I trained GPT-2 on last year’s short fiction Nebula finalists. The result:

I walked up to the door and knocked.

“Come in, Ashcroft,” said the voice inside.

I stood beside him, still pretending to be someone I had never been before. Maybe this was how my body came to be here. I pulled the blanket closed around me and pulled at the hem of my dress. I looked down, at the queen. She was the first person I had looked at just from her side.

This was different. This was real. The way she looked straight into my face. Here I was, the other me, with no boundaries, broken.

I couldn’t see her eyes at the time, but I knew she didn’t take long to realize I was the only one.

Continue reading “Friday GPT-2: 2020 Nebula finalists” →

I trained GPT-2 on last year’s short fiction Hugo finalists. The result:

I’d like to start with an expansive one. It’ll be as broad as the Universe and as expansive as a rib cage. There can’t be too much to say about that.

And then there’s Mom, the omnipresent centre of the home—the one who’s always at home, making sure that whatever comes my way gets eaten alive by whatever comes not. The one who’s always available.

There’s been a lot of talk about Who? The Beast? The Witness? But the truth is, there’s just too much at stake to be distracted by mere terminology or a single, overarching theme. The mystery of Frodo’s true home is well-known: he’s the only one left, the one who’s always been there, the one who’s always been afraid.

So Who?

Continue reading “Friday GPT-2: 2021 Hugo finalists” →

I trained GPT-2 on this year’s short fiction Nebula finalists. The result:

Do you remember the star person from the beach? He was the smartest kid I ever seen, and I know he and his family are pretty gaunt.

But do you remember the other two people from the movie? They were the only ones who talked to me. They always called me by my birth name, like I was weird. And they always kept me company. Always with me. Over and over. Never away.

I thought about it, my hands on my hips, thinking about the letters t and u on the dollar bill. The star person from the beach was always right next to me, right next to me, like we were one big family.

Continue reading “Friday GPT-2: 2021 Nebula finalists” →

I trained GPT-2 on this year’s short fiction Hugo finalists. The result:

It is at this moment that my heart aches, for I so desperately want to take his life but I can’t. I could paint over his grave, lay waste to his great-grandmother, and if I were going to make a difference for the world, I would care less what anyone thinks or what country they come from.

“Let him go,” he says. “He has to go. I don’t want to live in a world that doesn’t hear us.”

There’s a quiet fraction of a second in which I want to tell him no, but I know he’s afraid of losing his voice. His eyes are so long they barely can open a single black line. He knows.

Continue reading “Friday GPT-2: 2022 Hugo finalists” →