Twitterature – Classic Literature in Tweets
Two Students at the University of Chicago Co-Author a Twitter Book
Jun 24, 2009
When college students are confronted with huge tomes of literature to read, what do they do? They buy Cliff’s Notes. These well-used notes succinctly disclose the key concepts and ideas developed in great literature, and present it in short passages designed for the time-strapped student. Now, using the online media Twitter, another way to read the classics has been invented. It’s Twitterature.
What is Twitterature?
Twitterature is an amalgam of the words Twitter and Literature. Classic literature takes a great deal of time and concentration to read and digest. Twitter posts, called tweets, consist of 140 characters or less, making them short, concise, and fast reads. Alexander Aciman and Emmett Rensin came up with a way to reproduce great literature in the social media venue, using tweets.
Reported Book Deal With Penguin Classics
According to the Twitterature website, Penguin Classics picked up on the Twitterature idea, and offered the two University of Chicago students a book deal. According to the site, it is hailed at the as the “hipster’s Cliff Notes of Cliff Notes, a bathroom reader for short stays, and a coffee table book that still leaves room to serve coffee.” The new book is titled Twitterature: The World’s Greatest Books, Now Presented in Twenty Tweets or Less.
However, as of the writing of this article, there is no mention of Twitterature on the Penguin Classics website, even though there are articles about it at the LA Times, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Twitterati, as some Twitter users are called, have been receptive to reading books in short posts, with many authors presenting their original work online through the venue. Other books are now being marketed with a basis in Twitter, such as Twitter Wit: Brilliance in 140 Characters or Fewer, by Nick Douglas and published by IT Books, and The World According to Twitter, by David Pogue. The self-published book by James Bridle, My Life in Tweets, is a compilation of his social media posts. Alex Aciman and Emmett Rensin are taking the concept of micro fiction a step further with the classics.
Twittering the Classics
Alex and Emmett, authors of the new book, agree that classic literature is important. In addition, they state that modern social media is important. They collaborated and designed a way to write a book with short bursts of the classics in a witty and modern manner.
Both of the students are published authors of articles that have appeared in magazines and newspapers. They have an interest in the publishing industry, and according to their website, have aspirations of novel writing. With this new book deal, those aspirations may become reality sooner rather than later.
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