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XKCD's "Up Goer Five" (written using only the 1000 most common English words) was no doubt inspired by this: https://xkcd.com/1133/ https://xkcd.com/1133/
by colanderman 8y ago
XKCD's "Up Goer Five" (written using only the 1000 most common English words) was no doubt inspired by this: https://xkcd.com/1133/ https://xkcd.com/1133/
- schoen 8y agoNot likely, since it uses tons of Romance vocabulary. For example, right at the top we can see space using people escape problem [Greek] decide control direction Not all constrained writing exercises are directly inspired by one another!
- Zarel 8y agoUp Goer Five is most likely inspired by Randall Munroe's general fascination with Simple English Wikipedia: https://xkcd.com/547/ https://xkcd.com/547/
- enriquto 8y agoNot at all; I'd rather say that "up goer five" is the exact opposite of "unclefish beholding". One uses common words to refer to advanced things; the other invents a new vocabulary to refer to things that already have plain names.
- BerislavLopac 8y agoYou might want to check Randall's "Thing Explainer": https://xkcd.com/thing-explainer/ https://xkcd.com/thing-explainer/
- yesenadam 8y agoI don't know who the audience is, or that anyone would want to read it more than once, but it's a unique marvel. Amazing and highly recommended!
- BerislavLopac 8y agoOne very grateful audience is non-native speakers learning English.
- yesenadam 8y agoWell, I showed it to my friend who I was teaching English while she was teaching me Spanish (although her English was very good) - but even I had to already know what things he was talking about to understand what he was talking about, much less to find it funny, although it's still hard to read. I don't think it would be great for English learners, as the kind of English used is not what you'd want to learn! And he uses the wrong names for everything. Wouldn't another version be better for English learners that just used the normal terms for everything? (That would be awesome!) It's not like Dr Seuss, using a very limited vocabulary but calling things but their right name, which I imagine but be entertaining and useful for English beginners. But if Thing somehow helps people, great. :-)
- BerislavLopac 8y ago> Wouldn't another version be better for English learners that just used the normal terms for everything? (That would be awesome!) That is just a visual dictionary, and there are plenty of those around. https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?field-keywords=visual+dictionary https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?field-keywords=visual+dictionary