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Jill

If ghosts suffered with autocorrect

Cory Doctorow at 11:45 am Wed, Aug 8, 2012

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High concept from the Hairpin's Mallory Ortberg: "Text-messages from a ghost:"

hey im gaunting you ok

Do you mean haunting

yeah sorry i don’t have any fingers
so im poltergeisting a stick to help me text this

Who is this?

oh sorry im a ghost

So do you live inside this phone

yeah kind of

Text Messages From a Ghost (via Making Light)

(Image: Ghost Dance Texture, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from oddsock's photostream)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE:  Funny • happy mutants • mobile • supernatural

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The Snowden Principle

  • http://twitter.com/leftnotracks Scott Falkner

    Poor ghosts will have to use Blackberries.

  • http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki

    Android users don’t get this article.

    • AnthonyC

       It happens to us to, just less bad.

  • Jorpho

    The equal sign is missing from the link tag.
    http://thehairpin.com/2012/02/text-messages-from-a-ghost/

  • http://botaday.com mmrtnt

    Jorpho… thank you.

  • http://twitter.com/snarp Sarah Pin

    There’s also a sequel: 
    http://thehairpin.com/2012/04/the-return-of-ghost

  • EarthtoGeoff

    On a day when I woke up to finding my car had gotten keyed, these little ghost stories were a much-needed highlight. Delightful!

  • http://mordicai.livejournal.com Mordicai

    I read this when it was in the Hairpin & immediately went out & Twitter followed the author.

  • disky00

     The dialogue and theme sound exactly like pictures for sad children.

    http://archive.picturesforsadchildren.com/

  • Bodhipaksa

    I’ve noticed that the supreme architect of the universe chooses rather imprecise methods to communicate with the faithful — methods such as pareidolic shapes on toast, condensation on windows, gut feelings, weather patterns, etc. These methods are open to skepticism and are imprecise (is God smiting the US with droughts because of teh gays or because people keep voting Republican?) If He’s omnipotent and omnipresent, why doesn’t he just text people? Or use email? Or appear on prime-time television on every channel simultaneously? One has to wonder if He’s a bit of a luddite.

  • pjcamp

    So do you live inside this phone

    yeah kind of
    im stuck in here until I admit Samsung didnt do anything

  • Bill Galloway

    Looking at its tone of voice and lack of capitalization, seems it’s the ghost of Roast Beef Kazenzakis.  Haunting a cell phone is perfectly apt for him, if it was a less-popular model with a leaky battery.

  • brainflakes

    Fake, autocorrect would have replaced im with “I’m”