How Data Scientists Pinpointed the Creepiest Word in Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' (medium.com) 51
Medium's technology blog OneZero provides a great example of the new field of "digital humanities":
Actors and critics have long remarked that when you read Macbeth out loud, it feels like your voice and mouth and brain are doing something ever so slightly wrong. There's something subconsciously off about the sound of the play, and it spooks people. It's as if Shakespeare somehow wove a tiny bit of creepiness into every single line. The literary scholar George Walton Williams described the "continuous sense of menace" and "horror" that pervades even seemingly innocuous scenes. For centuries, Shakespeare fans and theater folk have wondered about this, but could never quite explain it.
Then a clever bit of data analysis in 2014 uncovered the reason... It turns out that Macbeth uncanny flavor springs from the unusual way that Shakespeare deploys one particular word, over and over again. That word?
"The...."
As Hope and Witmore note, you'd expect Macbeth to refer to "my hand" and "my eye". By writing it as "the hand" and "the eye", Shakespeare neatly evokes the way Macbeth is beginning to be tormented by his own decisions; he disassociates from his own body. In a few acts he'll be a totally unravelled mess...
[T]his is one of my favorite examples of using data analysis to ponder literature. The field of the "digital humanities" — which often involves using data analysis to study books — can get a bad rap sometimes... But what's so delightful about Hope and Witmore's work is how it's genuinely a cyborg, centaur piece of literary analysis... They started by pondering a phenomenon that has puzzled Shakespeare fans for centuries. They did some data analysis that pointed to the word "the". But to figure out why "the" was so key, they had to go back and reread the play closely, engaging in a very rich line-by-line literary analysis. The computation existed as a set of fresh alien eyes, telling the humans where to direct their attention. But it was up to the humans to find the meaning.
Then a clever bit of data analysis in 2014 uncovered the reason... It turns out that Macbeth uncanny flavor springs from the unusual way that Shakespeare deploys one particular word, over and over again. That word?
"The...."
As Hope and Witmore note, you'd expect Macbeth to refer to "my hand" and "my eye". By writing it as "the hand" and "the eye", Shakespeare neatly evokes the way Macbeth is beginning to be tormented by his own decisions; he disassociates from his own body. In a few acts he'll be a totally unravelled mess...
[T]his is one of my favorite examples of using data analysis to ponder literature. The field of the "digital humanities" — which often involves using data analysis to study books — can get a bad rap sometimes... But what's so delightful about Hope and Witmore's work is how it's genuinely a cyborg, centaur piece of literary analysis... They started by pondering a phenomenon that has puzzled Shakespeare fans for centuries. They did some data analysis that pointed to the word "the". But to figure out why "the" was so key, they had to go back and reread the play closely, engaging in a very rich line-by-line literary analysis. The computation existed as a set of fresh alien eyes, telling the humans where to direct their attention. But it was up to the humans to find the meaning.
The law of writing. (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe the "digital humanities" can teach writers to write better.
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No, but like Autotune, it can make them all write equally shitty but comprehensible prose.
Re: THE LAW OF THE OBVIOUS (Score:1)
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"Like Autotune, it can also make their prose shitty yet comprehensible."
https://www.wordtune.com/#rewr... [wordtune.com]
I noticed the "finding things creepy" meme. (Score:5, Insightful)
I noticed that in the last decade, finding things "creepy" that truly aren't unless you got a massive anxiety disorder or something, has become more and more popular. I don't know if people just say it because it makes them feel in with the group, or because they actually got such a disorder.
Looking at other things in that have become popular solely because they give one a warm fuzzy feeling of (deluded) safety, and how humor and entertainment have partially been replaced with stringing up memes and references, it's definitely both.
In short: People have no clue what is actually creepy anymore, since they are literally creeped out by their own shadows.
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Re:I noticed the "finding things creepy" meme. (Score:5, Insightful)
I noticed the using "literally" to mean figurative (Score:3, Insightful)
since they are literally creeped out by their own shadows.
If they are literally creeped out by their shadow, then everything is creepy, therefore your entire thesis falls apart. All that because you yourself are "memed" in your bizarre use of language.
Literally, people have no clue anymore.
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The word has no real qualifiers yet gets thrown about as though it still had some substance to it.
You'll gain very little attention by letting the room know you think "It's gross, I don't like it, it's dumb, it's stupid". They're not particularly impressed: "Sure pal, that's your opinion, whatever."
So drop the C-word. It has no rules. It implies something more menacing, more violating, more ominous. It has a stronger history.
They want to be taken more seriously than "I think it's spooky" and I refuse. The w
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People learn the skills that are helpful in their current situation. How many people actually need to know how to shoe a horse, forge tools, weld, plow a field, sow the field, harvest crops, etc. Those skills were helpful four generations ago.
What about three generations ago? How many people know how to use a timing light on their car, set the gap and dwell on their points, even change a tire? I recently had to help someone change their tire. They figured out how to jack up the car and remove the lug n
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entertainment have partially been replaced with stringing up memes and references
Oh give over. This is blatantly bullshit. A lot of entertainment had always been memes and pop culture references, but that tends to be forgotten because work like that just doesn't age well.
Go and read "the life and opinions of Tristram Shanty, gentleman" from but make sure you get a modern printing where a helpful scholar has put in footnotes to explain what the fuck he's talking about because it is completely stuffed to the
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Pretty rare to run across one who believes it, but I dated one. She described a sight seeing trip with a cousin(?) through the Bayou. The guide pointed out an alligator and she lost her shit, screaming and flailing and yes, almost capsizing everyone. Found out she had actually hallucinated a scene of the alligator lunging at her and the boat.
Did not last long after that revelation.
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This new video explains the reason behind it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
TLDW: The 'creepy' or 'horror' things in popular culture is to do with every-day middle-class expectations of the world being subverted, and it's not actually a new thing, it's just moved to the internet now so you're encountering it more often than you would have in the past.
You insensitive clod! (Score:5, Funny)
since they are literally creeped out by their own shadows
I live in Seattle. We don't have shadows.
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in short: People have no clue what is actually creepy anymore, since they are literally creeped out by their own shadows.
They are becoming homogenous populations, trained to respond similarly to the same stimuli by social media. Becoming the same unit as any other. BUT THEN...
The Hills Have Eyes = Creepy (Score:4)
My Hills Have Eyes => Cute
Case in point.
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lol.
The Exorcist vs. My Exorcist
The Things vs. My Thing
The Shining vs. My Shining
The Ring vs. My Ring
The Fly vs. My Fly
The Omen vs. My Omen
Re:The Hills Have Eyes = Creepy (Score:4, Funny)
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The little pony. Meh.
Lil Sebastian, may he rest in peace.
Analysis of John Lennon's music (Score:5, Interesting)
Reading the article, it reminded me of different analyses of John Lennon's music like: https://www.classicfm.com/disc... [classicfm.com]
I'm bringing it up because I wonder what Shakespeare would say about this analysis. When music professors pointed out Lennon's brilliance to him he just replied that he didn't know what they were talking about he had never heard any of those music terms before - he just felt it was the right sound for the piece.
Would Shakespeare say that he used "the" because it was a word which when used repeatedly would invoke fear in the play's audience or would he just say that it sounded right for the play?
Re:Analysis of John Lennon's music (Score:4, Insightful)
Reading the article, it reminded me of different analyses of John Lennon's music like: https://www.classicfm.com/disc... [classicfm.com]
I'm bringing it up because I wonder what Shakespeare would say about this analysis. When music professors pointed out Lennon's brilliance to him he just replied that he didn't know what they were talking about he had never heard any of those music terms before - he just felt it was the right sound for the piece.
Would Shakespeare say that he used "the" because it was a word which when used repeatedly would invoke fear in the play's audience or would he just say that it sounded right for the play?
Agreed. Huge amounts of art appreciation and art analysis is kind of sketchy when it comes to artist intentions. Sure, some artists engineer their art. But art is notoriously about intuition and creativity where gut instinct guides the work.
There's still interesting value in figuring out why an artwork evokes whatever response it does, but I would guess the majority of the reasons aren't intentional... just the result is.
Re: Analysis of John Lennon's music (Score:2)
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Centaur piece of literary analysis? (Score:2)
Does it analyzes the piece like a horse at the bottom, and like a human being at the top?
It puts the lotion on the basket (Score:2)
- quoth Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs. It could be said that "it" trumps "the" for creepiness.
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They're both dissociative and dehumanizing. Several mental illnesses have these as a trait.
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Tinkering for climate change (Score:2)
They didn't. (Score:2)
It's not "the Scottish Tragedy." (Score:5, Interesting)
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In Scotland, I heard it called "the Scottish Tragedy". As one person over there told me, "We have lots of Scottish plays, and THE Scottish play will never be something written by an Englishman. But it's good enough for one genre." :-)
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I think Scotland is the *only* place I've ever heard that phrase, however. :-)
Creepiest word in the language... (Score:2)
... is "moist"
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On a irreverent note:
How do I like women? The same way I like my cakes: warm and moist.
How do I like tea? The same way I like my men: strong and black.
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What would you rather have on your body... something moist, or a tentacle ?
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Now up for human trials? (Score:3)
Dialects (Score:2)
Strange. Many dialects from Dutch use ‘the’ instead of ‘my’ in the same way. “I have the leg broken” is a normal sentence in those dialects. And one in the garage I was told that “you have the water pump broken,” where the lady who told me that meant my car’s water pump.