Have you read Blindside70’s blog? When was the last time that you wrote a well-considered letter? In my case it’s about 8 years ago! Naturally, I’ve written the occasional letter since, but generally just brief thank you notes, letters of enquiry or complaint etc. Even postcards are becoming a chore. Can the letter, as described by B70, be saved? I have come to terms with the demise of the semicolon; is there anything you’d like to preserve? Would you want to keep receiving letters through the door? (A wonderful service in the UK where letters drop with a satisfying thump directly through the flap in the door onto the floor. Unfortunately, the actual delivery times are a bit erratic these days; no more 8 o’clock post.)
I used to write letters to several pen friends many years ago, but this is long gone, just an occasional Chrismas/New year-note remains. These days I don’t write letters to be sent by mail. Would you count longer emails as sort of ‘letters’? I sometimes write a longer email. Nowadays there are online forums, blogs etc. I think more people write such online texts nowadays than wrote letters of an equivalent length 30 years ago. It’s fast and cheap. No wonder postal services are getting more expensive and delivery takes longer.
Well, Blindside70 writes in detail about the pleasure and anticipation of writing, receiving and, I think, even holding the letter to be read/written. Emails just don’t give me that sort of physical joy, so I guess they don’t count. Are we depriving ourselves by not hand-writing more?