Lotaria

Adapted from If on a winter's night a traveller: Chapter 8

I asked Lotaria if she has already read some books of mine that I lent her. She said no, because here she doesn't have a computer at her disposal.

She explained to me that a suitably programmed computer can read a novel in a few minutes and record the list of all the words contained in the text, in order of frequency. 'That way I can have an already completed reading at hand," Lotaria says, "with an incalculable saving of time. What is the reading of a text, in fact, except the recording of certain thematic recurrences, certain insistences of forms and meanings? An electronic reading supplies me with a list of the frequencies, which I have only to glance at to form an idea of the problems the book suggests to my critical study. Naturally, at the highest frequencies the list records countless articles, pronouns, particles, but I don't pay them any attention. I head straight for the words richest in meaning; they can give me a fairly precise notion of the book."

"In a novel of fifty to a hundred thousand words," she said to me, "I advise you to observe immediately the words that are repeated about twenty times. Look here. Words that appear nineteen times:

princesses, frog, miser, juniper, doctor, salad, gardener, watch, tail, singing, drank, journey, stretched, pulled, scarcely, legs, stones, bad, rolled, middle, crept, laughed, vain, glad, cock, broke, grieved, show, horses, tried, having, cart, waiting, words, cottage, kept, dress, alive, peas ...

"Words that appear eighteen times:

dancing, catherine, ashputtel, apples, clock, noise, thither, bottom, making, mouth, please, meantime, ought, farther, deep, girls, times, spot, strange, being, knife, lifted, carter, someone, showed, running, marry, falada, waited, learnt

"Don't you already have a clear idea what it's about?" Lotaria says.

"There's no question: it's a collection of fairy tales, princesses, cottages, adventurous prose with a elements of darkness. The narration is entirely on the surface, I would say; but to make sure, it's always a good idea to take a look at the list of words used only once, though no less important for that. Take this sequence, for example:

readily, patience, straightening, leap, sixteenth, irons, drowned, secret, dozing, comfortably, crawling, tittered, adjourn, impertinent, worry, rises, handwriting, raw, pulling, prove

"Hmm, that seems consistent with what I suggested."

Lotaria shows me another series of lists. "This is an entirely different novel. It's immediately obvious. Look at the words that recur about fifty times:

"What do you think of that? An book of betrayal, power struggle, indecisiveness and uncertainty ... As a confirmation, we'll take a sample of words used a single time:

entreated, vainly, decree, reading, confirming, finest, imaginary, consisted, standstill, perceiving, seventh, beatrice, pressure, definiendis, colleoni, tales, essex, antico, valdichiana, invasion

"So we already have an idea of the atmosphere, the moods, the social background... . We can go on to a third book:

"I would say we're dealing with a lighter story of deception but this time a thief. Rhythmic twists and turns, gentlemen, a hidden romance. One last time, let's look at the list of words with a frequency of one. Look, for example:

covert, discussing, disturb, courtesy, duchesse, tragic, paltry, excluded, aquiline, unheard, reward, dealer, improve, differed, reassure, mason, poker, instantly, trap, plans

"You see? A guilt complex, pure and simple! A valuable indication: the critical inquiry can start with that, establish some working hypotheses.... What did I tell you? Isn't this a quick, effective system?"