diff --git a/src/app/atom.coffee b/src/app/atom.coffee
index 581cbff63..5a784ea5f 100644
--- a/src/app/atom.coffee
+++ b/src/app/atom.coffee
@@ -41,12 +41,6 @@ _.extend atom,
         packageStates[pack.name] = @atomPackageStates[pack.name]
     packageStates
 
-  loadTextPackage: ->
-    textPackagePath = _.find @getPackagePaths(), (path) -> fs.base(path) is 'text.tmbundle'
-    pack = Package.build(textPackagePath)
-    @loadedPackages.push(pack)
-    pack.load(sync: true)
-
   loadPackages: ->
     textMatePackages = []
     paths = @getPackagePaths().filter (path) -> fs.base(path) isnt 'text.tmbundle'
diff --git a/src/app/null-grammar.coffee b/src/app/null-grammar.coffee
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8806e4972
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/app/null-grammar.coffee
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+Token = require 'token'
+
+module.exports =
+class NullGrammar
+  name: "Null Grammar"
+  scopeName: 'text.plain.null-grammar'
+
+  tokenizeLine: (line) ->
+    { tokens: [new Token(value: line, scopes: ['null-grammar.text.plain'])] }
diff --git a/src/app/syntax.coffee b/src/app/syntax.coffee
index 0ab0e3a8a..90c040429 100644
--- a/src/app/syntax.coffee
+++ b/src/app/syntax.coffee
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ Specificity = require 'specificity'
 {$$} = require 'space-pen'
 fs = require 'fs-utils'
 EventEmitter = require 'event-emitter'
+NullGrammar = require 'null-grammar'
 
 module.exports =
 class Syntax
@@ -14,6 +15,7 @@ class Syntax
     @globalProperties = {}
     @scopedPropertiesIndex = 0
     @scopedProperties = []
+    @nullGrammar = new NullGrammar
 
   addGrammar: (grammar) ->
     @grammars.push(grammar)
@@ -22,7 +24,7 @@ class Syntax
       @grammarsByScopeName[grammar.scopeName] = grammar
 
   selectGrammar: (filePath, fileContents) ->
-    return @grammarsByFileType["txt"] unless filePath
+    return @grammarsByFileType["txt"] ? @nullGrammar unless filePath
 
     extension = fs.extension(filePath)?[1..]
     if filePath and extension.length == 0
@@ -31,7 +33,7 @@ class Syntax
     @grammarByFirstLineRegex(filePath, fileContents) or
       @grammarsByFileType[extension] or
       @grammarByFileTypeSuffix(filePath) or
-      @grammarsByFileType["txt"]
+      @grammarsByFileType["txt"] ? @nullGrammar
 
   grammarByFileTypeSuffix: (filePath) ->
     for fileType, grammar of @grammarsByFileType
diff --git a/src/app/window.coffee b/src/app/window.coffee
index 21e61fdb1..58a0dd922 100644
--- a/src/app/window.coffee
+++ b/src/app/window.coffee
@@ -52,7 +52,6 @@ window.startup = ->
 
   handleWindowEvents()
   config.load()
-  atom.loadTextPackage()
   keymap.loadBundledKeymaps()
   atom.loadThemes()
   atom.loadPackages()