It's a move that's giving a whole new meaning to the idea of the great literary texts. THe classics are going high tech. According to articles from CNN, the BBC, and numerous local newspapers , services are trying to summarize the ideas of Shakespeare, the Bronte sisters, and Upton Sinclair to name only a few, into small, consumable text messages.
Now, I love Shakespeare. Once you get into his work, the rhythm of the language is amazing, and his audacity to create new language or slang to get his point across is admirable. TO me, these snippets will lose something. However, I'm no purist. This could open the classics up to an entirely new generation of people who don't have the attention span or the time or the desire (or all three) to sit down and start them for themselves. This could be their gateway into the old fashioned technology known as print on a page, or a book.
So I don't think I'll be signing up for the service, but should anyone try to condense Hemingway down to 160 characters or less, let me know. That I gotta see!
A collection of random thoughts, rhetorical questions, and a dash of whimsy - all things that fit quite nicely under the burnt reds and oranges of fall foliage.
4 comments:
I totally agree with you - if they get young folks to open a book, I'm all for it. Maybe like Harry Potter for the mobile generation.
The sad part is that it probably won't get kids to open a book any more than any other idea. It harkens back to high school when, too lazy to read the book assigned to us, we thought the Cliff's Notes would pull us through.
And cool post title. I didn't get its significance at first...
:-)
What I mean to say is, yes I got the Shakespeare reference, but the text message brvity code escaped me for a few...days.
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