This blog may or may not have been assigned--the Google doc says no, but I figured I'd toss in my two cents about The Secret Life of Pronouns. If someone analyzed this blog post, I fear what they might discover about me. I suppose I'm tangential...
While reading the first chapter of The Secret Life of Pronouns, I find myself liking the author based entirely on how it's written. It's interesting to note that I didn't particularly like The Design of Everyday Things because I felt like the writing was dour and and grumpy. It was just a few pages in that I realized that I actually liked Pennebaker. Of course, it's possible that it will change if I read the remainder of the book, but his somewhat conversational tone and inexplicable "niceness" is something I enjoy.
At any rate, the development of LIWC is fascinating. I've always known that listening to someone speak or reading their work can tell you something about them, and that communication has a largely emotional component, but to see it analyzed and explained is exciting to the language nerd in me. (I have come to realize that I enjoy the language and artistry aspects of computer science to the mathematics, so I suppose that my interest in this work makes good sense.)
As a personal side note: as I was reading this chapter, I thought back to my own traumatic experience. Long story short: I was on a class trip on a mountain in Estes Park, CO with several of my 8th-grade classmates and two leaders when I went into cardiac arrest several times. After a helicopter ride to Denver and surgery to receive a pacemaker/defibrillator, I was home in Dallas less than a week later. I only had one or two stints of real emotional turmoil after that, but reading this, I think I understand why--it was never only me, alone, dealing with it. I was forced to share it because it happened publicly, and so it never occurred to me that it should be a secret. I think that's why I'm not scarred as some of the people he described were.
I want to read the rest of this book. Maybe when I have some free time...
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