the belle-lettrist
Thursday 26 July 2007
I have been letter writing. Well, not too often, just the once in fact, but it has been remarkably good fun. I wrote my letter outside when it was sunny with some fruit cider, and I felt like I was in the Raj or Raffles, corresponding with my extensive and loving wider family back home in jolly old blighty. I will certainly do it again. This being said, writing, by hand, is not the easiest of hobbies to take up. As a left hander, I have the permanent problem of finding a pen whose ink is thick enough to convey a certain manly, virile quality, but at the same time, not too thick lest I smudge it in all my left-handed glory and cover the page with inept finger paint splodges of ink. Of course, there has never been a doubt in my mind that black ink is the proper and right medium to write in, but others have different views. Suffice to say though that they are wrong.
Secondly. Plain or lined? Plain has a certain roguish charm to it; a certain youthful insouciance. One feels on reading a letter written on plain paper that the writer is unconcerned with frivolous fancies of order and neatness, and that their full creative juices would only be held back by those constrictive, prison-like bars. On the other hand, lined paper always ensures a clear presentation, with a variety of rules and margins avalible, and has a scholarly charm in it's exactness.
And then there is the content. A very tricky business indeed. Write too much and you have nothing better to do; write too little and you risk being translated as curt or standoffish. A flowing script may well be de rigeur with lovers and friends, but a more formal contact requires a seriousness in content and in the manner it is delivered.
So next time you write a letter: think. Letters are tangible, permanent things, not the emphereal e-mails so often used today, and as such are more than means of communication, but recorded histories, captured moments of people reaching out to one another in a more intimate way in the electronic-age. Bear all this in mind, and follow it to the letter (!) and you're sure to make a success of your next postal enterprise.
Labels: philosophy
posted by danny @ 04:03,
1 Comments:
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At 30 July 2007 at 05:16,
Athena said...
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Danny, I agree that deciding what to put in a letter is far more important than what to put in an email - since I hate re-writing anything, it means putting plenty of thought in to get it right first time!
Your reply is about to go in the post, although the postal strike might delay its progress a little :s
