2020
2020 copied to clipboard
NaNoGenMo
Vaguebook
Since my other attempt won't get done this year, this will be the lazy / check the boxes attempt.
I will take an existing book, manually list all the proper nouns, and replace them with pronouns, thus making the plot substantially more vague. Not only will I replace character names, but I will also replace the names of places with "there". I expect to create a manual blacklist of proper nouns, rather than trying to extract them with a tagging system.
I haven't finished classifying all the vocabulary but I did create a novel-length sample, including "The Return of THEM", "The Adventures of THEM", and "The Memoirs of THEM".
To run this, you first use genvocab.sh to produce names.candidates (a list of all non-dictionary-words), then sort the contents (manually) into person.names, place.names, and time.names; once that's done, run genholmes.sh.
preview is for when there's a sample in the issue, here's how it starts:
It was in the spring of the year 1894 that all there was
interested, and the fashionable world dismayed, by the murder of
the Honourable them under most unusual and inexplicable
circumstances. The public has already learned those particulars
of the crime which came out in the police investigation, but a
good deal was suppressed upon that occasion, since the case for
the prosecution was so overwhelmingly strong that it was not
necessary to bring forward all the facts. Only now, at the end of
nearly ten years, am I allowed to supply those missing links
which make up the whole of that remarkable chain. The crime was
of interest in itself, but that interest was as nothing to me
compared to the inconceivable sequel, which afforded me the
greatest shock and surprise of any event in my adventurous life.
Even now, after this long interval, I find myself thrilling as I
think of it, and feeling once more that sudden flood of joy,
amazement, and incredulity which utterly submerged my mind. Let
me say to that public, which has shown some interest in those
glimpses which I have occasionally given them of the thoughts and
actions of a very remarkable man, that they are not to blame me
if I have not shared my knowledge with them, for I should have
considered it my first duty to do so, had I not been barred by a
positive prohibition from his own lips, which was only withdrawn
upon the third of last month.
And I think a special shoutout needs to go to the vague boilerplate :)
Project them's The Return of them, by them
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You then copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project them License included
with this eBook or online at www.them.org
Title: The Return of them
Author: them
Release Date: then 8, 2007 [EBook #108]
Last Updated: then 19, 2019
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
*** START OF THIS PROJECT them EBOOK THE RETURN OF them ***
Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer and them
"Ah, if I could give it a name it might go a long way towards solving the case. [...]
