Saturday, May 02, 2009

A Writing Syllabus for the Internet Age

'As print takes its place alongside smoke signals, cuneiform, and hollering, there has emerged a new literary age, one in which writers no longer need to feel encumbered by the paper cuts, reading, and excessive use of words traditionally associated with the writing trade. Writing for Nonreaders in the Postprint Era focuses on the creation of short-form prose that is not intended to be reproduced on pulp fibers. Instant messaging. Twittering. Facebook updates. These 21st-century literary genres are defining a new "Lost Generation" of minimalists who would much rather watch Lost on their iPhones than toil over long-winded articles and short stories. Students will acquire the tools needed to make their tweets glimmer with a complete lack of forethought, their Facebook updates ring with self-importance, and their blog entries shimmer with literary pithiness. All without the restraints of writing in complete sentences.'
--from a spoof in the online publication McSweeney's, which we found pretty entertaining.

8 Comments:

At 11:11 AM, Anonymous MilesB said...

I love this. I've been experimenting lately with writing some poems with this minimalist sensibility in mind.

 
At 12:01 PM, Blogger John Ettorre said...

Hope you'll share them with us ASAP, Miles the Mountain Man

 
At 4:36 PM, Anonymous Mr. Bluster said...

"Omit needless words" takes on a new meaning.

Internet writing axiom: "Shorter paragraphs."

 
At 5:10 PM, Blogger John Ettorre said...

Right you are, Bluster.

 
At 12:13 AM, Blogger Bruce Schauble said...

Funny stuff. But mostly because it ain't that much of a stretch. It's been 15 years now since the first time I heard a high school kid where I was teaching bragging that he had gotten all the way through high school without reading a book. (He was, as it happens, our salutatorian.) Today his declaration would seem unremarkable.

 
At 9:57 AM, Blogger John Ettorre said...

I'm actually not that concerned by people who don't read books, since that's long been the norm in America anyway (and doubly so for high school kids). One can still be quite well-informed while also feeding the imagination.by reading shorter material, which is more in tune with most people's lives. If a teenager reads Vibe magazine or ESPN or SI to keep up on hip hop music or sports, that's a pretty good start.

 
At 5:08 PM, Blogger Diane Vogel Ferri said...

you mean I can stop saying "that's not a sentence" to my fifth graders?

 
At 5:31 PM, Blogger John Ettorre said...

No, keep fighting the good fight, Diane. Your students will be all the better for it.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home