History, Reinvented

March 8, 2011 9:48 PM

We are used to engaging with figures from history on Twitter. Some are true extracts from life: tweets from Samuel Pepys are particularly good (you can also read his diary in blog form), along with the occasional thought from Queen Catherine Braganza. But what if historical personages could be brought back to life on Twitter? That is the goal of reOrbit, where writers and filmakers inhabit characters from both real life and fiction, including Arthur Miller and the Emperor Norton.

Via BBC's Outriders. Pepy's blog along with other online diaries previously.

posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul (10 comments total)

ok, so i could NOT figure out how to follow Emperor Norton. Is there a discrete account? Because that URL-encoded 'share this' crap is fucksocks. I'll share it later if you are lucky, you crazy old coot.
posted by mwhybark at 10:09 PM on March 8, 2011

oh look I just tried again for Arthur Miller, same bullshit. discrete accounts per character, or IMHO SEO BS. I am cranky though, so often wrong.
posted by mwhybark at 10:11 PM on March 8, 2011

It's @emp_norton, does that not work? The link to the twitter feed is at the bottom of each "reOrbit" page.
posted by churl at 10:21 PM on March 8, 2011

thank you, churl! Let this be a lesson to us all, put the goods above the fold for chrissake!
posted by mwhybark at 10:30 PM on March 8, 2011

Agreed!
posted by churl at 10:34 PM on March 8, 2011

Wow, maybe I too can keep a diary that will one day be broken down into chiclets for consumption by millions of total strangers across the globe! Actually, that might not be such a bad fate.
posted by willhopkins at 10:04 AM on March 9, 2011

I've recently been on the lookout for good fake twitter accounts of composers: I'm particularly sad that this twitter stream of amusing excerpts from Mozart's letters hasn't updated in a while.....the best I've seen that are still active are Fanny Mendelssohn and the patently ridiculous Fake Arvo Pärt.
posted by Thomas Tallis is my Homeboy at 8:21 PM on March 9, 2011

I don't know if it's the format or that I'm much older now, but suddenly I wanna read all of Pepys's tweets. When I was younger, I didn't.
posted by not_on_display at 8:40 PM on March 9, 2011

A few days in, Norton's delivering. He's on the hook and just figuring it out. Sadly, he has not responded to my inquiry regarding the Hurlothrumbo.
posted by mwhybark at 9:16 PM on March 10, 2011

Yeah, digging the Norton one
posted by churl at 10:58 AM on March 11, 2011