As it turns out, the much-maligned prose in E.L. James’s wildly popular Fifty Shades of Grey wasn’t written by a team of hallucinogenic-addled monkeys. But it might as well have been written by a computer, if the accuracy of the Fifty Shades Text Generator is any indication.
Created by Lisa Wray, an MIT engineer and developer advocate at Google, the Fifty Shades Text Generator is exactly what it sounds like: A system for generating random text that reads exactly like Fifty Shades of Grey.
“My friend wanted to prove that 50 Shades was so basic that a computer could write it,” u/lnri137, who posted the text generator on r/books, explained. “So she did.”
The text generator is based on something called a “Dada Engine,” which produces strings of random text from “grammars.” It’s pretty spot-on, to the point where it’s difficult to tell the difference between the computer-generated text and James’s stilted prose. For instance:
Fifty Shades Text Generator
And:
Fifty Shades Text Generator
And:
Fifty Shades Text Generator
Compare to the real thing:
My insides practically contort with potent, needy, liquid, desire.
And:
My inner goddess is beside herself, hopping from foot to foot.
Anticipation hangs heavy over my head like a dark tropical storm cloud.
And:
“You’ve really got a taste for this, haven’t you, Miss Steele? You’re becoming insatiable,” he murmurs.
“I’ve only got a taste for you,” I whisper.
No need to blow 14 bucks on a Fifty Shades movie ticket. Just turn down the lights, put on some candles, and pull up the Text Generator and call it a day.
H/T Reddit | Screengrab via Universal Pictures UK/YouTube
