Interactive Tool Visualizes Tolkien's Works 33
dsjodin writes "Last year, LotrProject brought us extraordinary statistics on the population of Middle-Earth. Now, they have released an interactive tool for analysis of the Silmarillion, the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. With keyword frequency search, character mentions, sentiment analysis and network diagrams of character interactions it is a beautiful set of data visualizations and fascinating for fans and non-fans alike. The site can for example be used to find out that bacon is mentioned seven times in the Hobbit while only two times throughout the entire the Lord of the Rings."
bacon? (Score:3, Funny)
The site can for example be used to find out that bacon is mentioned seven times in the Hobbit while only two times throughout the entire the Lord of the Rings."
because I for one have always wondered just how many times they talk about bacon in a book/movie with dragons / eyes that live on top of mountains and rings that turn you invisible. Thank you SOOO much, now I can finally rest at night.
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They're just pandering to the reddit crowd.
I love the idea (Score:5, Insightful)
because I for one have always wondered just how many times they talk about bacon in a book/movie with dragons / eyes that live on top of mountains and rings that turn you invisible.
Seems like it would be useful in exploring how the styles of his books changes. The Hobbit, LOTR, and the Silmarillion each have different tones and vocabularies.
Re:I love the idea (Score:5, Interesting)
Thank you for your letter. I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people.
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And that is why you try to avoid talking to academic experts in any fields that your favorite poorly thought out pet theory steals jargon from...
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the Silmarillion didn't come out until long after LOTR was out...
... and Tolkien was dead.
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True, but he started writing the Silmarillion BEFORE LotR as a sequel to The Hobbit, but the publisher rejected it. So he put it on the back burner, and started 'The New Hobbit' aka LotR.
Strangely, I didn't know this before about an hour ago, when co-coincidently, I was reading the Wikipedia article on The Hobbit (for some other, unconnected reason)...
-Jar
Re:Mixed feelings (Score:5, Insightful)
One man's waste of time and resources is another's inspiration and breakthrough.
Re:Mixed feelings (Score:4, Funny)
One man's waste of time and resources is another's inspiration and breakthrough.
It's funny how some people just classify everything as weird or useless if they see no sense or use in it. I have the habit of eating fries with strong mustard rather than ketchup. A friend of mine was appalled when he saw me do this and gave me a long lecture on how unappetising it was, after ranting on for a while he finally got tired of it and dug into his gouda-cheese, mayonnaise and jam sandwich.
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Excellent way of learning data analysis and visualisation techniques. He'll have gained personally and as a by-product has created an interesting resource for others.
Not sure that's a waste of time or resources at all, especially if you start factoring in the enjoyment the whole exercise probably provided to him.
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...is this on the front page of /. ??
Because it's really, really geeky, therefore perfect Slashdot material. I think you're the sort who doesn't grok grep, and we don't like your type round here...
Peter Jackson? (Score:5, Funny)
By "creating a LotR visualization tool", does that mean they have cloned Peter Jackson?
"...and non-fans alike"? (Score:2)
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Well, you could always point them to the geek hierarchy :-0
http://brunching.com/images/geekchartbig.gif [brunching.com]
Counting Bacon? (Score:2)
Someone _really_ needs to get a life!
Of course that precious bit of information will be just the thing to drop on any LOTR trivia freaks.
Toad
Bacon Number (Score:2)
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Bacon Number is now effectively useless now that every man and his dog will be co--starring with him on The Following :(
I shall still cling to my personal Bacon Number of #4 with pride though.
-Jar
ME-DEM Demo (Score:1)
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Gloin was mentioned many times in LOTR, a la "Gimli, son of Gloin". IIRC, Gloin was the head of the Dwarf delegation at the Council of Elrond.