the [noun] [verb]s the [other noun]

Lots of interesting stuff in this post from Jill Walker Rettberg, analysing the text of novels from popular Norwegian thriller author and confessed user of LLMs Jørn Lier Horst. (Tip of the hat to Uncle Warren for this one.) For instance, there are certain tics that apparently serve as tells of LLM-generated text which I recognise in my own (stubbornly un-assisted) fiction writing, such as what Rettberg identifies as “binary oppositions that cancel each other out at the level of language”: think of a character description that juxtaposes their seeming to have a positive trait, but secretly harbouring another one that negates it. I have tended to think of and describe people in this way for as long as I can remember, though the reliability of my memory could of course be brought into question; perhaps taking myself as an initial template, the assumption of contradiction and/or paradox as central to character goes way back. Rettberg is as close to a authority on this stuff as there is…

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