A man is not dead while his name is still spoken. GNU Terry Pratchett.
Poor Ea-Nasir will never know peace.
Detecting Dementia Using Lexical Analysis: Terry Pratchett's Discworld
21–30 of 37 posts
Re: Detecting Dementia Using Lexical Analysis: Terry Pratchett's Discworld
#22> This shift coincided with a decrease in adjective TTR below a defined threshold, occurring approximately ten years before Pratchett’s formal diagnosis. The diagnosis was announced in 2007, meaning the shift occurred in 1997. 1997 was after Jingo and before Carpe Jugulum and The Last Continent, and 2007 was after Making Money and before Unseen Academicals. The Last Continent is the first identified in the paper as b…
Personally I just ignore them(Raising Steam and Snuff). There are too many inconsistencies with how Vimes and Lipwig are characterized in those books, that I can't see them as the same characters. I haven't started the Shepherd's Crown for the same reason. I don't think that any fan of his is under any illusion that those books are up to his standard, but he has so many good books that his legacy will be safe.
The Sheperd’s Crown is not at all like Snuff and Raising Steam. Please read it, it’s a heartbreaking self send off.
Re: Detecting Dementia Using Lexical Analysis: Terry Pratchett's Discworld
#23Sample size of n=1 Did they compare to authors with long careers who did not develop dementia? Maybe "decreased lexical diversity" is simply natural artistic progression, and not a bad thing, or symptom of disease.
They do acknowledge that in the notes, referencing one other study (n=3) with one healthy aged author that did not exhibit these signs.
>Relatedly, as this is a single-case study, without a control author, it remains possible that the decline in lexical diversity reflects natural ageing. But note that previous research [15] has found that healthy authors can maintain stable linguistic diversity into their late 80s, suggesting that the decline observed in Pratchett’s TTR is indicative of pathology rather than typical ageing.
IMO still all very inconclusive but an interesting avenue to explore.
Re: Detecting Dementia Using Lexical Analysis: Terry Pratchett's Discworld
#24Re: Detecting Dementia Using Lexical Analysis: Terry Pratchett's Discworld
#25> This shift coincided with a decrease in adjective TTR below a defined threshold, occurring approximately ten years before Pratchett’s formal diagnosis. The diagnosis was announced in 2007, meaning the shift occurred in 1997. 1997 was after Jingo and before Carpe Jugulum and The Last Continent, and 2007 was after Making Money and before Unseen Academicals. The Last Continent is the first identified in the paper as b…
my two favourite works of his are "night watch" and "going postal". it's honestly super impressive that they were written so long after he started to decline and were still so good.
I'm currently in the middle of a complete chronological reread of the discworld books, just finished "thud" and "wintersmith" back to back and while they were definitely weak in places it's amazing how much of his genius still shone through. feeling a little apprehensive about the later books though, I remember some of them being really bad, especially "snuff" :(
Re: Detecting Dementia Using Lexical Analysis: Terry Pratchett's Discworld
#26I can't help but feel this is a useful analysis for humanity, but somehow saddening for a fan of the person being analyzed. Almost overly invasive. Would Sir Terry have appreciated or approved of this?
I never spoke to the man, but reading the oodles and oodles of words he put out for the public over the years gives me the impression that he would find something like this mostly neat and worthwhile while still being a bit disquieting and weird.
Re: Detecting Dementia Using Lexical Analysis: Terry Pratchett's Discworld
#27> This shift coincided with a decrease in adjective TTR below a defined threshold, occurring approximately ten years before Pratchett’s formal diagnosis. The diagnosis was announced in 2007, meaning the shift occurred in 1997. 1997 was after Jingo and before Carpe Jugulum and The Last Continent, and 2007 was after Making Money and before Unseen Academicals. The Last Continent is the first identified in the paper as b…
my two favourite works of his are "night watch" and "going postal". it's honestly super impressive that they were written so long after he started to decline and were still so good. I'm currently in the middle of a complete chronological reread of the discworld books, just finished "thud" and "wintersmith" back to back and while they were definitely weak in places it's amazing how much of his genius still shone throu…
Night Watch is definitely as good as the peak 90s City Watch books. Thud had bits of standout quality too. Some of the weaknesses of later books might be less pure weaknesses and more people distinctly remembering the same characters encountering similar characters with a similar message before.
Re: Detecting Dementia Using Lexical Analysis: Terry Pratchett's Discworld
#28Sample size of n=1 Did they compare to authors with long careers who did not develop dementia? Maybe "decreased lexical diversity" is simply natural artistic progression, and not a bad thing, or symptom of disease.
Yep. The most jarring changes of style, worldbuilding, themes and characters are in the first four books (Pratchett once responded to a question about whether "the Patrician" in The Colour of Magic was the same man as Vetinari by saying yes, but he wasn't the same writer). The non Alzheimer's explanation for changes in vocabulary around the turn of the century is that he'd started writing Young Adult Discworld books (he'd written for younger audiences before, but in very different worlds) and for better or worse some of the changes bled through to his other works. Of course, that's also compatible with him having less capability to write complex books, but then I'm not really convinced Thud is less complex than The Colour of Magic...
Re: Detecting Dementia Using Lexical Analysis: Terry Pratchett's Discworld
#29I don't know about this field, but in many parts of Computer Science, MDPI journals have a very, very bad reputation.
Re: Detecting Dementia Using Lexical Analysis: Terry Pratchett's Discworld
#30I can't help but feel this is a useful analysis for humanity, but somehow saddening for a fan of the person being analyzed. Almost overly invasive. Would Sir Terry have appreciated or approved of this?
I met Sir Terry Pratchett only once, briefly, at a book signing, and got scolded for a bad joke (and for letting him sign his first book, which he did not like), i think it's really hard to guess what he would have wanted at that time. This happened around 2006, after he knew about the dementia, but well before i or the public knew about it.
The younger Terry, unencumbered by dementia, would likely have loved the idea of analyzing his writing for most scientific purposes, he co-wrote multiple scientific fiction books together with physicists and other science communicators.
I actually regret making him upset, i did not know about his troubles at the time and i would not make the same (completely unrelated to his ailment) joke knowing about it, neither would i have brought his first book if i knew he disliked it.
Just imagine having your head full of a world you created, a world filled with more stories than you could ever write down, and realizing that you will never get a chance to do so and that it will all fade before you can share it. That experience must be extremely painful and for sure leads to changes in personality traits.
Right before i had my turn he signed the book of my girlfriend and he also signed her journal even though there was a strict "only one book per person" rule. When she asked him if he would sign the journal as well he said "I would even sign your hand, madam". This is the Terry i will remember, the charming and incredibly witty person that bestowed upon me the best stories i have ever enjoyed.
GNU Terry Pratchett, for Death can not have him!