Thursday, June 25, 2009

This is what's wrong with America

"Twitterature"
Let me say it again, just so we're all clear:

This is exactly what is wrong with this damn country - Twitterature!

The twits at Penguin publishing have commission two 19 year old twits to whittle  some of the greatest book even written into 20 "tweets" so the inept twits of our society have no reason to learn about literary structure and imagery.  

I hate cliff notes.  

I loath abridged stories.  

There isn't even a word for how awful I think this is.  

It's more than just giving student a easy way to get a C-grade in english classes.  Giving people these short cuts starves their mind of the amazing experience of reading these incredible works of fiction.  It's no wonder they have to focus on books with dead authors, no self respecting author would allow two teenaged twits to condense the essence of their writing into 20 "tweets"!!

I may never purchase a book published by Penguin again.  Whoever is responsible for this decision clearly has no respect for literature or education.

We should all be screaming right now.

1 comment:

Michael said...

Now don't let your anger against Penguin cover your eyes against Twitter. I *love* Twitter for a great number of reasons.

I'm actually kind of impressed by this 20 tweet condensation of books. Part of my graduate work was studying how to repackage and repurpose information, this isn't dissimilar. To maintain plot integrity in 20 tweets, with a hope of some character integrity, I would be very impressed.

It might prove a useful way to do supplements to book reviews or something for educational purposes. Though, I do agree, people still need to read the damned book. It isn't a replacement for just reading the book. There's good reason the writer didn't publish their book in 20 sentences! :-)

Also, I'm really entertained how they include JK Rowling in the list of "classic" authors. HAHAHAHA! I love my Harry Potter, but seriously! Might as well bring in Nora Roberts at that rate!