Interview U of C's Emmett Rensin and Alexander Aciman cut classic literature down to a series of tweets

With Twitterature: The World’s Greatest Books In Twenty Tweets Or Less, co-authors Emmett Rensin and Alexander Aciman condense more than 80 classics like Virgil, Goethe, and Dickenson into a brief series of tweets, told from the perspective of the novel’s protagonist. (For instance, imagining what Dante might have tweeted while he was in hell.) Twitterature censors little, from innocent OMG’s to more colorful phrases splashed across tweets. Before the two University of Chicago sophomores appear at 57th Street Books tonight and the Book Cellar on Thursday, The A.V. Club caught up with the guys to discuss the more subtle comic elements of these classic works. 

The A.V. Club: Had you ever seriously thought about literature as a series of tweets before writing the book?  

Emmett Rensin: Never. I still don’t take literature seriously in terms of texting or tweeting.  

AVC: So are you really trying to make literature accessible via Twitter in your book? 

Alexander Aciman: Actually, I think that if someone released a book that was just in tweets, I’d probably want to do damage to them.

ER: People do novels like that.

AA: Yeah, but it bothers me—like text-message novels!  

ER: I understand if there is a text message in a novel, but even that’s pushing it.  

AVC: What  distinguishes Twitterature from those types of books? 

AA: Our intention is to make people laugh.

ER: Because our subject material is A, actual literature. And B, the joke falls just as heavily on Twitter as it does on literature. The point is we’re not saying this is better than the real thing; this is funnier maybe, but not better.  

AA: [Sarcastically.] Yeah, Dante can just sit on his... red bonnet.

AVC: Should readers take anything serious away from Twitterature? 

AA: I don’t think we are trying to recreate literature, but we are treating it seriously, in the sense that we have read these books. We love these books. We are making fun of very essential and obvious parts of these books, which means we have obviously read them and investigated them on a serious level. So, besides from being able to poke fun at them and mock them, we are engaging them, even as a joke, on a quasi-intellectual level.

AVC: So you love these books, but how do you feel about Twitter? 

AA: I wish people were obsessed with something else, like actual books. That would be nice, if people weren’t like "Oh my God, I am just going to tweet all day," but were like "I’m just going to read Shakespeare all day." That would be nice. 

ER: Twitter is just the epitome of free access for all people to their every thought, whether that thought is witty or asinine or their life’s exciting or their life’s a narcissistic doldrum.  

AVC: Do you hope this book encourages people to read any of the actual literature that you tweet? 

AA: I wouldn’t say that is our main goal, but it would be a desired side effect.  

ER: I would love anyone to pursue this literature because of the book.

AA: Because the state of things, as it is right now, is unacceptable. 

AVC: What was your main goal in writing this book?  

ER: I would have to say our main goal is comedy. I don’t think you can really push it much beyond that we want to make people laugh. I don’t have any illusions besides that. And some people are just going to be outraged by default without any consideration of the material.

AVC: Have you been getting a lot of attention from your fellow students?

ER: The other day I was standing at the bus stop and some guy asked if I was one of the Twitterature authors. I don’t know what to say. Obviously, I don’t mind and I am certainly flattered to be paid attention to by people who I probably don’t actually merit their respect, but I am just sort of uncomfortable because I am neurotic. But all kids will go on to discover quirks or do important things like win Nobel prizes. I’m just a small neurotic Jew; comedy is about the extent of my repertoire.

AVC: Do you think being in that college environment made you particularly well suited to write Twitterature? 

AA: I think that being a college student makes us a novelty and it makes us interesting.  

AVC: So then do you think that the book was geared toward a college audience? 

ER: I think the target audience is somewhat an amalgamation between young people and literate people. It really depends. For example, the idea in the UK at their publishing house was to gear the book toward older people who enjoy being outraged and are also literate. So, it really depends. But I would say it’s geared toward anyone who can breathe.