I hope we can all agree that Twitter is the most obnoxious of all social networks. Users seem to take advantage of Twitter to do one, or all, of these three things: 1) Remain “connected” with others simply by revealing innocuous information 2) Attempt to achieve correspondence with celebrities 3) Promote shit. All of this is depressing. I dislike most people and things, but Twitter makes me annoyed with the actual people I do like and respect. (Even you, Roger Ebert. Love the blog posts, but those are some crazy-ass tweets.) However, University of Chicago students Alexander Aciman and Emmett Rensin have created “Twitterature,” a collection of hypothetical “tweets” that reduce classic pieces of literature into an assembly of average-length Twitter updates. Charming concept, sure, and one can easily see how a writer could have fun with it. Rensin and Aciman rely on quip-based humor to take down Shakespeare, Dan Brown and Kerouac in this short, pleasing affair. These two smart-ass 19-year-olds have great things waiting for them in the future, I’m sure. They almost make Twitter tolerable. Almost. (Tom Lynch)
Alexander Aciman and Emmitt Rensin discuss “Twitterature” January 21 at Book Cellar, 4736 N. Lincoln, at 7pm. Free.
