Torrefaction

OMG. Via Kalichan.

http://goodnightdune.com/index.html

via dsudis , a little widget that statistically analyzes text you dump into it and compares it to various authors.  I dumped a page of one of my stories into it and got: 



I am heartened by the fact that when I dumped the first three paragraphs of The Dead into it, it said "I" write like James Joyce. I wanted to try dumping part of a free online Stephen King short story into it, but "free King story"=bwa ha ha ha ha right.

I'm pleased that it decided my prose is King-like, because he writes a type of straight-ahead "invisible" prose that I like a lot (his plots are another matter). I don't try to emulate him but I do like his style. I suppose if I try to emulate anyone stylistically it's Hemingway, except without all the bull (-fighting and -shit). I am aware that I do not succeed, what with my love of tortuous sentences, but it's good to have a touchstone.

This reminds me that once I told my Mom that I had gotten an audiobook of Hemingway short stories, and that I'd listened to one story so far. She said, drily, "was it about love, and death?" To which I truthfully replied "yes, and bullfighting," which made her about fall over with glee and mockery. She is an English professor with not much use for Hemingway.

K. Beaton, aka beatonna , draws hilarious web comics including this newest gem about 15th century peasant romance:  http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=255


Also worth a look--my favorite, Dude Watchin With The Brontes.  More fun stuff in the archive.

The "Literal Video Version" of  "Total Eclipse of the Heart" *


*Tori Amos did an awesome cover of this on one of her bootleg albums, by the way.