classic txt'ing

Goodshape

oh jesus god no! :eek:

Some of English literature's greatest masterpieces have been condensed into a few lines of text message to help students revise for exams.

The service condenses classic works such as Bleak House and Pride and Prejudice into a handy aide-memoire.

For example, Hamlet's famous line: "To be or not to be, that is the question" becomes "2b? Nt2b? ???".

A university professor claims it "amply demonstrates text's ability to fillet out the important elements in a plot".

Romeo & Juliet wrote:

FeudTween 2hses- Montague&Capulet. RomeoMfalls_<3w/_JulietC@mary Secretly Bt R kils J's Coz &&is banishd. J fakes Death. As Part of Plan2b-w/R Bt_leter Bt It Nvr Reachs Him. Evry1confuzd-bothLuvrs kil Emselves

I'm speechless to be honest.

Ag marbh

I don't see the problem if it's helping people and they're not speaking it

Sarky

I always thought the end of civilisation would have had more explosions and chaos, you know, the sky on fire, irradiated nations sinking beneath the toxic waves of a sea of blood, that sort of thing.

Somehow, this feels much, much worse.

Rantorama

Originally Posted by Romeo & Juliet
FeudTween 2hses- Montague&Capulet. RomeoMfalls_<3w/_JulietC@mary Secretly Bt R kils J's Coz &&is banishd. J fakes Death. As Part of Plan2b-w/R Bt_leter Bt It Nvr Reachs Him. Evry1confuzd-bothLuvrs kil Emselves

Vicky Pollard does Shakespeare.

Lump

Eh?

John

IceHawk

I don't believe this. Not in an 'I'm outraged' way, I just refuse to believe it's actually happening. Converting classics to text messages removes what makes them classics. Anyway, how does that description of Romeo and Juliet help anyone learn. Surely they will still have to quote from the original text? Plot synopses are provided with most copies of the play anyway.

g'em

surely part of the the point of these being 'classics' is that we read to appreciate the rich use of language, the structure of prose, words painting a picture.

How in the hell does

FeudTween 2hses- Montague&Capulet. RomeoMfalls_<3w/_JulietC@mary Secretly Bt R kils J's Coz &&is banishd. J fakes Death. As Part of Plan2b-w/R Bt_leter Bt It Nvr Reachs Him. Evry1confuzd-bothLuvrs kil Emselves

do that?

oh dear. suddenly i feel ten years to old.

Tar.Aldarion

Seriously? That is horrible
wow just wow.

Ruaidhri

Ag marbh wrote:

I don't see the problem if it's helping people and they're not speaking it

I do,it's dumbing [the text] down for idiots.
If your mother tongue is english,you should be able to read/write/speak it AS YOU WERE THOUGHT IT, not in the format you gossip/organise nights out/"txt ur gf/bf".

It's insulting to Shakespeare,and for that matter, anyone else who's ever contributed to literature.

Dustaz

Ag marbh wrote:

I don't see the problem if it's helping people and they're not speaking it

Normally, yes fine, no problem. Unfortunatly it just re-inforces the notion that its allright to type in text form "bcuz weres de harm its jst de net/txspk".

Phones have come on in terms predictive text and message capacity and seriously, at this stage its just morons who insist on typing like that.

shakaman

The English language in it's highest form readable for the planet's lowest form of life....chavs.

Shocking.

Dinner

FeudTween 2hses- Montague&Capulet. RomeoMfalls_<3w/_JulietC@mary Secretly Bt R kils J's Coz &&is banishd. J fakes Death. As Part of Plan2b-w/R Bt_leter Bt It Nvr Reachs Him. Evry1confuzd-bothLuvrs kil Emselves

Anybody actually know what that really says? I can make out from Bt It Nvr.... but not before that.

Mossy Monk

i can see that it is Romeo and Juliet

the rest of it? hmmmmmmmmmmm doesnt compute except for the Lovers Kill Thesmelves bit at the end

JohnMorrissey

That is twice as hard to read as proper english o.o

Kolodny

Good Lord. The Reduced Shakespeare Company have nothing on this...

BuffyBot

It makes baby Jesus, God, Mary, all the Greek and Roman gods, Allah and everyone else weep buckets.

Tusky

Its a disgrace.

Nimrod's Son

Arabel wrote:

Anybody actually know what that really says? I can make out from Bt It Nvr.... but not before that.

I know what you mean, I can't read textspeak. My eyes cross whenever I try.
Surely it would be easier to write coherent, legible words?? No? Maybe I'm just too darn old...

Kingp35

I cant even read that stuff in the first post!!

Zounds

Just to disprove any ideas of people being too old:

I'm 17, it takes me about 3minutes and a great deal of physical pain to decipher that stuff and even then I can't read it all. Anyone got any idea what the underscores are for?

Daelus

I don't understand. How is that easier to read? Will txt speak become the new English language? This is the beginning of the end!

Next up, poetry:

I no tat I shll mt my fte, L33T!L33T!
Oh god, I can't even continue.

halenger

I'm not that old (21) and I can't read that. I can understand it though but only because I already know the story.

I can't stand that "language". It's really terrible, terrible stuff. I will admit to sending a lot of text messages but I refuse to throw punctuation/spelling/etc to the wind. I'm sure I did use that dreadful crap at some point but some time later I refused to let myself anymore - now I was never into it in a big way. Simple things like 2/r/tho or similar. Free texts had some measure of influence on that because I haven't had to worry about being limited/trying to squeeze it all into the one message.

*shudders* Die, die, die.

passive

"FeudTween 2hses- Montague&Capulet. RomeoMfalls_<3w/_JulietC@mary Secretly Bt R kils J's Coz &&is banishd. J fakes Death. As Part of Plan2b-w/R Bt_leter Bt It Nvr Reachs Him. Evry1confuzd-bothLuvrs kil Emselves"

=

There exists a feud between the Montagues and Capulet houses. Romeo Montague falls in love with Juliet Capulet. They marry secretly but Romeo kills Juliet's cousin and is banished. Juliet fakes her death as part of a plan to be with romeo but the letter she sends (a little confused here by the extra BT) never reaches him. Everyone is confused as both lovers kill themselves.

This is a dark and terrible day...

Scraggs

*sheds a tear*

all that is good is lost and gone

Setun

well he likes it.

http://www.antlab.ee.ucla.edu/~johng/photos/crap/clinton.gif

Rhyme

I actually feel mildly ill... terrible comedy

Faith

I'm 18 and I can't understand it. It looks like gibberish to me. I'm actually horrified beyond words.

TerrorFirmer

That is just.....horrific. Mere words cannot express what I am feeling. It's not rage, its more like....anguish.

Rageful anguish? I dont know. But mourning of some sort that classics would be reduced to this....by a professor no less.

Mr.Nice Guy

Why are people so concerned about the English language?

Shouldn't we be a little bit more concerned about our own one?

TerrorFirmer

Mr.Nice Guy wrote:

Why are people so concerned about the English language?

Shouldn't we be a little bit more concerned about our own one?

shudder.

irish text speak

Love

Couldn't believe that when I read it, it's so stupid!! I hate text talk!

Zounds wrote:

Just to disprove any ideas of people being too old:

I'm 17, it takes me about 3minutes and a great deal of physical pain to decipher that stuff and even then I can't read it all.

halenger wrote:

I'm not that old (21) and I can't read that. I can understand it though but only because I already know the story.

*shudders* Die, die, die.

I'm 17 as well. And I think the original is much easier to read and understand.

*agrees with Halenger* Die.

Love

Ruaidhri wrote:

I do,it's dumbing [the text] down for idiots.
If your mother tongue is english,you should be able to read/write/speak it AS YOU WERE THOUGHT IT, not in the format you gossip/organise nights out/"txt ur gf/bf".

Might be just me, but I found that amusing:)

Dimitri

*weeps for a time, slowly regaining enough composer to post*

This is truly a sad sad day for litrature. Personally i dont even try to decipher texts i recieve in god awful 'txt spk', i'm sick to my stomach after seeing this.

Piste

I'm 14, I should be able to read that easily enough, but no. It might work for any other subject, but converting a classical text into txt spk is brutally beating and raping the corpse of the English language.

Love

*agrees wholeheartedly*

Txtspk takes longer to read than proper english I think...

Piste

Very true Sofia m'dear. It's very hard to decipher if you're not used to it. I got a warning about this when I was about 10 and my teacher in fifth class was all worried that in a few years time we'd all be communicating through text speak. Looks like her fears were well justified.

jor el

A university professor claims it "amply demonstrates text's ability to fillet out the important elements in a plot

Professor of what exactly? I can't believe any professor would actually condone this tripe.

Faith

I heard they were going to introduce an English Oral exam because the standard of english has gone down so far.

Stark

Secretly Bt R kils J's Coz &&is banishd. J fakes Death. As Part of Plan2b-w/R Bt_leter Bt It Nvr Reachs Him. Evry1confuzd-bothLuvrs kil Emselves

It's the plot to the new J.Lo movie right?

rainbow kirby

*facepalm*
21. Can't understand that. Don't particularly want to either! (the funny thing is, I can read l33t almost perfectly...)

SirLemonhead

Zounds wrote:

Anyone got any idea what the underscores are for?

Not a clue

Kids these days...

Hugh Hefner

I never thought Shakespeare would sink this low. Sell out.:)


It took me a bloody minute to read that! If I wasn't familiar with the story I probably would not have made it through. Why are there extra "&"s and things?