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I Prithee LOLeth! Shakespearean Internet Initialisms (Guest Post)
Shakespearean Internet Initialisms
SWL = [O, I am] Stabb’d with laughter (cf. modern LOL).
YHPP = Your humble patience pray (cf. modern BRB).
ITGASOMO = In the gross and scope of my opinion (cf. modern IMHO).
IJTO = I jest to Oberon (cf. modern JK).
OMUTB = Once more unto the breech (cf. modern BTW).
IYTUDWNL = If you tickle us, do we not laugh? (cf. modern ROTFL)
IFINTFYOL = I find it not fit for your o’er-looking (cf. modern NSFW).
HHHH = Howl, howl, howl, howl (cf. modern DYJHIW).
IHDASTS = I have drunk and seen the spider (cf. modern BTDT).
TORNAE = These our revels now are ended (cf. modern TTYL).
TITL = This is too long (cf. modern TL/DR).
Our thanks for this guest post to kj, the author of Bardfilm. Bardfilm is a blog that comments on films, plays, and other matters related to Shakespeare.
8 comments:
LMAO on HHHH!
Keeping the Bard new!
It's funny how the physical means of textual/cultural production (for shakespeare, the theatre and the printing press, while, for us, instant massaging services) shape content in subtle ways. I've often wondered what a performance of Shakespeare on twitter, given its spacial limitations, might look like. Anyone up for the challenge?
Shakespeare "twittery"? It's already being done--in a way.
http://www.nosweatshakespeare.com/blog/random-stuff/shakespeare-text-speak/
"2 b, r nt 2 b dat iz d Q wthr ts noblr n d mnd 2 sufr d slngs & arowz of outrAjs fortn r 2 tAk armz agnst a C f trblz, & by oposn nd em"
... not so subtle.
It's what it might SOUND like that really bothers me :)
http://shakespeareplace.blogspot.com/2009/09/shakespeare-text-speak.html
Okay, perhaps the results are more strange than subtle, but there are positives to be taken away from such experiments. While the educational validity of text messages and twitter is certainly questionable, the interaction between Shakespeare and digital media is an interesting and potentially very rich cultural phenomenon.
At the institutional level, of course, one needs to keep a level head and not mistake creative experimentation for academic analysis.
As to sound, I'm not sure that it's typical to read texts or "tweets" out loud; such a performance could very well be a silent one.
This is a riot. Nice work!
OIAFF = O, I am fortune's fool! (cf. modern FML)
Regarding Twittered Shakespeare, check out a few of these past stories...
http://blog.shakespearegeek.com/2009/02/hemingway-steinbeck-and-shakespeare-on.html
http://blog.shakespearegeek.com/2009/02/twitter-of-shrew.html
http://blog.shakespearegeek.com/2009/04/shakespeare-plots-twittered.html
Duane, this has given me an idea for teaching Macbeth. Kids will have to come up with 20 questions, the answers to which will be quotations in text. Example:
What is the condition called when you can't figure out whether an idea is good or bad? FIF-A-FIF.
What do you think?
Greg
How about BWCYC as the internet text-speak version of blowing a raspberry: "Blow wind, crack your cheeks!"
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