The Reading Room

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verbose

00:27

@CowperKettle the linked blog post was an interesting read. Thanks!

@bobble Randolph said it was okay for us to edit the question ourselves in such cases?

@Tsundoku Interesting stuff! Is the table available as a csv download?

1 hour later…

Bookworm

01:55

Q: What is the ethical philosophy of European Romanticism?

The ethics of (secular) humanism is consequentialist [1], arguably epicurean [2] . I believe the ethics of the European Enlightenment could be said epicureanism also. But what is the ethics of European romanticism? [I don't know if this question belongs to SE Philosophy or SE Literature]

history-of-literature

CowperKettle

02:26

@verbose Yes, it's curious. I phrased it badly using "ban" instead of "rejection".

verbose

well, the blog did say that those contributors were banned from further submission so I didn't think "ban" was badly phrased, it seemed apt

CowperKettle

Ah!

On the wall of an electric power transformer vault in Russia. The sign says "Harry Potter"

2 hours later…

Mithical

05:05

@Randal'Thor Oh, that's an exclusive club. I didn't realize it was only you two.

bobble

05:57

@verbose yes, I could definitely edit it. But I've told them to and I want them to, only I don't think they believe they should listen to that, so it's not gonna happen and I'm just complaining

Bookworm

06:14

Q: A story about a girl and a mechanical girl with a tattoo travelling on a train

There is a story I recall many details from, but the title still escapes me. I read a physical school library copy between 2013-2018, in elementary/middle; I live in the USA. The story starts with a character who lives in a countryside slum time, and magic is said to exist. Occasionally, objects ...

identification-request

2 hours later…

Rand al'Thor

08:09

@verbose I don't know if you follow policy discussions on other SE sites, but just FYI, a lot of sites have bans on ChatGPT-generated content. See Stack Overflow and this curated list on main meta.

Lit doesn't have a site-specific policy on this yet, and I think your answer is fine because you acknowledged the source (lots of people just copy-paste ChatGPT output without attribution, which is plagiarism), but - since that seems to be directly quoted without editing - have you double-checked to make sure all the information is accurate? ChatGPT has a habit of confidently spouting nonsense statements, including even when describing books.

verbose

@Randal'Thor Thanks for the heads-up! I haven't been following that discussion. I did verify the sanity of the answer before posting it.

Rand al'Thor

I'd hate for you to get suspended on one of the sites that outright bans ChatGPT and then be unable to run for mod here :-P

@verbose Sorry, knee-jerk reaction. I know you're better than that.

verbose

> have you double-checked to make sure all the information is accurate?

You wound me, Randolph

Sorry I had to delete and repost coz I couldn't figure out how to not have my response be part of the quote

and I have added ancillary stuff? Like links to the author's webpage, the fact that the book is part of a series, etc?

Rand al'Thor

Oh, of course, this obviously isn't just a mindless copy-paste - I just meant the part in the quote block.

I've actually never seen ChatGPT give 100% correct information when summarising a book or film.

Someone on SFF asked it to recommend "epic space novels by romance novelists" and it came up with, I kid you not, "Ender's Game by Charlotte Bronte".

verbose

@Randal'Thor that would actually be a pretty nice mash-up

Rand al'Thor

08:24

We've also deleted ChatGPT answers on SFF that describe books that don't exist, or characters that don't exist in books that do. It's been chaos.

verbose

@Randal'Thor yeah I just deleted my answer too. The more I looked into it, the less convinced I was that ChatGPT had it right.

There's a bunch of stuff that maps but too much that doesn't.

Rand al'Thor

:-(

... wait

I think I just found the book and it's not that one.

goodreads.com/en/book/show/18077836

verbose

oh cool

Rand al'Thor

>
> Young Piper is a scrapper, orphaned and alone in a world where survival is a harsh reality and watching your back is a way of life. Loyalty and friendships are rare, so when a young friend of Piper’s is caught in a meteor field during a storm, she ignores her own safety to find and save him. Hidden from the falling debris, Piper watches in fear as a strange caravan is destroyed in the Meteor Field. As the storm abates, she finds a young survivor, rescues both the young girl and her young friend. The girl is a bit odd, but she carries an important tattoo that denotes she is protected by …

Girl protagonist, tick. Mysterious girl with tattoo, tick. Train, tick. King, tick.

verbose

dragonfly ≠ dragon

Rand al'Thor

08:38

I feel a bit bad about jumping in with a new answer after you just deleted yours.

verbose

why would you? I deleted my answer because it was wrong.

You found the right answer. Go post it, the OP wants to know

Rand al'Thor

Done.

And I think I've found more than one book that'd be fun to read.

If I had time :-(

Mithical

08:59

@verbose I have deleted way too many ChatGPT-generated answers over on Artificial Intelligence recently...

2 hours later…

Bookworm

10:33

Q: Science Fiction version of Queneau's "Exercices de Style"?

I somewhere read there is an "extended" version (I only know the "standard" one which has a German translation) of Queneau's "Exercices de Style". Including an SF version (which interests me most). Unfortunately, I couldn't dig up any further information. Anyone having bibliographic info (or even...

french-language

3 hours later…

Tsundoku

13:32

> The text generated by ChatGPT is licensed under the OpenAI API Terms of Use. The terms permit you to use the generated text for any purpose, but you must include an attribution to OpenAI and comply with the other terms of the license. Additionally, you should be aware that the text generated by ChatGPT may include copyrighted or trademarked material, and you are responsible for obtaining any necessary permissions for your use of that material.

Michel van Velde asked ChatGPT which license was associated with its use (on LinkedIn). Oops!

One of the weird things is that there is no link to the terms of use when you land on chat.openai.com and click on "Sign up".

Neither of the two close voters on the questions What is the ethical philosophy of American transcendentalism? and What is the ethical philosophy of European Romanticism? have explained why those questions are "opinion based".

7 hours later…

Bookworm

20:54

Q: Choose your own adventure, with car racing in the Alpines and a kidnaping plot

I remember a "Choose Your Own Adventure" novel whose title I cannot remember. I read sometime between 2010 and 2016 (throwing darts at a memory board). It is a English title, and I believe it was a paperback with a red car on the cover. It had a few black and white line images, I believe, but was...

identification-request

1 hour later…