Sometimes I wonder how emoticons could have improved some of the world’s finest works of literature…

Take this one for example. It’s the opening line of Tale of Two Cities.

It was the best of times 😆 , it was the worst of times 😳

Or this, from the Count of Monte Cristo:

“He died.” 😥

“Fell into the sea?” 😕

“No sir, he died of brain-fever in terrible agony.” 🙁

No wonder no-one reads any more… these forums offer such wondrous visual expressions!

😐

I hope you didn’t spend long thinking that up.

Shmokin!

Alas, poor camo16 🙁

I hope you didn’t spend long thinking that up.

That’s what they said to Tolstoy. 👿

Didn’t time myself, but I’d reckon two to three minutes. It was either that or starting research on market demographics in the wider Oslo region…

IT is a truth universally acknowledged, 😉 that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. 🙄

Thanks emsz, Jane Austen has never sounded better! 🙂

Not sure you even need the words . . .
8) 🙂 😛 ❗ 😯 😳 😥
Tells it all, really 😉

It was a dark and stormy night 🙁 ; the rain fell in torrents 🙁 , except at occasional intervals 🙂 , when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies) 🙁 , rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. 😥 – Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

It was a queer, sultry summer, 😕 the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, 🙁 and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York 😡

I don’t think Slvia would’ve approved… 😆

We shall go on to the end 👿 , we shall fight in France 😯 ,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans, 😈
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air 8) , we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, 😥
we shall fight on the beaches, 😉
we shall fight on the landing grounds, 😐
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, 😡
we shall fight in the hills; 😈
we shall never surrender 8)

Churchill-lite.

My personality is sketchy and unformed 👿 , my heartlessness goes deep and is persistent 👿 . My conscience, my pity, my hopes disappeared a long time ago 👿 if they ever did exist 👿 . There are no more barriers to cross 👿 . All I have in common with the uncontrollable and the insane 👿 , the vicious and the evil 👿 , all the mayhem I have caused and my utter indifference toward it 👿

(American Psycho)

I have a dream

😆 nice dream Martin 😆

Except it should really be followed by a ‘splat!’ emoticon – and STW doesn’t provide one. 😳

you look out of breath deadly!

I whole-heartedly and enthusiastically HATE emoticons and their use. I came into this thread expecting a scathing, sarcastic critique of some fanny overegging some irony-vacuum with the little feckers, but here I find you Camo16 encouraging literary sacrilege by yellow face? I’m off…

Though I do like DD’s effort…

“What’s with you, Susan?” asked Nancy. 😕

“You’ve been hogging the Quality Street for ages. 😐

Is it Derek?”

Some literature just cannot be improved upon.

I whole-heartedly and enthusiastically HATE emoticons and their use. I came into this thread expecting a scathing, sarcastic critique of some fanny overegging some irony-vacuum with the little feckers, but here I find you Camo16 encouraging literary sacrilege by yellow face? I’m off…

😳

There is a serious point somewhere… it’s got something to do with thoughtful idiocy replacing mastery of language and expression. On that deep, beard-stroking level, it is a sarcastic critique, but I suppose it’s not very scathing.

And there’s an idiotic point, too. This is fast becoming the prettiest thread on the forum!

8)

Some literature just cannot be improved upon.

Damn straight. That guy’s a hell of a writer!

I miss Susan, Nancy and Ian the Gay Horse.

•• senses the possibility to resurrect a dead thread **

“You know,” Nancy replied, leaning in and stroking Susan’s firm thigh. “I never realised how wonderfully shiny your hair is… 😈 ”

Next door, the man-eating sexually predatory slugs woke from their deep slumber… 😯 😉

It was a bright 8) cold 🙁 day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen 😯

It was the day my grandmother exploded. 😯

“You know,” Nancy replied, leaning in and stroking Susan’s firm thigh. “I never realised how wonderfully shiny your hair is… ”

“Fighting between the Handless 😯 that occupied the darkest corners of her mind 😈 and the sheer size of Derek’s… 8) box of expensive girly chocolates 🙄 , Susan struggled to focus.” 😥

Touché, maestro!