Comments on: I've read all his stuff; who else would I like?

I've read all his stuff; who else would I like?

JanetLand — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 12:48:20 -0800

Type in an author, and it tells you who wrote similar stuff. Includes a nifty floaty effect. And you know, I never knew that Jane Austen and Socrates had so much in common.

By: russilwvong

russilwvong — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 12:59:37 -0800

By: Gator

Gator — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:00:02 -0800

I typed in V.C. Andrews, just out of morbid curiosity, and Stephen Hawkings (sic) came up in the top of the cloud. The fuck?

By: mrmojoflying

mrmojoflying — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:00:11 -0800

Or that if I like Lao Tzu, then Michael Criton and Joyce Carol Oates is for me! What a crock.

By: hoverboards don't work on water

hoverboards don't work on water — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:01:52 -0800

It seems to be a "people who liked X also liked Y, therefore X and Y are close" engine rather than a direct comparison of X and Y. Still cool!

By: languagehat

languagehat — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:02:36 -0800

The closest writers to Ezra Pound is Richard Wagner? And nearby is Amy Lowell?? These are who it's "likely someone [who likes Pound] will like"? I don't think so. And "Rovertson Davies"? Sloppy, sloppy. Nice idea, poor execution.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:03:30 -0800

On seeing other people's results, I suspect it distributes the names purely at random. If so, a mildly amusing jeu d'esprit.

By: Gator

Gator — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:03:44 -0800

Okay, this is hilarious. I may have to bookmark it. I put in Thomas Harris (author of the Hannibal Lecter books, dontcha know), and it suggested, among others, J.R.R. Tolkien, Joanne K. Rowling, Dan Brown, and Edward Eager (who, in the likely event you're unfamiliar with his work, wrote children's books such as Half Magic, Seven-Day Magic, and Magic By the Lake eons ago).

By: The Jesse Helms

The Jesse Helms — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:03:55 -0800

I typed in Jesus and it returned Morrissey.

By: bardic

bardic — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:07:26 -0800

No Kleinzahler, Palmer, or Howe. But the John Ashbery returns made some sense.

By: kozad

kozad — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:07:48 -0800

I learned that Fyodor Dostoevsky and David Sedaris have a lot in common. Hmm. I've seen a lot of sites that do this sort of thing well with music...are there any sites that make more useful connections in literature than this floaty spacey thing?

By: jefbla

jefbla — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:08:05 -0800

If you are a fan of Dr. Seuss then you will also like Dr. Suess.

By: mrmojoflying

mrmojoflying — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:08:17 -0800

I typed in Bill Clinton and got Roger Ass.

By: Space Coyote

Space Coyote — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:08:18 -0800

I can't seem to find anything that isn't more than two steps away from either Chuck Palanhuk or Oscar Wilde.

By: Pontius Pilate

Pontius Pilate — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:08:59 -0800

Doesn't seem too random - I put in "Strugatsky" (my favorite Russian sci-fi writers that are sadly largely unknown in the US), and I got back Disch, Heinlein, Simak, Lem, Dick, Herbert, Adams, and Asimov. It's at least giving sci-fi matches, though the connection between Strugatsky brothers and Douglas Adams is tenuous at best.

By: nebulawindphone

nebulawindphone — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:16:49 -0800

"Moses" gets you a few apostles, God, Jesus (so far so good), Huxley, Kerouac, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Anne Rice. Mebbe I need to get a newer edition of the apocrypha.

By: orthogonality

orthogonality — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:18:36 -0800

Gator writes "Edward Eager (who, in the likely event you're unfamiliar with his work, wrote children's books such as Half Magic, Seven-Day Magic, and Magic By the Lake eons ago)." God I loved those books as a kid. So much so I re-read tehm a few years back.

By: nebulawindphone

nebulawindphone — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:18:36 -0800

(Even better, searching for "God" gets you Hunter S. Thompson. Mind you, I'm a fan of both of their work, but I thought I was in the minority.)

By: eustacescrubb

eustacescrubb — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:19:47 -0800

The "floaty effect" is pretty darn choppy.

By: papakwanz

papakwanz — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:21:22 -0800

I put in "Italo Calvino" and I'm getting back (roughly in order of closeness): Borges, Marquez, Auster, Joyce, Eco, Kundera, Nabokov, Kafka, Dostoevski, Delillo, Haruki Murakami... On the farthest reaches I'm getting: Cortazar, Forster, Golding, Fitzgerald, Kozinski. Seems like not too bad.

By: Gator

Gator — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:27:05 -0800

Like Shakespeare? You'll love Sylvia Plath and Aleister Crowley. Like the Marquis de Sade? You'll love Jesus, Dr. Suess, and Byron. Like Lewis Carroll? You'll love Orson Wells (sic), Sun Tzu, and Marilyn Manson. Awesome.

By: Gator

Gator — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:36:29 -0800

Ronald Reagan yields: Tom Clancy (waaay upper left), John Grisham (waaay lower left), Stephen King (waaay lower right), and clustered around the center, Dean R. Koontz, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Theresa May, and Mary Poppins. That's it. Definitely bookmarked.

By: bashos_frog

bashos_frog — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:41:05 -0800

It does pretty well for Bruce Sterling, Alan Moore, and Christopher Moore.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:41:29 -0800

Interesting. I was surprised that Proust and *shudder* St Exupery showed up so close to Witold Gombrowicz, with Kafka nowhere in sight. I like the floaty effect.

By: bashos_frog

bashos_frog — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:42:35 -0800

also re: Ezra Pound/Richard Wagner - there might be a fascism thing going on there.

By: jrb223

jrb223 — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:44:47 -0800

I went with Francois Rabelais, and dug the mix of novelists and theorists that came back (marx to danielewski), but I'd love to have a bit of explanation, or even just a description of the writers when I come across ones I am unfamiliar with.

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:46:19 -0800

Yeah, it's "people who like X also like Y" not any sort of similarity-based tool. It's not that bad. "gore vidal" got me "william burroughs" and "william f. buckley" on the perimeters, but then "william burroughs" had no buckley in sight. Makes sense to me.

By: drobot

drobot — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:50:23 -0800

Yeah, this is some good stuff - I typed Jesus, saw Drew Carey listed (among others), clicked on Drew Carey, and was shown God, Jesus, Drew Carey, Michael Crichton, and Dave Barry.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:51:20 -0800

It sucks incredibly bad in Safari. It froze my browser and made my computer's fans sound like a plane taking off. (Dual 2.3 Ghz G5, 2.5 GB RAM)

By: jrochest

jrochest — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:54:49 -0800

Well, maybe it's fine on the 20th century, and/or for genre fiction, but it sucks horseloogies when you try to get it to cover anything earlier: input Shakespeare and you get Marlowe, click on Marlowe and you get Jonson -- not great, since there are several dozen playwrights working at the same time. But not too bad. But enter Milton and you get CS Lewis, Donald Westlake (huh?), Marguerite Yourcenar, Heidigger and Seneca. Eh?

By: drobot

drobot — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:54:51 -0800

papakwanz - I tried Calvino, too, and thought it was decent in some cases - like Lem, Perec, Mathews, and those you named but some of the very close results were weird, like Aldous Huxley and Georege Orwell are right next to Calvino, when there are definitely closer matches. Where is the data coming from for this, and how does it get better?

By: Gator

Gator — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 13:57:29 -0800

I think the data is coming from here (which, if I'm right, means that this thing is ripe for [probably already in-progress] abuse).

By: rush

rush — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:05:27 -0800

Two observations: 1. This is a two-browser affair. It's definitely brought up people with whom I am not familiar, and I can't get info on them from this page. I have to have an Amazon window open at the same time. 2. I was fascinated to see that several author's heavy influences don't show up on their map. This doesn't make the map wrong - just interesting.

By: rush

rush — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:06:55 -0800

Sorry for the grammatical failure.

By: scody

scody — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:09:46 -0800

James Joyce > Nabokov, Dostoevsky, and Sedaris. heh.

By: jfuller

jfuller — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:16:43 -0800

If you like Robert Louis Stevenson you may also like Conan Doyle (yep), Conrad (yep), and Dickens (yep.) You may also like Martin Luther, St. Augustine, Pauline Kael, and Ray Kurzweil. Well, who's to say you won't?

By: blendor

blendor — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:33:40 -0800

I never know who to read next after I suck one author dry. This is pretty cool, thanks!

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:37:26 -0800

Michael Crighton, Michael Criton, and Michael Chricton are in serious trouble if Michael Crichton ever comes calling.

By: papakwanz

papakwanz — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:41:10 -0800

But enter Milton and you get CS Lewis Christian thing going on there. Lewis wrote a lot of commentaries on Paradise Lost

By: xmutex

xmutex — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:42:41 -0800

David Dukes gives you Garrison Keillor, Anne Rice, and Marquis de Sade. Sure, sure.

By: xmutex

xmutex — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:43:10 -0800

err, Daivd Duke.

By: Gamblor

Gamblor — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:47:31 -0800

Heinlein yielded Ayn Rand, which made me throw up a little in my mouth. And Ayn Rand led to Dave Barry. Somehow that makes perfect sense to me.

By: Sparx

Sparx — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 14:56:17 -0800

The Vonnegut results were respectable, but I see a lot of names in the cloud that others have got in their results. And, of course, the ubiquitous Wr Wilde has as *his* cloud a great deal of the good stuff of the 20th century.

By: luriete

luriete — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 15:14:49 -0800

worked well for me. put in haruki murakami, and got back a list that included jonathan lethem, china mieville, chabon, pynchon, roth, vonnegut, eggers, and auster - all writers I like. There are a few new ones in there that I'll have to check out - leon de winter (?), rohinton mistry, julio cortazar, etc. a neat idea!

By: amberglow

amberglow — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 15:24:12 -0800

how weird--James Frey comes up for Saramago (the other ones were good tho) luriete--you must read A Fine Balance by Mistry--unbelievably great and powerful book

By: dhartung

dhartung — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 15:43:50 -0800

Yes, this is a really old and fairly primitive recommendation engine, and seems to have more than a few typos thanks to user input. I've always kind of liked gnooks and gnoosic, the whole gnod universe (which has been around for years -- at least 2002). I like the enter-three-artists, get-one, click, get-one etc. model well enough. The music engine seems to have a lot more data, which probably increases its overall accuracy. I've never really liked the floaty network interface, though -- the names never stop moving, and you can't navigate very well through it in a meaningful way. LivePlasma has a much better UI for those who want to use this approach.

By: soiled cowboy

soiled cowboy — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 15:51:12 -0800

"Karl Capek is not yet available"

By: mykescipark

mykescipark — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 16:37:59 -0800

And god help you if you click on the names and read the vapid "message board" contents ... Salman Rushdie is a minefield of idiocy.

By: mrgrimm

mrgrimm — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 17:20:51 -0800

"Karl Capek is not yet available" Neither is Todd Brendan Fahey, and he gets 200 times more Google hits. And your point is ...

By: quin

quin — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 17:44:45 -0800

Cute, but when i typed in Harry Harrison, it yielded Neal Stevenson. i'm guessing that they meant Neal Stephenson, but that mistake alone tainted the experience for me. i guess i'm just crabby.

By: Decani

Decani — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 18:05:48 -0800

George Orwell appears closest to Kurt Vonnegut? Pshaw. This is clearly arse. Next.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 20:49:01 -0800

blendor, I never know who to read next after I suck one author dry. Yes, I'm like that too and love the Literature Map. The parent site, gnod, also has a movie map, gnoovies, which is equally entertaining and informative, as well as flork, for meeting people. Does anyone here know what this Literature Map technique is called, for culling a person's likes and making predictions based on that? Is it called cybermapping or what?

By: WCityMike

WCityMike — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 11:08:48 -0800

Includes a nifty floaty effect. I didn't find it nifty; I found it nonfunctional. The closeness of the names often obscured what the damn names were, and, moreover, if the distance between names is a function of how alike they are, and the distance is constantly changing, then what the hell does that mean? Is Neal Stephenson right now saying, "I'm going to have a pizza for lunch," and when Stephen King says, "I'm having Chinese"?

By: Skygazer

Skygazer — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 11:11:54 -0800

Ah whatever it's not perfect (the name mispellings are especially annoying as they create different profiles for the same author see Graham Greene and Graham Green). I enjoyed it. Just needs a little tweaking.

By: Skygazer

Skygazer — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 11:41:38 -0800

On second thought maybe it needs a lot of tweaking.... The best writer there ever was (Walker Percy of course!) get's a pretty crappy Map. I mean c'mon...where the hell is Richard Ford and Andre Dubus and john Kennedy Toole...John Kennedy Tool fer chrissakes!!? (This map is obviously the "Levy Pants" of web apps). Also who would guess the drummer for RUSH was a literary lion? Now I have Limelight stuck in my head dammit.

By: amestoy

amestoy — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 12:26:30 -0800

I think I prefer the somewhat less flashy and flaunty version at What Should I Read Next.

By: Citizen Premier

Citizen Premier — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 22:32:52 -0800

People who bought Jesus also bought Paulus, David Duke and God.

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 08:33:57 -0800

This is crap, sorry. I typed in P.G. Wodehouse and nowhere was Douglas Adams. But there was P. G. Wodehouse (with a space) which gave me a whole different set of results. Bleah.