On Dec. 1 and 2, 2021, novelist Tom Comitta and Johns Hopkins-based survey design expert Katherine Cornwall polled the literary tastes of the United States, measuring everything from favorite genre to setting to characters to verb tense. With the data in hand, Comitta composed two very different novels: one with everything respondents desired (a James Patterson-esque techno-thriller) and another with everything that received few or no votes (an experimental Christmas novel set on Mars 100 years in the future featuring elements of romance, historical fiction and horror).
This past summer, Columbia University Press published these books in one volume entitled "People's Choice Literature: The Most Wanted and Unwanted Novels." Called "ingenious" and "funny" by Slate and featured in a New York Times profile, "People's Choice Literature" is a work of both rigorous research and Wodehouse-worthy humor.
In their multimedia presentation "Human AI," Tom Comitta shares their public opinion research on readerly taste as well as the LLM-driven analysis of bestselling novels that inspired everything from the narrative to syntax to characterization of "People's Choice Literature." Additionally, Comitta will discuss their larger work in literary constraint and algorithmic writing practices, particularly their new novella, "Patchwork." Deemed "an intellectual exercise crackling with madcap energy" by Kirkus Reviews, "Patchwork" weaves fragments from hundreds of other novels into a single story about love and loss, suspense and snuff boxes. Across thirty-two chapters, readers discover surprising connections between different literary styles and media — two chapters are made entirely out of illustrations. Accompanying their presentation will be readings from both books.
Please join us in the Community Foundation Theater, located in Gund Gallery, on Thursday, Oct. 2, at 4:30 p.m.