My Jane Austen Simulator

[Jamie123]

I've done it! It's my greatest invention! It's as if the great Jane Austen herself were raised from the dead, and had gone straight back to writing books!

It works using "trigrams" - It parses the text (in this case Pride and Prejudice) and works out how likely each third word is given the preceding two, and then, and selects it with that probability. (Text prediction algorithms work similarly, but I believe deterministically by maximizing the likelihood - mine works stochastically by selecting words at random but in agreement with how likely each particular word is.)

Anyway - here it is - Chapter 1 of the long-awaited Pride and Prejudice II...

BUT OF ALL THE PECUNIARY TRANSACTIONS IN WHICH HE PARTICULARLY ATTENDED TO THE GIRLS THOUGH I 
HAVE VERY GOOD TIME THAT MR BINGLEY AND JANE WERE ASSEMBLED IN THE HOUSE AS HER 
CHILDREN EXPECTED CONSIDERING WHAT HER SISTER ALLOWED IT TO BE DECENT LOOKING ROOMS WALKED ON IN 
THE CERTAIN SIGNAL OF A DISPOSITION TO SEEK ANOTHER BRANCH OF THE KIND ATTENTIONS SHE HAD 
CAUGHT A VIOLENT HURRY AND CONFUSION OF THE GENTLEMEN JOINED THEM AT LEAST WHICH WAS ALL 
IN AN AMIABLE COMPANION FOR MYSELF AND PAY ME THE COMPLIMENT AND AN ALLUSION TO IT 
WAS IN IT HE HAS THE TRUE ONE. LYDIA DECLARED HERSELF NOT TIRED AND THEY WALKED 
IS NOT LADY CATHERINE DE BOURGH COMES IN. OBSTINATE HEADSTRONG GIRL. MR DARCY'S STEWARD. BY ELIZABETH'S 
INSTRUCTIONS SHE BEGAN NOW TO BE DESCRIBED. YOUR COMING TO ASK FOR COMPASSION. MR WICKHAM WAS 
PERFECTLY FRIENDLY ON HIS OWN AND SHE SAT DOWN AGAIN TO DO IT ONLY FOR THE 
ADVANTAGE OF BOTH OF WHOM DOES JANE EVER THINK ILL OF A LITTLE LONGER ON YOUR 
SIDE AND NOT RUN ON IN THIS INTERFERENCE. HER LOOK HANDSOMER THAN MR BENNET EXCEEDINGLY. HE 
REPLIED THEY WERE THEN WITH A GOOD DEAL IS TO BECOME OF US. THE TUMULT OF 
JOY AND KINDNESS. AND IF THEY HAD BEEN LISTENED TO HER HOUSEKEEPING HER PARISH AND HER 
ACCEPTANCE OF THE NETHERFIELD PARTY. HER LADYSHIP SAID THANKING HER. HOW IS HALF AS DELIGHTFUL AS 
PEMBERLEY. CHAPTER ELIZABETH HAD NOW BUT LITTLE HAD SHE CONSULTED ONLY HER OWN BREAST HAD HARBOURED 
AND FANCIED LIBERAL. MR COLLINS FIRST CAME INTO HERTFORDSHIRE ANXIOUSLY RENEWING THEM AT AND IT WAS 
A SOLIDITY IN HIS ABSENCE BEFORE SHE COULD BE NO OCCASION TO ASK NOTHING ABOUT IF 
SHE AND HER LADYSHIP SAID THANKING HER. THE EFFECT WAS MOST PRESSINGLY CIVIL IN HER MEMORY.
I HAVE ALWAYS SO. COULD COLONEL FORSTER REPEAT THE PARTICULARS IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING OF WICKHAM'S RESIGNING ALL 
PRETENSIONS TO THE SENSE OF YOUR BEING OTHERWISE. IS THIS THOUGHT ELIZABETH. WITH THIS 
MR DARCY MIGHT LEAVE THE TROUBLE. I FANCY LIZZY THAT OBSTINACY IS THE MOST FLATTERING KIND.

Gripping stuff, don't you think?

Edited December 21, 2020 by Jamie123
Spelling

[SilentOne]

"I fancy, Lizzy, that obstinacy is the most flattering kind," could make a nice signature.

[NeuroTypical]

Still a better love story than Twilight.

[Guest MormonGator]

20 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

Still a better love story than Twilight.

No offense Ponyboy, but you've lost your right to talk about anyone else having bad taste in their choices for entertainment.  

😉

 

Edited February 26, 2020 by MormonGator

[SilentOne]

48 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

Ponyboy

I was fully expecting to see something about The Outsiders.

[NeuroTypical]

[dprh]

I haven't tried to read Jane Austin since high school.  I got a few pages in and quit to go back to Orson Scott Card, Robert Jordan, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.  This makes about as much sense to me now as her book did to me then  

[Vort]

3 minutes ago, dprh said:

I haven't tried to read Jane Austin since high school.  I got a few pages in and quit to go back to Orson Scott Card, Robert Jordan, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.  This makes about as much sense to me now as her book did to me then  

You need to give Austen a chance when you're an actual adult. There is a reason she's considered one of history's all-time great English language novelists.

[anatess2]

12 minutes ago, Vort said:

You need to give Austen a chance when you're an actual adult. There is a reason she's considered one of history's all-time great English language novelists.

Add Bronte to the must-read when you reach adulthood.  Jane Eyre is a good read with a touch of horror/suspense to it intertwined with the boy-meets-girl cotton candy.

Edited February 26, 2020 by anatess2

[NeuroTypical]

Jane Austin fans were the first people to create shipping fanfics, the oldest from 1913.

[Vort]

3 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

Jane Austin fans were the first people to create shipping fanfics, the oldest from 1913.

A dubious honor, indeed.

[JohnsonJones]

5 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

Jane Austin fans were the first people to create shipping fanfics, the oldest from 1913.

I had to look up what shipping fanfic was.  I am still not positive I know what it is.

[Guest MormonGator]

13 minutes ago, JohnsonJones said:

I had to look up what shipping fanfic was.  I am still not positive I know what it is.

Fan fiction is when a terrible writer uses the plots, settings or characters created by a much better writer and makes up their own story.

Edited February 26, 2020 by MormonGator

[JohnsonJones]

2 minutes ago, MormonGator said:

Fan fiction is when a terrible writer uses the plots, settings or characters created by a much better writer and makes up their own story. IE-Imagine someone online writing a story about Luke Skywalker or Harry Potter. 

Thank you. 

The wording of the term shipping though mystified me.  It appears that a "shipping fanfic" may be one that is written solely around the central theme of a relationship, that the relationship comes first and that the rest of the story is written around that.

I'm not quite clear, but that's what I found on google when trying to determine exactly what was meant by the term.

[Vort]

Just now, JohnsonJones said:

The wording of the term shipping though mystified me.

"Shipping fanfic" probably just means it got published.

[JohnsonJones]

13 minutes ago, Vort said:

"Shipping fanfic" probably just means it got published.

That still puzzles me.  Wouldn't that be a copyright violation if it got published?

Or are we talking about things such as the Star Wars by Disney that is by a company but not the original creator...or more like the series that Amazon will put out (I think it's been rumored they will put out a Lord of the Rings series or something to that effect) where it is not by the original author but written by others or something else or different?

PS - Adding - Or is this fan fiction that is written and actually published?  For example someone one not authorized by the author writes a Harry Potter story and gets it published?  How do they avoid the copyright and publishing rights in that case or how would that work?

Edited February 26, 2020 by JohnsonJones
Asking more questions and clarification

[Vort]

Pride and Prejudice was published in 1813. By 1913, its copyright had expired. Copyrights in the US today last 95 years from the date of first publication. They were originally of much shorter duration, I believe 14 years. I don't know what the English copyright law was in Austen's time. Probably English common law for copyright, which I believe would have extended to the lifetime of the author, perhaps plus some number of years after his/her death. In any case, the publication of Austen fanfic was a wide open, non-copyright-violating field by the early 20th century.

[SilentOne]

3 hours ago, Vort said:

Copyrights in the US today last 95 years from the date of first publication.

????? The figures I see, well, everywhere, are life of the author + some number of years, I think 70 for works published now.

[NeuroTypical]

8 hours ago, JohnsonJones said:

That still puzzles me.  Wouldn't that be a copyright violation if it got published?

I’ll help my more senior brethren out here.
 

I don’t know about Austin’s fan book history, but these days, amateur writers are a dime a dozen.  Almost nobody pays for fan fiction.  No money is being made, no reason to set lawyers on a fanfic writer.   Literally hundreds of new stories get published every day on various fanfic sites.  You start making money, you might get a Cease & Desist order from Disney lawyers, otherwise nobody cares.  
 

“Shipping” is when a fanfic romantically pairs two characters that are not paired by whoever produces the original work.  For example, if you thought Gilligan and MaryAnne would make a cute couple, you might write a fanfic where they go on a date, fall in love, and get married after making it off the island.

Canon characters exist in fanfics, and so do “OC’s” - original characters, created by the fanfic writers.  One measure of a show’s success, is to get fans so excited, they start making fan fiction of your show.  Smart and cool show owners will even partner with their fan base, maybe even include a fans OC in an episode.  Disney is neither smart nor cool, just top heavy with lawyers.

Congratulations, you now understand 2% of what millennials talk about.  If it now makes sense, but you don’t have the faintest clue why anyone would care, that’s ok.  It’s an acquired taste, like loving snake jerky or opera or backcountry bow hunting.  I fell into it completely by accident, raising little girls, teaching them art, finding online artists who liked to draw characters from the show Phineas and Ferb.  I saw one cartoon picture of a little girl, and the artist was talented enough that I could tell it was  the child of Phineas and Isabella without being told.  The story behind the picture basically wrote itself.  I was instantly hooked with the concept of shipping, before I ever encountered the term.  It was how I discovered a latent artistic side to my soul that had lay dormant for 4 decades.  
 

Be careful searching online for more info- you can stumble into some nasty stuff pretty quickly.  Bigger sites let you set maturity rating filters.  If you’re not careful, you’ll find the fic where Gilligan and MaryAnne go on an x-rated violence filled bank robbing spree that ends in lots of blood everywhere.

[mrmarklin]

It’s Austen, people. Austen. 

[mordorbund]

4 hours ago, mrmarklin said:

It’s Austen, people. Austen. 

Wait. Then what's Austin 3:16?

[Vort]

1 hour ago, mordorbund said:

Wait. Then what's Austin 3:16?

An address about 170 miles west of Houston.