Classic Books, and thier punctuaion heat-maps
February 17, 2016 6:47 AM   Subscribe

Can you recognise a well known text via only it's punctuation? "I wondered what did my favorite books look like without words. Can you tell them apart or are they all a-mush? In fact, they can be quite distinct."

Does exactly what it says in the title.

Skip to the end of the (short) article for the heat-maps
posted by Faintdreams (32 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
Hi, guess what book I am.1
----
1. Postprandial, postprandial, postprandial, now your wishes all come true.
posted by runt at 6:53 AM on February 17, 2016 [4 favorites]


Proof, in case anyone needs it, that any post about punctuation is bound to include at least one punctuation error. No snark intended.
posted by pipeski at 6:54 AM on February 17, 2016 [6 favorites]


I could tell Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West based solely on punctuation. Here's an excerpt:



















Ah man, literary studies jokes!
posted by cjorgensen at 6:54 AM on February 17, 2016 [4 favorites]


Dammit. I can't believe I mis-spelt punctuation in the friggin title ! gah!
posted by Faintdreams at 6:57 AM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]


fouder mister printer the Nowing ones complane of my book the fust edition had no stops I put in A Nuf here and thay may peper and solt it as they plese


,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
................ ................ ................. ................... .................
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
..............................! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !.............................
................................... ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ................................
........................................ ! ! ! ! ! ! .....................................
.............................................!............................................
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
...............????????????????????????...............
posted by Metroid Baby at 7:00 AM on February 17, 2016 [12 favorites]


!
posted by sammyo at 7:02 AM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


A Faulkner novel has lots of commas??? :O

Edit: The wps graph made me lol.
posted by echocollate at 7:15 AM on February 17, 2016


Dammit. I can't believe I mis-spelt punctuation in the friggin title ! gah!
And thier. And it's.
posted by beagle at 7:17 AM on February 17, 2016 [8 favorites]


I know this thread is going to devolve in to ASCII image jokes and I wish I knew the first thing about them because I'd make that sassy dancing cat one saying "please clap" and say that it was from Jeb's forthcoming autobiography.
posted by saladin at 7:18 AM on February 17, 2016


Came for a Cormac McCarthy reference in the article, stayed.
posted by mysticreferee at 7:20 AM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


I'd like to see a bigger sample. Specifically, Proust.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:21 AM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


This is neat. Thanks for sharing.
posted by weeyin at 7:24 AM on February 17, 2016


::hangs head in shame:: :C
posted by Faintdreams at 7:26 AM on February 17, 2016


What's going on with the bright red line through the middle of Huckleberry Finn?
posted by noneuclidean at 7:33 AM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


.
posted by Splunge at 8:14 AM on February 17, 2016


Oooh. Now do two books by Stephen King; one during his Coke addiction, and one after. Include ellipses and ALL CAPS WORDS.
posted by KGMoney at 8:16 AM on February 17, 2016


Sadly, no excerpt from my self-published novel The Adventures of Professor Interrobang.
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 8:36 AM on February 17, 2016 [2 favorites]


Needs more Gaddis, and Finnegans Wake.
posted by OHenryPacey at 8:47 AM on February 17, 2016


Dos exactly what it say's in the tittle.
posted by Wolfdog at 9:27 AM on February 17, 2016


What's going on with the bright red line through the middle of Huckleberry Finn?

Chapter XXI has a playbill with some fixed-width formatting. I'm guessing that's it.
    The Balcony Scene 
    in 
    Romeo and Juliet ! ! ! 
    Romeo...................Mr. Garrick 
    Juliet..................Mr. Kean 
posted by paper chromatographologist at 9:34 AM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


I was, of course, reading Ecclesiastes at night in a very old Bible that had heavy pages. At first I read it over and over again every night, and then I read it once every night, and then I began reading just a few verses every night, and now I was just looking at the punctuation marks.

Actually I was counting them, a chapter every night. I was putting the number of punctuation marks down in a notebook, in neat columns. I called the notebook "The Punctuation Marks in Ecclesiastes." I thought it was a nice title. I was doing it as a kind of study in engineering.

Certainly before they build ships they know how many rivets it takes to hold the ship together and the various sizes of the rivets. I was curious about the number of rivets and the sizes of those rivets in Ecclesiastes, a dark and beautiful ship sailing on our waters.

A summary of my little columns would go something like this: the first chapter of Ecclesiastes has 57 punctuation marks and they are broken down into 22 commas, 8 semi-colons, 8 colons, 2 question marks and 17 periods.

The second chapter of Ecclesiastes has 103 punctuation marks and they are broken down into 45 commas, 12 semi-colons, 15 colons, 6 question marks and 25 periods.

The third chapter of Ecclesiastes has 77 punctuation marks and they are broken down into 33 commas, 21 semi-colons, 8 colons, 3 question marks and 12 periods.

The fourth chapter of Ecclesiastes has 58 punctuation marks and they are broken down into 25 commas, 9 semi-colons, 5 colons, 2 question marks and 17 periods.

The fifth chapter of Ecclesiastes has 67 punctuation marks and they are broken down into 25 commas, 7 semi-colons, 15 colons, 3 question marks and 17 periods.

And this is what I was doing by lantern light at Big Sur, and I gained a pleasure and an appreciation by doing this. Personally I think the Bible gains by reading it with a lantern. I do not think the Bible has ever truly adjusted to electricity.

By lantern light, the Bible shows its best. I counted the punctuation marks in Ecclesiastes very carefully so as not to make a mistake, and then I blew the lantern out.
Richard Brautigan - A Confederate General From Big Sur (1947)
posted by rollick at 9:37 AM on February 17, 2016 [6 favorites]


I enjoyed this. Thanks.

(No punctuation snarks were included in this message.)
posted by tallmiddleagedgeek at 9:38 AM on February 17, 2016


Some author should write a stunt novel using the exact same punctuation of a famous book.
posted by fings at 9:47 AM on February 17, 2016 [3 favorites]


That actually sounds like a really good creative writing exercise.
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 10:45 AM on February 17, 2016


Someone do Walter Abisch next!
posted by pxe2000 at 11:17 AM on February 17, 2016


:,.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 11:49 AM on February 17, 2016 [1 favorite]


The graphs don't include frequency of dashes and hyphens—which is a shame.
posted by limeonaire at 12:29 PM on February 17, 2016


These all look like emails from my mom, who thinks ,,,,, is the same as ...... and is positively teenage with her !!!!!s
posted by St. Peepsburg at 1:48 PM on February 17, 2016


Can you recognise a well known text via only it's punctuation?

I'd be disappointed to learn that any of the cells or computations of my brain are wasted on such useless patterns. Writing style, vocabulary, even grammar ... maybe ... but punctuation??
posted by Twang at 2:54 PM on February 17, 2016


Weird that the article seems to be starting from the presumption that the way Cormac McCarthy did it was automatically better. I would have come to the opposite conclusion.
posted by kafziel at 4:22 PM on February 17, 2016


Aside from individual writers' tics, some of the expectations for punctuation use have altered significantly since the nineteenth century, especially colons and semi-colons (often used for dramatic purpose to indicate a long/longer pause at spots where the modern reader expects a comma). It takes a while for my students to acclimate to Charlotte Bronte.
posted by thomas j wise at 4:44 PM on February 17, 2016


I find it hard to believe I just read an article about the use of punctuation, and specifically the amount of commas in a work, and it didn’t mention Henry James.
posted by bongo_x at 12:14 PM on February 18, 2016


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