Stanislaw Lem
My little tribute to one of my favorite writers, Stanislaw Lem. For this illustration I counted words from 20 of his books. Biggers are most commonly used!.
Books: Automathew’s Friend, Chain of Chance, Eden, Fiasco, Highcastle – A Remembrance, His Master’s Voice, Hospital of the Transfiguration, Imaginary Magnitude, Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, Memoirs of a Space Traveler, Microworlds, One Human Minute, Peace on Earth, Return from the Stars, Solaris, Tales of Pirx the Pilot, The Cyberiad, The Futurological Congress, The Investigation, The Invincible.
Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez
My little tribute to Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez. In fact I had been working in this illustration for a while but never found time enought to end it. Sadly I think this moment finally arrived.
I count words in 28 Gabriel’s books and did some illustrations with words size proportional to repetition.
Books analyzed: Cien Años De Soledad, Cronica De Una Muerte Anunciada, Del Amor Y Otros Demonios, Doce Cuentos Peregrinos, El Ahogado Mas Hermoso Del Mundo, El Amor En Los Tiempos Del Colera, El Avion De La Bella Durmiente, El Coronel No Tiene Quien Le Escriba, El Otoño Del Patriarca, El Rastro De Tu Sangre En La Nieve, El Ultimo Viaje Del Buque Fantasma, En Agosto Nos Vemos, Espantos De Agosto, La Candida Erendira Y Su Abuela Desalmada, La Hojarasca, La Luz Es Como El Agua, La Santa, La Siesta De Los Martes, Memorias De Mis Putas Tristes, Muerte Constante Mas Alla Del Amor, Noticia De Un Secuestro, Ojos De Perro Azul, Relato De Un Naufrago, Solo Vine A Llamar Por Telefono, Tramontana, Un Dia De Estos, Un Senor Muy Viejo Con Unas Alas Enormes, Vivir Para Contarla.
Most used words (beggining of the list): casa (2986),sentÃa (1614),noche (1580),tiempo (1527),parecÃa (1509),muerte (1499),llevaba (1491),hombre (1449),podÃa (1411),volvió (1370),primera (1367),llegó (1274),mar (1261),encontró (1242),vida (1232),quedó (1225),sala (1221),pensar (1208),nunca (1111),vivir (1107),mientras (1087),siempre (1087),mano (1082),puerta (1051),tarde (1039),único (1033),decir (1021),nadie (1019),dejó (1004),madre (993),aquella (990),niña (983),padre (983),esperaba (978),tratando (973),cuenta (937),hijo (905),último (890),buen (888),modo (887),hablar (871),miró (859),preguntó (855),empezó (851),conocÃa (830),mujer (821),Aureliano (814),terminó (805),amor (799),bien (782),coronel (782),mundo (782),aquel (774),medio (774),pues (753),debÃa (728),dio (725),visto (722),dormir (718),ningún (716),embargo (703),orden (703),cuarto (700),pudo (693),calle (692),vio (688),veces (681),cosas (670),mal (661),ojos (659)…
Most used two relevant words combo: Florentino Ariza (565),Fermina Daza (411),José Arcadio (390),Aureliano BuendÃa (213),Aureliano Segundo (210),coronel Aureliano (209),dio cuenta (185),Sierva MarÃa (183),Arcadio BuendÃa (173),dÃa siguiente (169),Santiago Nasar (158),Juvenal Urbino (143),mismo tiempo (139),doctor Urbino (134),muchos años (125),tres dÃas (120),dijo ella (119),mucho tiempo (112),muchas veces (112),Nena Daconte (111),doctor Juvenal (109),aquella noche (105),ella misma (102),varias veces (100),Bendición Alvarado (95),dos años (93),Billy Sánchez (89),dijo la mujer (88),Amaranta Úrsula (86),poco a poco (86),veinte años (86),aquel dÃa (85),Arcadio Segundo (84),dos veces (84),estaba seguro (83),tres meses (79),dos dÃas (78),dos horas (78),dijo el coronel (76),Pablo Escobar (74),di cuenta (73),Lorenzo Daza (70),Gerineldo Márquez (69),llamó la atención (69),seis meses (69),media noche (68)…
Nice words by the way!
More Samples:
Bye Gabo, thank you for doing spanish language even more beautiful.
Isaac Asimov
I’m really excited with Curiosity and the fact of be able to explore another world in the search of life. It’s incredible how far we can go and how little is that distance comparing with the size of the whole Universe. It remains me something… if humans can do it why others can’t do the same to us.
And my mind always ends in all those fantastic Isaac Asimov books. He filled my dreams with space travels and incredible adventures, so I think it’s time to do a little tribute.
For this illustration took more than 170 Asimov books, counted all the words and spread over a portrait of the famous writer. Here is the beginning of the word list: robot (26560),human (14363),derec (10679),something (10167),away (8922),without (7549),another (7212),moment (7005),anything (6686),matter (6652),don (6631),felt (6074),dr (6063),law (6039),around (5992),re (5861),quite (5820),smiled (5550),almost (5468),suppose (5399),reason (5383),suddenly (5150),understand (5095),ariel (4964),arm (4915),planet (4829),space (4785),ll (4733),really (4665),stared (4573),case (4571),mr (4567),believe (4560),however (4546),baley (4544),hunter (4542),least (4242),else (4229),maybe (4170),brain (4106),sir (4083),upon (3948),return (3852),remained (3806),seen (3795),control (3772),seldon (3772),speak (3698),computer (3680),nature (3643),nodded (3633),rather (3631),hari (3629),die (3577),daneel (3553),kill (3535),slowly (3524),wall (3506),sense (3494),wrong (3451),hope (3450)…
It’s nice to compare it with another great scifi writer, Stanislaw Lem. I will (someday) create an illustration about him but I have some of the work already done. Following you can see the beginning of the most commonly used words in 20 books of Lem: something (1600),without (1346),around (1178),another (1126),human (1055),fiction (984),wall (978),everything (954),suddenly (948),away (924),doctor (924),existence (889),moment (864),engineer (851),cloud (834),return (830),planet (829),nature (812),case (811),already (800),stefan (797),matter (758),anything (739),gregory (735),arms (722),become (714),space (693),remained (691),later (685),understand (672),felt (670),along (654),someone (652),however (644),inside (644),whether (640),reason (635),almost (619),glass (607),window (604),intelligence (603),control (601),least (598),really (598),believe (597),continued (596),information (594),author (588),system (587),thus (587),result (581),quite (580),taken (565),universe (564),therefore (559),robot (558),structure (558),captain (555)…
Nicely robot is now in 56th position!. Both great but deeply different writers, don’t you think so?.
Charles Dickens
There is a lot of people celebrating two hundred years of Charles Dickens and I also want to do a little tribute to this great English writer.
I took more than fifty books and novels by Dickens (including the most iconic like Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol) and counted the words. I spread the words over two different portraits images.
The first words in the list. oliver (868),upon (755),replied (548),bumble (399),gentleman (366),lady (359),sikes (357),dear (330),jew (325),fagin (317),sir (314),away (298),another (275),without (253),woman (229),poor (204),window (202),shall (192),heart (185),quite (181),child (177),arm (172),brownlow (167),something (166),returned (164),doctor (161),master (161),manner (160),whether (156),moment (153),observed (152),seen (150),london (149),sat (149),indeed (147),present (147),office (145),rather (145),bill (144),speak (143),expression (139)…
The illustrations represents the single word counting, but I also counted two and three words combo. If you are curious the three words combo list start with: gentleman in the white waistcoat (13),poor mercantile jack (11),waiter who ought to wait upon (8),great salt lake (7),queer small boy (7),spoken young man (7),well spoken young (7),french flemish country (6),titbull’s aims houses (6)…
Another portrait.
Did you know that his life is probably most challenging that any of his novel histories. Visit his Wikipedia article to know more about this incredible man.
Words that kill
Agatha Christie is probably the best crime writer ever. She wrote more than ninety books, but only 82 as Agatha Christie. For this illustration I counted the words of 65 of those books. Including her most famous like “Ten Little Niggers” and “Murder on the Orient Express”. She also have a long list of movie and television adaptations. Take a look at her wikipedia article.
She used the word “murder” only 4158 times… not too bad!.
Most commonly used words: poirot (13236), mrs (10845), mr (9100), quite (7388), something (6469), really (6288), sir (5243), rather (4883), woman (4431), anything (4394), doctor (4167), murder (4158), suppose (3856), away (3611), inspector (3531), marple (3390), lady (3273), moment (3261), believe (3210), dear (2729), suddenly (2719), case (2704), tuppence (2609), matter (2549), smiled (2523), killed (2421), shall (2373), someone (2367), seen (2336), understand (2302), death (2240), wife (2201), nice (2150), dead (2107), felt (2042), died (2036), tommy (2005), nodded (1985), another (1964), police (1940), sort (1927), everything (1917), husband (1902), shook (1897), married (1896), bit (1881), natural (1855), else (1849), oliver (1823), exactly (1822)…
The battle between Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple has a clear winner. Poirot has more than quad hits than Miss Marple.
I’m working in a new implementation of my word-counting tool. The target is to be able to count words combo, instead of single words. I will publish someday a whole analysis, but I want to share some of my first results with you. For these 65 books one of the most used four (representative) words combo are “miss marple shook her head”. And the three words combo winner is “said miss marple” with 1217 hits.
Another illustration. This time the words sizes are proportional to it’s repetition.
