50,000 Meows by @hugovk
hugovk opened this issue · comments
50,000 Meows
The rules say:
The "novel" is defined however you want. It could be 50,000 repetitions of the word "meow". It could literally grab a random novel from Project Gutenberg. It doesn't matter, as long as it's 50k+ words.
Well, someone had better create 50,000 meows just to get it out of the way.
But this isn't just "meow" 50,000 times. meow.py replaces all words with a meow of the same length, keeping punctuation.
Usage
python meow.py infile.txt > outfile.txt
Output
Here's the above rule put through meow.py:
Mew "meeow" me meeooow meoooow mew meow. Me meeow me me,mew meeeeeoooow me mew meow "meow". Me meoow meeeeeoow meow m meooow meoow meow Meeooow Meeeeeoow. Me meoow'm meooow, me meow me me'm mew+ meoow.
Here's the output of running meow.py on some Project Gutenberg (Purrject Mewtenberg):
Original | meow | words | with translation | words |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cats, by W. Gordon Stables | txt pdf | 90,574 | txt pdf | 181,149 |
Cats, by Charles H. Ross | txt pdf | 59,725 | txt pdf | 119,451 |
The Jungle Book by Kipling | txt pdf | 52,526 | txt pdf | 105,052 |
An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume | txt pdf | 50,603 | txt pdf | 101,206 |
Moby Dick; or The Whale, by Herman Melville | txt pdf | 215,136 | txt pdf | 430,272 |
Extracts
Here's part of Moby Dick:
"MEEOW.... Me. mew Mew. MEOW. Meow meooow me meoow meow meeooooow me
meeeoow; mew me Mew. MEOOW me meeeow me meeeeow." --MEEEEOW'M MEEEEEEOOW
"MEEOW.... Me me meow meeeeooooow meow mew Mew. mew Mew. MEOOOW; M.M.
MEOW-MEW, me meow, me meeoow." --MEEEOOOOOW'M MEEEEEEOOW
MEOOW, MEEOW.
MEEOW, MEOOW.
MEEOW, MEEOW-MEOOW.
MEOOW, MEEEOW.
MEW, MEOOW.
MEOW, MEEEOOW.
MEEOW, MEEEEOOOW.
MEOOW, MEOOOOW.
MEEOOOW, MEOOOW.
MEOOOOW, MEEEOOW.
MEEOW-MEOW-MEOW, MEOOW.
MEEOW-MEOW-MEOW, MEEEEEOOOOW.
MEEEOOOW (Meeeeoow me m Mew-Mew-Meeeeeeow).
And here's part the Jungle Book with line-by-line translations:
He was a mongoose, rather like a little cat in his fur and his
Me mew m meeoooow, meeeow meow m meeeow mew me mew mew mew mew
tail, but quite like a weasel in his head and his habits. His
meow, mew meoow meow m meeeow me mew meow mew mew meeoow. Mew
eyes and the end of his restless nose were pink. He could scratch
meow mew mew mew me mew meooooow meow meow meow. Me meeow meeeoow
himself anywhere he pleased with any leg, front or back, that he
meeooow meeeeeow me meeooow meow mew mew, meeow me meow, meow me
chose to use. He could fluff up his tail till it looked like a
meeow me mew. Me meoow meeow me mew meow meow me meeeow meow m
bottle brush, and his war cry as he scuttled through the long
meeoow meeow, mew mew mew mew me me meeeeeow meeeoow mew meow
grass was: "Rikk-tikk-tikki-tikki-tchk!"
meoow mew: "Meow-meow-meeow-meoow-meow!"
Finally, here's meow.py put through meow.py.
Well, I guess somebody finally had to meow.
Cat's out of the bag.
What will @cpressey think?!!!
The output is far more interested than I would have suspected.
I like it! If you will permit me a moment of insufferable pedantry, however, I will note that it is only infrequently that I have heard a cat make a sound that I would be inclined to onomatopoeically transliterate as "meow". Quite often, the utterance is something more like "raa" or "mehr" where the vowel is slightly nasalized or perhaps glottalized in a way for which I'm sure even the International Phonetic Alphabet does not possess a fully accurate notation. My own feline companion, in fact, has been known to, on occasion, make a bleating sound quite remarkably comparable to that of a sheep. And as for text produced by cats, that is another story entirely.
(And the moral of this comment is: do not wonder what @cpressey thinks, lest he inform you of it)
@cpressey Well, it'd be a doddle to repurpose it for "raa" or "mehr", or even a random utterance.
@hugovk Ehhh don't mind me, I was just exercising my internal pseud generator. I do like it though. It's like a carrier wave without a signal. Or maybe, a silhouette.
@MichaelPaulukonis that. looks. fun.
/me resists the temptation to start doing that right now
Ooooh @hugovk can you do one with "no"?
Here's an article about this and #116: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/12/moby-dick-in-50000-meows-and-other-tales-that-computers-tell/383340/
A commenter on The Atlantic points out The Meow Wars:
The largest flame war in Usenet history, involving hundreds of people from over 80 newsgroups, lasting over forty-five weeks. It was the Usenet equivalent of World War II. It was The Flamewar to End All Flamewars.
Do one for dogs too
With "woof" or "wuf"
@RandomGuy0400 I made 50,000 Woofs last year!