EDITORIAL – Shorthand not as good in classics

Cell phones began with the basic function of allowing one to communicate with someone anywhere… Cell phones began with the basic function of allowing one to communicate with someone anywhere – as long as she has service. But now the future of cell phones holds questionable capabilities, including a service that will enable people to have access via text message to great literary classics.

With plans to have this feature free for all subscribers by January, Dot Mobile, a phone service provider in Britain, is transforming Shakespeare classics, the works of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and several other authors’ works into compact text messages. Their goal for this project is to bring these literary texts to students for studying purposes, translating the sometimes-convoluted verbiage to text-speak.

An article on www.CNN.com rendered some examples. The question that Hamlet soul-searched with “To be or not to be” could essentially be “2b?Nt2b?” Along with these abbreviations is the slang that will be in the place of the original modifiers. Mr. Darcy of “Pride and Prejudice” is described as “fit’loadd” instead of handsome and wealthy.

While some have lauded Dot Mobile for their great efforts to make literature more accessible, others have thought of this gesture as an abomination. Aside from the fact that this is happening in the most uptight nation in the world when it comes to grammar and the English language, simplifying these works of literature to text messages devalues their worth and extracts the brilliance behind their compositions.

Also, it’s not promoting the overall understanding of the work in its original format, but rather condoning an easy way out. It’s bad enough that some students are already relying on Cliff’s Notes to get them through high school, but now this form of text messaging could set students back even further by subtly increasing the chances of students cheating.

Companies should be working to raise the bar for students. There are so many other things they can do to promote reading classic literature. For what it’s worth, Dot Mobile would spend a lot less money launching a campaign to go to the library, but there is also the possibility that it might not gain as much as well.

Or, it should consider efforts that strike an even balance in appealing to youth, but also ones that work to maximize the quality of their education.

For example, Hollywood has made efforts such as Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” that made literature appealing to young people by casting characters they could relate to, and also by maintaining the integrity of the work by keeping the language true to Shakespeare’s play.

Of course, credit must be given to the idea because it is generally a good thing that students who otherwise wouldn’t have the motivation are thinking about literature in some form. There is always the possibility that this will spark an interest in the text behind the text message, and then this effort will be the beginning of a beautiful thing.