Spam Imitates Pynchon
Why am I receiving spam that reads like random passages in Gravity’s Rainbow? Check this one out:
Above: an artist’s conception of my in-box.
Gavin adds: Hmph. So who’s the new artist? I would so have done that with more zesty aplomb and less drop-shadow. Hmph.
and as for pulvis lodge, the attics are dreadful.”and so saying, he turned back with them, and walked towards the house.
“you need not be frightened. i never heard any harm of her; and i dare say she is one of the most”with the officers!” cried lydia. “i wonder my aunt did not tell us of that .”“but you will know it, when i tell you what happened the very next day.”elizabeth’s spirits were so high on this occasion, that though she did not often speak
actuated by one spirit, everything relating to their journey was speedily settled. they were to be off asbut nothing to justify inquiry.
and her feelings towards its writer were at times widely different. when she remembered the style ofbingley’s appearance and invitation, the mother and three daughter all attended her into the breakfast
‘Course, if they really did quote GR in their e-mails, I doubt they’d make it through my spam filter. Mostly I’m thinkin’ of the passage that starts like this:
He spreads his knees awkwardly until he can feel the leather of her boots. He leans forward to surround the hot turd…
Aaaaaaand I’m not gonna quote it any further. You get the idea.
Spam imitates Austen. Obviously, with the names Lydia, Elizabeth and Bingley, it’s scrambled Pride and Prejudice, not Gravity’s Rainbow.
Yeah I know, but it struck me as so random and bizarre to find in my inbox (plus I’m halfway through GR) that it looked very Pynchonian to me.
Perhaps you are familiar with this fine website. My current favorite is this one or perhaps this
I got random Pride and Prejudice spam yesterday as well, only it was different parts.
He spreads his knees awkwardly until he can feel the leather of her boots. He leans forward to surround the hot turd…
Turns out they have that exact passage as the Gravity’s Rainbow sample at Google Books.
I really, really kinda wish they didn’t.
well he could have called the book “turd’s rainbow.”
Austen? Pynchon? OK, fine.
But I’m totally stoked about the inclusion of Arnold Ziffel in the artist’s rendering of Brad’s in-box. That has so made my day.
Skippy, that sounds like an excellent title for a novel about the worst president ever and his totally excellent Iraqi adventure.
Bradrocket,
I’m about a quarter-way into the second re-reading of GR myself. I read it in college, but that was almost 10 years and several magic carpet rides ago. The going is much easier this time around (or at least I think it is; my college memories are awfully fuzzy, mushed have been something I ate), though I still don’t know what the hell’s happening from one group of blocks to the next when it comes to the overall narative. I am digging all the neat little bits of esoteric trivia, though. Kinda like Umberto Eco, which is almost porn to me.
Wow. Just… wow.
Drinking and posting is one thing, but if you’re going to do ‘shrooms, you should unplug your computer first. Seriously, go outside and sit in the yard or something, you’ll enjoy it a LOT more.
The world needs more zesty aplomb…
mikey
R/E that quote: Um, eewww? Yes. Eeew. Verily.
oh yeah?, beat this exerpt.
With five weeks down, and.
Looks kind of funny, doesn’t it? Doch Adrian hat nicht mit Columbo gerechnet. Gleichzeitig beginnen die Japaner, den Krieg gegen die USA vorzubereiten. Andere Verwendungen nur nach Absprache.
ZDF – Bilderdienst, Tel. Now half the keys don’t work. The Administaff was just Palmer’s second appearance.
Ihre Leiche wurde nie gefunden.
Ok, SPARQL is relatively simple, but it’s remarkably powerful given that simplicity. Sharon Daugherty advises an. Ok, SPARQL is relatively simple, but it’s remarkably powerful given that simplicity. Gleichzeitig beginnen die Japaner, den Krieg gegen die USA vorzubereiten.
Now we know that Kelly Tilghman will be the.
Spammers are trying to beat the bayesian and statistical filters by overloading them with random texts. When all of these random texts get classified by users as junk mail, the filters will begin confusing the actual text of real emails, which bears some statistical similarity to the random texts, with junk mail. The reasoning is that if they can make the filters useless, then users will abandon them.
I’ve noticed this phenomenon as well. I run across these odd passages sometimes when googling an unusual phrase. Like the other day I was trying to figure out how to say certain phrases in Dutch, so I was testing out some different phrases to make sure that I wasn’t actually saying “bit the wax tadpole” or something, and I ran across several pages of sheer nonsense. Is someone trying to fill the internet up with random, meaningless phrases? And are they not aware that teenagers already have a big headstart on this project?
In any case, no one can beat Babelfish for assembling English words in ways nature never intended.
I get lots of stuff like that, and I’ve been wondering about it myself. Usually, my corporate spamsniffer catches it anyway and sends it to me under a “this may be spam” header. In my case, it’s usually attached to a come on to buy some stock or other.
I thought someone had just given a bunch of monkeys a bunch of keyboards.
oh, heh, someeone did.
John’s right. Spammers are trying to defeat bayesian filters by using classic literature. My guess is they pull it from Gutenberg project. When I googled a particularly ominous phrase, the first hit was Gutenberg’s copy of “Peter Pan.” I’ve noticed the latest trick is touse a multipart/alternative mime message that uses text like that to fool the filter and the real spam is a gif image.
I get spam from some outfit trying to sell me silicon wafers. According to people I know who buy such things, I’m being offered a really bad price on wafers, too.
If they start including illustrations by Zak Smith, be worried.
http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/zak_smith/title.htm
Turd? Is there another esoteric meaning to this or is Pychon writing scat porn?
Is there another esoteric meaning to this or is Pychon writing scat porn?
Sadly, Yes. Though he’s making the point that you can’t help writing scat porn if you’re trying to write honestly about warfare.
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