Althouse: Emily Dickinson meets...

September 3, 2010

Emily Dickinson meets...

... Grand Theft Auto.

11 comments:

Unknown said...: First!

Also, where's the alt-text? The best thing about an XKCD comic is the alt-text.; 9/3/10, 10:27 AM
Ann Althouse said...: @Mike Did I fix that? Not sure how to do it otherwise.; 9/3/10, 10:44 AM
Unknown said...: @Ann: Yes, that did it, thanks!...and now I'll never be able to read that poem normally again. LOL...; 9/3/10, 10:55 AM
jayne_cobb said...: I don't know, it's not quite GTA unless there are hookers.

I imagine that "The Road Not Taken" would be a good title for an off road racing simulation.; 9/3/10, 10:59 AM
Unknown said...: Well, nothing really is sacred, anymore.

jayne_cobb said...

I don't know, it's not quite GTA unless there are hookers.

Emily Dickinson as a hooker? Now that's an image to conjure with.

Oh, Chip...; 9/3/10, 11:13 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "I don't know, it's not quite GTA unless there are hookers."

Have you made Emmy McStickfigure an offer?; 9/3/10, 12:02 PM
Methadras said...: lol!!!; 9/3/10, 12:30 PM
HKatz said...: That's hilarious.; 9/3/10, 12:41 PM
Revenant said...: My 10th grade English teacher pointed out that you could sing all of Dickinson's poems to the tune from "The Yellow Rose of Texas".

That pretty much eliminated any ability I might have had to read her poetry seriously.; 9/3/10, 1:14 PM
howzerdo said...: Thanks for this :-); 9/3/10, 5:41 PM
Kurt said...: Revenant, there are some other tunes it works with, too. I seem to recall hearing that "Yankee Doodle" was one of them, but at the moment I'm too tired to even test it out beyond the first few lines of this poem quoted in the comic.

Although those claims are commonly made about Dickinson, I don't think it technically works with ALL of her poems though it does work with most of the widely anthologized ones.

There is a good technical explanation for why it works, though, and that is, as you may have heard, Dickinson's prosody is based somewhat on that she observed in hymns, so it only stands to reason that many of the poems would have line lengths and rhythms consistent with various other songs, as well.; 9/6/10, 1:18 AM