For this week’s blog, I chose the novel The Trail of Deception by W.C Tuttle as my foundation of reference for text analysis. I can’t say I’ve ever read the novel, but I quickly asked ChatGPT to explain what happens. The rundown I got was that a trucker named Jim Bailey is reported dead, even though he is very much alive. He also lives with a man named Cliff DeHaven and believes that he is behind the scheme, so it is his goal to figure out what is happening.
From the image provided above, it appears that a few of the most frequently used words in the book include Jim, McLean, said, Bailey, and yuh. The Jim part checks out because he is the main character, but Bailey was never brought up in ChatGPT’s summary, so I’m unsure where they happen to fit into the puzzle. I think that this tool is creative in giving you an idea of what the book could be like, but there is also a lot left out about the plot, of course. This could be beneficial for drawing in readers to the book or giving reading enthusiasts an idea of the vocabulary of the reader.
A bit of a side note, but I studied math abroad, and one of the classes I took was on graph theory, so I’m familiar with this aspect of what we’re learning. A fun activity that you can do is add the degree, meaning the number of edges connecting to a vertex, and see what number you get. Now count the total number of edges of the graph; it should equal exactly half the sum of the degrees, and it works every time. I think what we can be concerned with in this “New Age of AI” is that we are overly reliant on the information they give us if it seems convincing. Outside of digital arts in the humanities, this can be a huge issue in mathematics and statistics. As researchers, it is important to have enough of a foundation and knowledge of your field so that you can understand where AI might be coming up short.
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I found your point about using Voyant Tools before reading the book really interesting. I used the tool to analyze the story that I already read, but it sounds like a creative way to preview the book’s language and recurring themes without reading the full text. It’s also a fresh perspective that connects data with literary exploration.