William Shakespeare's reputation has little to fear from history, but even so it's nice to know that he has got a Yorkshire student at Northumbria university on his side.
If the Swan of Avon does have enemies, they are likely to be found among schoolchildren forced to study his works on sunny summer days. Should this be your fate, I recommend editions with footnotes by Kitteredge whose expertise at finding hidden dirty meanings in the text is unmatched.
Alex Edwards, who is 22 and from Wakefield, has been dealing with a different type of text: the one which young people flick too and fro with their agile little fingers. He has transposed the whole of Romeo and Juliet's famous Act II, Scene II into text abbreviations and produced it as Were4 rt thou Rmo? It's a flip-page book with the text versions alternating with Shakespeare's actual words; currently a uni project limited edition, but hopefully more widely available soon.
Interestingly, the point is not to celebrate or promote the world of texting, but to show newcomers to Shakespeare how beautiful and powerful the original writing is. Surfacing from five weeks of tapping out lines such as
Dny thy father n rfse thy name, or if u wilt nt, be bt
swrn my luv, I'll no lngr be a cpult,
Alex says:
The reaction I have had from other students who have read the book is that Shakespeare is much easier to understand when words are written out in full.
The idea was to give people the power to reject the degradation of the English language. Kids are losing the ability to write and spell properly. I wanted to celebrate the craft of writing, demonstrate the value of language and get people thinking.
This is noble stuff coming from a 22-year-old rather than an old giffer such as myself, and Alex surely deserves the Roses Awards medal which he has won for the project. His senior lecturer in graphic design, David Gardener, says:
The medal is fantastic news for Alex. His 'Were 4 Rt Thou?' project showed a real maturity of direction from the beginning of the project. His publication not only demonstrated the power of the written word in a graphic design context, but also the importance of craft within this creative domain.
He sensitively and creatively handled the conflict of language versus text-speak and developed a solution that is both questioning and poignant. It is a well deserved award which recognises all of Alex's hard work.
If you need something extra to wile away these idle Bank Holiday hours, or a fun game for all the family, Alex recommends thinking up your own Textspeare. For example:
'2 b or nt to b', '2 slp, prchnc 2 drm' and 'if msc b da fd ov luv ply on'.
It reminds me of those old ads on the Tube in London for something called Speedwriting, long before texting, which said: Gt a gd jb & mr pa
Alex concludes:
There's a real conflict in society. On the one hand, communication is instant these days and little time is spent on the craft of writing. But on the other hand, craftsmanship is seeing a resurgence in the design world and is highly valued. I wanted to highlight the beauty of the written word.
Please write us a Guardian Northerner post some time, Alex, in whatever language you like.
