The Gender Genie vs. K J Parker

[tamaranth]

I reviewed K J Parker's The Company -- rather like this review but different -- and remarked that despite the publicity material (which refers to the author as female) "there is something masculine about the style". "Ineluctably masculine?" retorts one reader, quoting the infamous description of James Tiptree Jr's writing.

I can't define what feels masculine about the prose. (I don't think it's the subject matter, which is heavy on military and technological themes, or the relative dearth of descriptive passages.) But hang on! Here are some sample chapters! And here's The Gender Genie, which uses a simplified version of an algorithm developed by Moshe Koppel, Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and Shlomo Argamon, Illinois Institute of Technology, to predict the gender of an author.

Extract from The Company | Words: 8891 | Female Score: 9023 | Male Score: 10922

Extract from Devices and Desires | Words: 1449 | Female Score: 1226 | Male Score: 1741

Another extract from Devices and Desires | Words: 1420 | Female Score: 2313 | Male Score: 1722

I don't actually think this proves anything, but I do think that my brain might work with the same algorithms as the Genie.

Comments

[fjm.livejournal.com]

I think I mentioned that per's editor told me to use the male pronoun? Still irritated about that, if it proves incorrect.