According to a story in The Guardian, Two Freshman students at the University of Chicago are writing a book called "Twitterature," in which they try to summarize the world's classics in twenty "tweets" or less. Each tweet is 140 characters or fewer, including spaces.
I thought 20 Tweets was pretty wimpy, and wanted to see if I could summarize some classic works of literature in a single tweet. This is not as easy as it sounds! Especially when you're trying to be funny, too.
The Sun Also Rises in 140 characters:
Expatriate lost generation searches for fulfillment and/or balls by drinking like fish, running with bulls, after same lost in WWI. Brett!!!
Hamlet in 139 characters:
Oedipus meets Ghostbusters. Spirit of Hamlet’s father tells Hamlet to kill uncle so uncle will stop banging Mom. Everyone but Horatio dies.
Emma in 129 characters:
Emma’s rich, fixes people up, thinks she is all that, but doesn’t know who to marry. Who’s the asshole now? Hint: "Mr. Knightly" is clue.
Beowulf in 137 characters:
Grendel and Grendel’s Mom and the Dragon. All in a day’s work for your friendly neighborhood Olde Englishe Superhero. (What’s a Grendel?)
Wanna give it a try?