Twitter Lit

May 15

In the spirit of Hemmingway’s six-word short story (‘For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn’), Twitter is making literature short, sharp and shorn. The 140 character limit is a rule unto itself: make it quick and make it count.

Recently, Joethepublicist of Penguin Books UK held a competition for the best tweeted short story. You can read the entries here at #bookgiveaway, although be warned, some of them are like a haiku gone sour. The winner though is certainly worthy of the prize (a beautiful set of McSweeney’s): “Can you check this raffle ticket for me?”, the old lady asked her son-in-law. He wasn’t an honest man.

Another fast-growing trend is that of turning classics into 140 character tweets. The best of these are brief, witty and just a little tongue-in-cheek, taking advantage of the Twitter lingo. Apparently it all started when a group of students from Florida began tweeting about Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew: A woman shouts at some men. A man tells her to stop or he’ll hit her. She stops. They kiss. That’s all right then.

Here are a few of my favourites (have a look at more via #literarytweet):

Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot:
Vladimir and Estragon stand next to tree and wait for Godot. Their status is not updated.

James Joyce, Ulysses:
Man walks around Dublin. We follow every minute detail of his day. He’s probably overtweeting.

Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights:
Catherine Earnshaw marries Edgar Linton but really loves Heathcliff sigh

John Milton, Paradise Lost:
Paradise Lost: God tells Adam and Eve not to eat apple. They eat it, shag, get thrown out of Eden. Epic fail

Jane Austin, Pride and Prejudice:
janeaustin: Woman meets man called Darcy who seems horrible. He turns out to be nice really. They get together.

Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones’s Diary:
helenfielding: RT @janeaustin Woman meets man called Darcy who seems horrible. He turns out to be nice really. They get together.

And here’s one of mine:
Oedipus Rex: Man tries to escape fate. End ups killing his father, marrying his mother and poking out his eyeballs. Murphy’s law.

JA

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