Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: e-mail symbols



Well, God preserve us from innovations! 8-) ;-\ :-( <%-)}

(The last one is wearing a pointy hat and, for some unfathomable
reason, a beard. 8-)

It is interesting to note that though Twain may not have used
emoticons, James Joyce did. See Finnegans Wake. Communication has
more than one channel.

If you want to see an even more dramatic example look at Christian
Morgenstern's "Galgenlieder"* (gallows songs). While I admire most
of these poems very much, the one in question doesn't thrill me. In
keeping with my Scroogeliness I don't keep Christmas or Bloomsday,
either.

De gustibus non disputandum.

Leigh

*These are doggerel in German. They can be found in translation by
Max Knight. The English does not have quite the snap of the German,
I'm afraid, but it is a pretty audacious thing even to consider
translating doggerel. Translating German emoticons into English
emoticons (in "the Fishes' Nightsong" I think) is even more so.
The German is there, too, of course.