Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Spam is weird

Not spam the food product, but spam the email, although spam the food product is equally weird.

But, here's something I've never seen before: Pride and Prejudice spam! I just got this in my email. Of course there was some mysterious attachment. This is the text of the email, in which there are vaguely recognizable phrases from P&P, all jumbled up in a totally incoherent manner. Is this just to make it past spam filters? But then, I ask you, why would I be compelled to open a strange attachment associated with this email? The answer is, I won't, which is why I am boggled as to the efficacy of such a bizarre spam scheme. At least I enjoyed reading this spam message. It's like a puzzle - spot where this sentence comes from in the book!

"assured her that darcy was not less answerable for wickham's absence than if her first surmise had
elizabeth felt that they had entirely misunderstood his character, but said nothing.
dispatched, and its contents as quickly complied with. mrs. bennet, accompanied by her two youngestdared not believe it, and could not help saying so.

elizabeth's misery increased, at such unnecessary, such officious attention! were the same fair
"i will not trust myself on the subject," replied wickham; "i can hardly be just to him."business. on finding mrs. bennet, elizabeth, and one of the younger girls together, soon after
arise in six months!"
but the attention of every lady was soon caught by a young man, whom they had never seen"most willingly."
as soon as they entered, bingley looked at her so expressively, and shook hands with such
"i am afraid you do not like your pen. let me mend it for you. i mend pens remarkably well.""which do you mean?" and turning round he looked for a moment at elizabeth, till catching her
"i shall depend on hearing from you very often, eliza."discover the number of the hackney coach which took them from clapham. it had come with a fare
"that is capital," added her sister, and they both laughed heartily."both," replied elizabeth archly; "for i have always seen a great similarity in the turn of our

3 comments:

k. said...

I've received a few of these in the past few days, only without the attachment, so I was so confused as to what it was for! I googled "Pride and Prejudice" and strange email and found your blog. Here's what mine says:

as he quitted the room, elizabeth felt how improbable it was that they should ever see each other
"i certainly shall not. you know how i detest it, unless i am particularly acquainted with my
"i have been thinking it over again, elizabeth," said her uncle, as they drove from the town; "and
as if you did not enjoy it. you are not going to be missish , i hope, and pretend to be affronted at an
and additions, endeavour to amuse her companions all the way to longbourn. elizabeth listened as
"then," observed elizabeth, "you must comprehend a great deal in your idea of an accomplished
bennet could not have chosen better. mr. collins was eloquent in her praise. the subject elevated him
"my dearest lizzy will, i am sure, be incapable of triumphing in her better judgement, at my
acceptance, but elizabeth had turned away her head. presuming however, that this studied avoidance
"lizzy," said he, "i was going to look for you; come into my room."
elizabeth. "i should never have said mrs. collins was settled near her family."
do but consider in what a disgraceful light it places mr. darcy, to be treating his father's favourite in
dared not believe it, and could not help saying so.
"you may possibly wonder why all this was not told you last night; but i was not then master
"perhaps he must, if he sees enough of her. but, though bingley and jane meet tolerably often, it

Anonymous said...

I also found your blog on Google when investigating this. I've received four random chunks of Pride and Prejudice to date. Mine have come in to my usually non-spammed government email, they have no attachments, and they come from apparently unrelated email addresses with nonsensical subject headings. If anyone has any insight into this strange phenomenon, I'd love to hear it!

Liz Wong said...

Interesting. I wonder if email filters remove the attachments and that's why I got the attachment but others have not? Mysterious.

Maybe there is just some guerilla organization out there trying to spread the word about Pride and Prejudice through random spam. Militant Austenites. I like it.