Does Anyone Write Letters These Days?
Saturday June 20, 2009
I remember the days when my mom would make me get out my "nice" stationary (covered with flower, cats, or some iteration on a cutsie theme) and write my cryptic thank-you notes to aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and the like. Now, how often do I write a letter? I honestly can't think of the last time. Do you recall? Perhaps I should be sending you all nice, hand-written letters. We could scribble on about our shared love of literature, tell all about the last books we'd read (or tried to read), and explore all the particular loves (and hates) in the world of books. Hum, would you reply if I sent you one? Would it seem strange to receive an actual letter in your mailbox, or would you be looking for it via email?
So, why am I talking on about letters--literary notes in particular? I just received a note from The New Yorker--all about the newly discovered "lost letters" by Edith Wharton. It's always curious to me when people call them "lost," because they've just been locked away in storage somewhere. Wharton asked that the letters be destroyed upon her death, and as often appears to be the case, her wishes were ignored (the family of her governess apparently kept them in storage).
With the letters on display--soon to be auctioned off--I look forward to the future books that will be written on the topic of Edith Wharton and her relationship with her governess.
Comments
I write actual letters whenever I can, but I don’t receive many. When I write email, I try to write them as letters.
Unfortunately, we are all to impatient and cannot wait for “snail mail” to receive an expected letter. So, we all use email to communicate. I do usually write in letter form and refuse to use popular shortcuts. I still trust the written English language. However, I will always send a paper thank you note. This is something that is too personal for email.
The teenagers of today have produced their own language, peppered with 3 and 4 letter acronyms”ttyl, lol, lmao, l8r.” Ask them to form a correct sentence, with all correct parts, adjective, noun, verb, then they are at a lose. There is no pride in ones vocabulary. Writing letters was a way to refine your ability to openly communicate in a truly beautiful form. I sometimes like to read the works of history where letters were equivalent to todays emails. Long hand writing can be so soothing and poetic. It saddens me to see children awe struck by the incomplete sentences that parade over 2.5″ phone screens
There is no difference whether I write an “old fashion” letter or send an e-mail. For me, the computer is just an improved typewriter.I can’t stand the abbreviated “telegram” style people use in their e-mail and leaving out a salutation of sorts.
It’s rather presumptuous of Mr Carter to say that “we are all impatient to wait for snail mail.” I’m not too impatient to wait for regular mail (’snail mail’—is an ugly word). Unfortunately nobody sends me any. Years ago my lover was in Seattle, and I was in Oregon. The deliciousness of receiving a letter from her—I’d wait until I’d poured myself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table before I opened it—can never be reproduced or recaptured through email.
Kevin Lloyd says that teenagers are “at a lose” when it comes to writing complete sentences. Hmm.
I wish I personally wrote more letters. I’ve written 2 in my life. I recently read the first volume of Selected Letters of Jack Kerouac, and it was absolutly fascinating. This is a lost art!
I sometimes wonder what posterity is going to have to read in the way of collections of letters, etc. The “Collected E-mails of So and So”?? I think it’s a huge loss.
Hey people
With the fast paced life …people do not actually have the patience to grab a paper and pen and write a letter …Even is at times they might do that ….the hassle of going all the way to a post office or getting it couriered could be considered an immense amount of work…So this personal medium of communication has suffered serious setbacks with the advent of the E mail….However I always make it a point to send a letter to someone really close ….otherwise its the email that has taken over me too !!!
I still write letters! I’m 31 and I’ve had the same pen pal since I was 15. We’ve never met, but I feel like we’re sisters. When I was a kid, I wrote letters to all my favorite celebrities, but I mostly received disappointing form letters or nothing at all. I also tried writing to my cousins, but none of them were interested in writing the way I was.