Editing Mark V. Shaney (section)

==Reception==
The program was discussed by [[A. K. Dewdney]] in the ''[[Scientific American]]'' "Computer Recreations" column in 1989,<ref name="Dewdney"/> by [[Penn Jillette]] in his ''[[PC Computing]]'' column in 1991,<ref name="Jillette"/> and in several books, including the ''Usenet Handbook'',<ref name="Harrison"/> ''Bots: the Origin of New Species'',<ref name="Leonard"/> ''Hippo Eats Dwarf: A Field Guide to Hoaxes and Other B.S.'',<ref name="Boese"/> and non-computer-related journals such as ''Texas Studies in Literature and Language''.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Bits of Information and Tender Feeling: Gertrude Stein and Computer-Generated Prose|first=Carolynn |last=Van Dyke|journal=Texas Studies in Literature and Language|volume=35|issue=2 Anxieties of Identity in American Writing |date=Summer 1993|pages=168–197}}</ref>

Dewdney wrote about the program's output, "The overall impression is not unlike what remains in the brain of an inattentive student after a late-night study session. Indeed, after reading the output of Mark V. Shaney, I find ordinary writing almost equally strange and incomprehensible!"  He noted the reactions of newsgroup users, who have "shuddered at Mark V. Shaney's reflections, some with rage and others with laughter:"<ref name="Dewdney"/> 

<blockquote>The opinions of the new ''net.singles'' correspondent drew mixed reviews. Serious users of the bulletin board's services sensed satire.  Outraged, they urged that someone "pull the plug" on Mark V. Shaney's monstrous rantings. Others inquired almost admiringly whether the program was a secret artificial intelligence project that was being tested in a human conversational environment.  A few may even have thought that Mark V. Shaney was a real person, a tortured schizophrenic desperately seeking a like-minded companion.<ref name="Dewdney"/> 
</blockquote>

Concluding, Dewdney wrote, "If the purpose of computer prose is to fool people into thinking that it was written by a sane person, Mark V. Shaney probably falls short."<ref name="Dewdney"/>

A 2012 article in ''[[The New York Observer|Observer]]'' compared Mark V. Shaney's "strangely beautiful" postings to the [[Horse_ebooks]] account on [[Twitter]] and music reviews at ''[[Pitchfork (magazine)|Pitchfork]]'', saying that "this mash-up of gibberish and human sentiment" is what "made Mark V. Shaney so endlessly fascinating".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Roy |first1=Jessica |title=Meet Mark V. Shaney, Usenet's Very Own @Horse_ebooks |url=https://observer.com/2012/07/mark-v-shaney-horse-ebooks-markov-chain-twitter-07022012/ |website=[[The New York Observer|Observer]] |access-date=2023-05-26 |date=2012-07-02}}</ref>