Language and Writing

At the blog for the magazine The Battered Suitcase, the editors featured an intriguing article concerning spelling within the literary world. Apparently, author F. Scott Fitzgerald (who, if you're completely ignorant of, then you're just completely ignorant in general) was horrible with spelling. Yet, no matter, that's what editors are for. But more and more these days, with so many new writers jumping into the game and literally hundreds a various writing platforms offering assistance to emerging writers, it seems common writing mistakes (especially spelling) are becoming rather prominent, and there's a fear that it may lead to a new evolution of dumb-downed language.

Say what?!

In laymen terms . . . does the new-wave of digital-age writing (and its use of limited characters and phrases -- such as: u2, lol, tl;dr) threaten the literary world?

Well, my personal response . . . no.

I do find the new wave of digital-age writing rather irritating from time to time (especially when I have no idea what certain acronyms mean), but I don't see it bearing any real threats on the literary world. I mean, it's not as if you see an abundant trend of dumb-downed language littering literature -- especially when concerning young, emerging writers. And I'm willing to bet any number of authors, these days, use limited characters when typing on their cellular telephones and electronic-mailing devices, but nevertheless maintain a strong focus on language when writing stories, essays, journals, et cetera. And why is that? Because it's merely a different writing platform . . . like fiction versus nonfiction; philosophical prose versus scientific prose; journalism versus research -- all vary with writing style.

There will be (and already has been) text-style writing to appear in the literary world from time to time, but I don't think it's going to write itself (pun intended) into history as a new literary convention. Sure, there are some phrases and/or words that will undoubtedly be adopted, but overall, I don't think it'll amount to anything more than a different style of writing for a different platform.

Also, I love a misspelt [sic] word or two. It adds character! And it shows that we are not flawless, no matter how hard we strive to perfect every tiny detail. To think, mistakes still plague us, especially in this day in age with a vast wealth of information and technology at our fingertips. And for such a mistake to be something as trivial and simple as spelling . . . well, that in itself is perfection! The perfection of the non-perfect.