
Review my sci-fi novel about P vs. NP? - MarkPNeyer
i&#x27;ve written a manuscript of a sci-fi novel that deals with, among other things, p vs np. think douglas adams mixed with neal stephenson, and a dash of joyce to make it delicious.<p>anyone with this link can read and comment. thanks!<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;docs.google.com&#x2F;document&#x2F;d&#x2F;1A8XAyTh_zD74wUYH2OU2HbPVZ0P0MnpIxSihXRYZ-5s&#x2F;edit?usp=sharing
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dkuntz2
So capitalization isn't something you do?

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MarkPNeyer
only for emphasis. i've gotten a number of comments about that, so i may
change it.

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cpeterso
If the story is not _about_ language emphasis, then the lowercase text is
distracting from the real story. :)

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danpalmer
I've seen some quite good examples of this in some things I've read. A poem I
know was written incorrectly in order to force people to read it in a
particular accent[1]. Also, "Feersum Endjin" by Iain M Banks has some chapters
written from the perspective of one of main characters written in non-standard
English[2].

    
    
        Woak up. Got dresd. Had brekfast. Spoke wif Ergates thi ant who sed itz juss been wurk wurk wurk 4 u lately master Bascule, Y dont u ½ a holiday? & I agreed & that woz how we decided we otter go 2 c Mr Zoliparia in thi I-ball ov thi gargoyle Rosbrith.
    

[1]: [http://www.tomleonard.co.uk/main-publications/intimate-
voice...](http://www.tomleonard.co.uk/main-publications/intimate-voices/the-
six-oclock-news.html)

[2]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feersum_Endjinn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feersum_Endjinn)

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glomph
Then of course there are the classics such as Trainspotting.

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willstepp
The capitalization seems like a really minor issue, easily fixed, and
ultimately not that big a deal, but that's Hacker News for you. That said, if
you want to be the ee cummings of novelists, go for it. Novel writing is an
artform, not a programming language. Cormac McCarthy doesn't use quotation
marks, so what. Big deal.

Being a fan of both Adams and Stephenson I want to read this when I get an
opportunity, did you write it during NaNoWriMo by any chance?

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MarkPNeyer
i did. it's been stewing in my head for a long time.

a friend finished last night, saying it was a "rough gem." high praise; i'm
much more inspired to finish.

my goal is, among other things, to get some concepts in computer science into
the mainstream thought. to me, p vs np is the most fascinating question ever
asked.

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willstepp
Cool, I started a novel during NaNoWriMo this year as well, although I'm still
finishing up the first draft. Your concept sounds interesting, can't wait to
check it out.

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krapp
Everyone else is mentioning the lack of capitalization, which is a problem,
but i'm also going to suggest you follow standard practice for this a bit
further and use 1.5 or double line spacing. That will make it a lot easier to
read.

Also, if you ever plan on sending something to an editor, standard manuscript
format:
[http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mslee/format.html](http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mslee/format.html)

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dkuntz2
It's not really the same. Not capitalizing things is breaking the language's
rules. Having a small line height is an easily changed, arbitrary, and mostly
subjective "issue".

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krapp
I agree with you. Better spacing would make it much easier to read, in any
case.

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deletes
The constant lowercases are equivalent of not indenting your code. You are not
going to be taken seriously.

