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A Dying Language

Yesterday’s Austin American-Statesman ran this story:

NuSrvc2OffrGr8Litr8trOnYrFon
Loose translation: Get classic literature in text-message form

Ouch. Dot Mobile is selling its service as a new way for students to cheat avoid reading prepare for tests without having to dirty their fingers with Cliffs Notes. The service will initially provide plot summaries and important quotes from the likes of Shakespeare, Austen, and Golding without all the extra words, sentences and subtlety that only confuse students anyway.

Eventually Dot Mobile intends to offer the complete works of Shakespeare and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. CNN also had a story on this including an excerpt from Milton’s Paradise Lost which begins with, “devl kikd outa hevn coz jelus of jesus&strts war.” The various authors can be heard spinning in their graves.

Initially, I was saddened because I knew that the effect of this would not just be another way for students of literature to avoid reading it, but would also continue the ongoing destruction of the English language, but then in the section of the article offering interpretations, I saw and reflected on the advice Nick remembers receiving from his father in the opening of The Great Gatsby:

WenevaUFeelLykDissinNe1,
jstMembaDatAlDaPpinDaWrldHvntHdDaVantgsUvAd

I read this several times over and remembered that hez rite cuz itz lyk hez sain we all gotta b open n shit cuz who r we 2 judge.

Published inBooksTeaching

3 Comments

  1. We be chillin on r blogz 2day me n my studnts. Thanx 4 vz10 us. Hope ur Tky day wuz insane in da membrain.

    Actually, they have love-hate relationships with their blogs but mostly because our internet connection is caca and times out.

    But I’m having fun so that’s what’s important, right?

    Have fun on the novel. Planning to post any of it?

  2. Slow internet…evil.

    Yes, I’m considering posting a few chapters to see if that generates any interest. We’ll see. Thanks for visiting.

  3. […] now that I think about it, I realize I’ve written about the texting of literature and its effect on language before. Technorati Tags: english, literature, old english, middle […]

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