Romane oder Sachbücher analysiere ich nach schönsten, lehrreichen, witzigen, beispielhaften Sätzen und schreibe diese auf (meist vorne in den Büchern, auf den leeren Seiten). Sie sind mein Schema für Besprechungen, oft zitiere ich auch diese Sätze. Twitteratur nimmt mir diese Arbeit ab und bringt die Highlights von über 60 Büchern der Weltliteratur auf 140 Zeichen bzw. kurze Sätze, die den Inhalt Revue passieren lassen.

Allerdings in einer anderen, zeitgemäßen, frechen, respektlosen, direkten Sprache. Die Autoren möchten bekannte Weltliteratur damit zugänglich machen, bei der Twittergeneration Neugierde wecken für einen Bereich, den zu viele ausgeblendet bzw. aus schulischen (Frust-) Gründen verdrängt haben.

Vergnüglich, witzig ist diese Tour - z.B:

1984 (George Orwell)
"Mein Boss will mich sehen, das kann nichts Gutes heißen. Vielleicht werde ich gefeuert und muss ins Ministerium für Ironie wechseln."

Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe)
"Ach du lieber Gott! Ein Sturm! Wir sinken. Halt, einen Moment noch, tolle Idee. Wenn ich überlebe bin ich Gott für immer treu."

Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)
"Sorry war weg. Habe in einem Buch geschmöckert über Inneneinrichtung. Wenn ich so schön bin, soll mein Haus das auch sein."

Tod in Venedig (Thomas Mann)
"Ich bin in Venedig. Hier hängt ein alter Mann mit Schminke, falschen Zähnen und Perücke mit Kindern rum Widerlich."

Am Ende ein Glossar wichtiger Kurzbegriffe und ein Index.

2011

A great premise and humorous, I'll give it that. But the tweets all come across as if they were written by the same whiny (male) protagonist (which, of course, they were), instead of actually embodying the personalities and styles of the individual characters and plots being summarized. [b:Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float: Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook|6562532|Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float Classic Lit Signs on to Facebook|Sarah Schmelling|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1425564282s/6562532.jpg|6755376] is one example of a better execution of the social media-style updating of classic literature. ( )

Be warned--there is some strong language here. But if that doesn't bother you, then it's totally worth the read. As someone who uses Twitter, reading the classics from a Twitter perspective was absolutely hilarious. I'd already used Twitter as a strategy in class at the end of a novel--sum up the novel in 140 characters--but I can't wait to read them the Twitter version of Slaughterhouse Five when we're done reading it. ( )

3.5 stars. Of course, I only read about half of the book, because I stuck to the works that I have read. You really need to read the original before reading the Twitterature for it to make any sense.
This book was absolutely hilarious. Some sections, such as Catcher in the Rye were absolutely amazing. Twitter captures Holden (or @HoldenLOLfield)'s voice perfectly and I couldn't help but laugh at loud at many parts. Several of them, such as Twilight, were not in the voice of the protagonist, however the tweets worked and were absolutely hilarious. But then there were the ones like Pride and Prejudice that just didn't work at all. I can't picture Lizzie talking about how great women's power is.
Overall, this book was fantastic! I wish that the authors just stuck with the protagonists whose voices lended themselves to the works though. ( )

From the cover: amalgamation of “twitter” and “literature”; humorous reworkings of literary classics for the twenty-first century intellect, in digestible portions of 20 tweets or fewer.

If you, dear reader, like me, thought you’d be delving into a clever and witty little book of old texts reborn with a modern twist via social media, then you, like me, would be incredibly disappointed. I expected that this book would reflect an appreciation and understanding of the classics with modern-day insights from the characters within the novels. I expected to chuckle or even laugh when reading this (as I often do when reading jokes on my current Twitter timeline). In short, I expected too much from this book.

What I received (fortunately in exchange for less than $3.50 courtesy of Book Outlet) instead, was a crass, harshly satiric and mildly offensive batch of tweets that don’t honor the original works. Let me preface the rest of this review by saying I don’t mind vulgar language or content, when appropriate to the work, nor do I mind my favorite classics being adapted into clever retellings (Pride, Prejudice and Zombies anyone?) or even poked fun at.

Twitterature seems to simply mercilessly make fun of or criticize the classics within, dubbing the originals as overly long and boring. In their introduction Aciman and Rensin touch on how the classics are outdated and hard to understand and that this book strives to remedy that by “present[ing] their most essential elements, distilled into the voice of Twitter.” They strive to give us “the means to absorb the strong voices, valuable lessons and stylistic innovations of the Greats without the burdensome duty of hours spent reading.” I think, in hindsight, that maybe their introduction is a bad joke as well.

I also want to say that I did not read this entire book – after reading the first three sections (Catcher in the Rye, The Da Vinci Code and Paradise Lost), I quickly grasped that this book was not at all what I thought it would be and I then proceeded to skip to books I’m familiar with. What’s the point in reading something that tears apart a work I’ve never read? But let me highlight some of the more bothersome tweets:

From Pride and Prejudice – “Isn’t it cool how I’m defying my gender role by standing up for myself?”
“He and I are wed and have moved to our own home in the country. I got the man, his money, and uh…women’s power!”

From Alice in Wonderland – “I don’t know what’s going on, but in a typically feminine manner, I’ll allow confusion and being flustered to make me cry up a storm.”
“I found a stoner Arab caterpillar. He made fun of me. Oh yeah? At least I’m not three inches tall with a case of the munchies.”

From Twilight – “Pretty boy is a vampire. A bit obvious, but I still feel such a hormonal pull. He’s pure pussy magnet.”
“My life lately has been a bit like a lonely girl’s slightly creepy juvenile sex fantasy. But at least it really happened!!!”

Last, and featuring what I found to be most offensive, from Jane Eyre – “I wish my parents had died impressively. Like Harry Potter, that kid’s got one hell of an orphan story.”
“The education is legit. Like we read books, but kids are dying of illness. This place is grimier than a hooker’s snatch.”
(In reference to Rochester’s wife) “The Kunta Kinte pyro bitch is dead. Maaaaawwwage!”

Seriously!?

It seems to me that rather than a funny, insightful twist on classics, readers are given bare-bones, spark notes-esque summaries, interjected with “modern language” (swearing and some “lols”), from people who don’t appreciate or even understand the classics. I’m glad I spent so little on this book, because I won’t be keeping it. Unless you hate the classics and want to read tweets that mostly make fun of them, I wouldn’t recommend this book.

Wait, let me rephrase my review in the spirit of this book: TBH guys, this book is fucking garbage. LOL #sucks ( )