I have decided, possibly foolishly, to analyze text patterns found in The Glass Key. The idea was raised that a pattern should be explored not only in a single paragraph of text, but across the whole novel. I chose to do this because:
1. I have no life.
2. I’m sick, and therefore have no desire for a life, despite it being Friday night.
3. Hammett is my substitute for a life.
4. I feel a little guilty about being so far behind on blog posts last week.
5. This numbered list is ending now.
I have utilized the handy random number table found here to select 10 page numbers, and then simply analyzed sentence word count in each page. (I considered doing it for the first paragraph on each page, but the paragraphs are frequently filled with dialogue, which makes it a little difficult to identify real paragraphs.) *NOTE: I am using my copy of The Glass Key, which I borrowed from the library (resulting from an irrepressible desire to save money) and is, in fact, a collection of all of Hammett’s works. Therefore, the page numbers are not the same as the ones in the class copies of the novel. The Glass Key is on pages 591-777. This difference is unimportant and won’t change the data significantly. I knew there was a reason* I took AP Stat in high school.
*other than masochism
Here are the graphs of each page…
655:
641:
637:
713:
692:
747:
673:
734:
715:
718:
So there it is. Let me know if you want me to do anything else with the data; it’s only 8pm and I’ve got the rest of the night to fill with similarly geeky pursuits…