) (04/30/86)
> > A few years ago, a computer somewhere (a college, i believe) was > > programmed to write a book - a work of fiction, generated by the > > computer itself -- i believe it was a mystery, titled something > > very unusual, like: THE POLICEMAN'S PARTIALLY-CONSTRUCTED > > MOUSTACHE -- > > The book in question is entitled "The Policeman's Beard is Half > Constructed", and is a collection of sort-of-free-verse poetry > generated by a Basic program called Racter (short for Raconteur). I have it on good authority (although second-hand) that an entire *novel* was generated by computer. It was the result of a research project which aimed to "parameterize" an author's writing style. The study concentrated primarily on one author, Italo Calvino, and I have heard that the novel, "If on a winter's night a traveller", was actually published and marketed with Calvino's blessing. Jack Orenstein
gordon@warwick.UUCP (Gordon Joly) (05/07/86)
> From "The Policeman's Beard is Half Constructed" - > An eagle flies high, it flies higher than a sea gull. > But the crow wings rapidly from tree to bush to > hedge. The same can be true of life and of death. > Sometimes life flies high, sometimes death wings > rapidly. Sometimes it is spoken that death wings > from tree to bush to hedge. Sometimes it does not. Zen in the Art of Word Processing :-) Gordon Joly -- {seismo,ucbvax,decvax}!mcvax!ukc!warwick!gordon Coda:- A friend once wrote a program (in BASIC) to write music in the style of Syd Barrett (of Pink Floyd fame).