Over at Scribd, I've uploaded a paper I wrote this semester called "The Urantia Book as a Test Case for Statistical Authorship Attribution of Genre-Distinctive Texts." In case you're not familiar with the Urantia Book, it is an American scripture produced in the early twentieth century that claims to have been written by celestial beings-- various kinds of angels and divine messengers, who live on other planets. It's a very unique and interesting text.
My study applies the Delta method of authorship attribution to the text, in order to see whether the method could shed any useful light on the authorship question. It finds that there are too many complicating variables for the method to be really useful in attributing a distinctive pseudepigraphon. For the most part, it produces nonsensical results. However, I do pioneer a new approach that might prove useful if properly controlled.
One reason these results are important is because of their implications for the Jockers, et. al. wordprint study of the Book of Mormon. Jockers applied the Delta method to the Book of Mormon and found that the Book had multiple authors, including Sidney Rigdon and Solomon Spalding. If the method is ineffective for attributing distinctive pseudepigrapha, then the Jockers, et. al. results cannot be considered reliable.
7 comments:
Very interesting. I had never heard of the Urantia Book. So, you do conclude that the book appears to have a single author? I believe that is how your paper concludes.
I find that each of the genres in the book seem to have singular authorship. However, I'm not fully satisfied with my controls, so I wouldn't put a lot of stock in my results. They can only really serve as a supplement to traditional analytical methods.
Son, you never cease to amaze me. Is there anything that you are not able to speak authoritatively on?
You make an old man feel dumb.
Are you aware of UBtheNEWS.com? This project documents how new discoveries and scientific advances are corroborating historic information in the Urantia Book that was not known or accepted when it was published in 1955.
UBtheNEWS
I have read and agree with the study you mention by Jockers, et al. Have you communicated with them regarding your analysis and also provided them with your work?
I have forwarded a link to one of the team members of your post. I am very interested in this matter.
Thanks for posting.
It has been sent to Craig Criddle, whose reply was basically that since the study passed peer-review it must be accurate, and since I'm studying under Richard Bushman I must be just trying to vindicate him in order to get a good recommendation letter.
Chris- Very interesting study. I thought your choice of texts was inspired. One academic angle that I think has not been examined well is the concept of "channelled" texts. My perusing of a few such texts suggests that they tend to be very repetitive but can be extensive. IMHO some of the literary qualities of such texts show up in the Book of Mormon.
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