Ahab vs Fail Whale, Orwell <3 Google Maps?

Something I've never heard about George Orwell before: "I think he would have been a blogger."

This morning, Jenny W. pointed me toward two interesting articles. The first is from The New York Times and discusses a project to put all of George Orwell's diaries online, in blog format, 70 years after he wrote them.

The coolest part of the blog (which you can visit here) is that it's not just churning out the passages, but is milking the inter-connectivity of the internet by linking to maps, definitions (since some 70 year old phrases don't exactly translate in 2008), etc. It reminds me a bit of this TED Conference video, in which Erin McKean talks about online dictionaries: they are currently just digital versions of their hardbound counterparts, but they could be doing so much more.

Jenny also sent me a bit about Moby Dick a la Twitter. I've blogged about something like this before, and I'm a little conflicted: I think it's an interesting use of micro-blogging, but essentially is the wrong medium for the message. Where the Orwell diaries are bringing new functionality and education to an overlooked piece of literature, reading Moby Dick through Twitter is more or less a gimmick.

There! Proof that I am not obsessed with all things Twitter!

Thanks for sending the links, Jenny. Anyone out there want to argue with me about Melville this morning? ("I grin at thee, thou grinning Fail Whale...")