Moomin History

There’s been a bit of a buzz about AI-generated content of late, the most notable being the awesome Harry Potter fan fiction created by Botnik. They fed the entire works of J.K. Rowling into an AI and let it write a story. The results were surreal, and a fair bit better than the originals.

Most recently Screen Junkies did the same with Honest Trailers – they fed the content of every single Honest Trailer and let it generate a script. The results were hilarious.

So I wondered what the same AI would make of Tove Jansson. It took a little bit of work, but I managed to feed Comet in Moominland and Moominsummer Madness into the beast, and let it do its work. What came out was completely bizarre, verging on the lysergic. So here you are, the first ever robot-generated Moomin chapter:

Vapour By Moominchild

The Snork Maiden went on laying out shells round the rhubarb bed. Moomintroll and Sniff twirled once again because all that seemed to flicker and burn somewhere in the valley below them could have looked quite angry. “Vapour was happening!” said Snufkin. Moomintroll thought longingly again as fast as he trudged along. 

But there were rocks looking wildly for them and he mumbled so very well. Perhaps somebody had forgotten the underground river – over his shoulder was the earth. It crashed down from behind him with an important voice. Moomintroll was overwhelmed with the wheelbarrow, but that was unnecessary. 

“Have a lamp before winding stilts.” said Moominmamma. Sniff hid his dress in his mouth. “Vapour revealed!” said the Snork Maiden. At that black voice, the flight of the cave proudly filled with rubies on tails which thrashed for the rest of the sea.

Suddenly, scientists from prison began struggling frantically against the pulling rope, while Moominpappa wrote his memoirs. “Sniff gave orders in surprise,” said Moominpappa. “In front of the rucksack for you.” They strained their ears excitedly, drifting slowly nearer and nearer to the mast. 

“In my life I was happy wherever I was covered by crabs?” he asked. Sniff paused. “A little gold bracelet,” said Moominpappa. “Over four minutes later.” Moomintroll stopped chattering for this flowering valley. Once he sat down under their feet, leaves inside his nose poked around too. They all hid his nose by a ring for a bit, and the river lay down on a tree and folded up to his middle. 

Which is more important? Snufkin sadly thought. The Muskrat avoided the Hemulen slowly and looked most extraordinary because all of them, except the Snork Maiden’s cost of October, dawned on their tails. Now everything that they could distinguish there sat on their stilts.

“What’s by the rope tied with excitement? Silk eiderdown with white flowers!” exclaimed Moomintroll. Because the comet was diving headlong to earth, midnight was getting thoroughly tangled up with laughter. 

“Whirling please!” said Moomintroll. “Whirling please!”