Kerry, may I commend an outstanding riff:
"The great textspeak novel will be written in textspeak, reflecting the interests, fantasies and "realities" of people who live in that language. It may already be in the works on facebook, or twitter, or in the archives of the secret agencies where they record cell phone communications to ferret out deviations from the accepted definitions of noir. May they never get back to you."
Well, if that agency ever does get back to me, I have little doubt I'll lack any clue what they're going on about -- and that's a blessing, as my evangelical brother would say.
David Corbett
www.davidcorbett.com
--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "gsp.schoo@..." <gsp.schoo@...> wrote:
>
> I'm no evangelical, but I dig it David. Funking around with noir has reminded me that man was made in the image of his God, and that what we have in common with creation is creativity. Language, the expression of thought, is the primary tool of human creativity and so I agree with Revelations: if ever we all get on the same page, life as we know it is over. But like you, I'm not worried. Even as the internet builds its neural networks seemingly toward one big mind, new languages/dialects spring up.
>
> RARA is an example. Here we all gather to explore and venerate one body of literature, but cannot agree on the definition of the genre. Without that single definition we're essentially speaking different languages, let alone the occasional discussions about the genre as applied to different linguistic groups, music included. Yet we must be getting something of value out of these communications or we wouldn't be here.
>
> Except maybe Patrick. No, the great English novel will not be written in textspeak. The great English novel has already been written, and if it hasn't, please accept my apologies. The great textspeak novel will be written in textspeak, reflecting the interests, fantasies and "realities" of people who live in that language. It may already be in the works on facebook, or twitter, or in the archives of the secret agencies where they record cell phone communications to ferret out deviations from the accepted definitions of noir. May they never get back to you.
>
> Best,
> Kerry
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: David Corbett
> To: rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Wednesday, August 04, 2010 10:34 AM
> Subject: RARA-AVIS: Re: Language is . . .
>
>
>
> Kerry's note on the intrinsic creativity of language gives me solace. My brother, an evangelical, routinely pooh-poohs the Damn-the-Torpedoes-The-End-Is-Near crowd by noting -- I am not making this up -- that Revelations makes it clear that the Apocalypse won't occur until the Bible has been translated into ALL the languages of the earth (a project he is trying to assist by translating it into the tongues of a few pre-literate New Guinea tribes). If Kerry's right, and I both believe and hope that he is -- it appears this process might not just be delayed for a while but is by its very nature endless. And one can only wonder what a texting version of the Old Testament might look like. (Pharaoh's daughter, OMG, she came down to the river to bathe. Exodus 2:5 LOL)
>
> David Corbett
> www.davidcorbett.com
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 05 Aug 2010 EDT