> One sense in which a message could be "short" (other than the obvious
> one that it isn't very long) is that it takes a short time to write or
> construct. As, typically, with keitai email and texting.
> Poems tend to be things people labour over rather....
No, not in this case...
> Were people currently communicating largely through superbly crafted
> haiku, there might be something in the comparison.
> Perhaps if you were to define what you meant by 'short messaging"
> (other than "messages that happen to be short" - in which case the
> claim is facile) we could explore the comparison further....
"Short messages" in this context are:
1) short.
2) carefully crafted.
3) a immediate reply is necessary (a second carefully crafted short message).
The whole book is full of references like this random and out of
context quote:
[Sei Shonagon received a message...]
It was elegantly written on heavy blue paper, and there was
nothing about it to worry me. I opened it and read:
With you it is flower time
As you sit in the Council Hall
'Neath a curtain of brocade.
And below he had added, 'How does this stanza end?'
I was at complete loss. [...] I had no time to ponder
since the messenger was pressing for a reply. Taking a piece
of burnt-out charcoal from the brazier, I simply added the
following words at the end of Tadanobu's letter:
Who would come to visit
This grass-thatched hut of mine?
Than I told the messenger to take it back to Tadanobu. I
waited for a reply, but none came.
[...]
If I would today receive a message like the one above, I would
probably reply:
Are you drunk?
But these were different times ;)
Juergen
Received on Sun Aug 10 14:27:14 2003