My Modernization of Medieval Times: A Look Back

            For the most recent blog post, I chose to reimagine the letters of Abelard and Heloise. In my modernization of the text, I reworked the first three letters into text messages traded between the fated couple. While it may seem like my choice to use iMessage as the platform for the conversation is merely a choice of convenience, it was, in fact, a carefully chosen modality. I believe that using Apple’s texting platform is the best modern mirror for the couple in that it is both the most “in style” phone service and, I would contend, the most innovative. This reflects Abelard and Heloise academic natures, more specifically the fact that since they were so progressive in their works of thought for their own time, they would have likely chosen Apple as a means of communication today. It is the most progressive of the services by a wide margin, and its vast user population is evidence of that.

With that in mind, choosing to text as the means of communication also reflects the urgency with which Heloise wanted to connect with Abelard. Texting also gives off the air of casualness that I would argue Heloise is trying to give off at the beginning of her first letter. Had she been writing in the modern era, I believe she would have used texting to contact Abelard.

Moving on to the style that I chose to write Heloise in.  Unlike letters, texting is characterized by brevity in both syntax and diction. I did my best to reflect that principle in Heloise’s messages. Her texts all feature short, purposeful sentences. Each one meant to deliver a direct message to Abelard. Moreover, I did my best to capture some of her wit in the texts. She is certainly not someone to be unaware of the power of words to spite, and this awareness is equally present in her letters. I kept this sentiment in mind when I was crafting the texts and struggling with whether or not to use emojis. I ended up deciding not to utilize them because I believe that Heloise would have thought that they distracted from the overarching contention in her message which is to get Abelard to write her back. Furthermore, I believe that texting helps cement her exasperation with Abelard’s resistance to engaging with her. Thinly veiled language is at its peak in texts.

On Abelard’s side of the exchange, I think that texting fits PERFECTLY with my interpretation of his character. I read his letters as largely dismissive and condescending, and most importantly, unfeeling. Texting provides the perfect platform for Abelard to dismiss Heloise. While I used my reimagination of the second letter as a chance to exaggerate his dismissiveness, I still think that my depiction has some level of truth. Perhaps Abelard would not have written back at all had Heloise been writing him in the 21st century. In my opinion, the “K.” captures perfectly Abelard’s exhaustion with Heloise and unwillingness to exchange with her on the emotional issues she presents in her first letter. He simply will not give her the time of day, although he does this in more words in the original second letter.

In some places, however, the brevity of texting was a double-edged sword. While it allowed me to capture Heloise’s affinity for getting to the point, expediency has a different meaning in 11th-century letters than it does in 21st-century texts. Thus, I lost some of the nuances of the text in my modernization, most glaringly, the entirety of the second letter. I also think that texting costs me the beautiful prose that dominates the letters. I think that had I chosen a blog platform like Elizabeth, I could have maintained that language.

Overall, I believe that text messages were a good medium for my modernization. Given the chance to redo the project, I might go into more detail with Heloise’s response to Abelard’s text so that it would allude to some of the details of his second letter, thus giving that work more airtime.

--Rachel Freed