a computational model of the evocative detail
(I'm a few chapters into _Embassytown_ right now and it seems like Miéville had a rule when writing it to put a reference to some new bit of world-building context in each sentence—it's destabilizing and fun like a curvy road)
(I think randomness in procedurally-generated writing sort of has this same effect—it encourages a kind of reading where in the process of bridging the sense-gap you're made to imagine the context that produced the incongruous details. but it's not *quite* the same effect as Miéville's style here, since in cut-up writing [depending on the procedure] that context rarely produces satisfying coherence [whatever "satisfying" means here])
(I keep sorta thoughtlessly using the word "evocative" when describing certain works of computer-generated creative writing, and I think what I mean by it is this property of producing a cohesive sense of context—which doesn't necessarily mean a sense of *narrative*, I would hasten to note!)
@aparrish Today’s band name: Hasten To Note.