Return of a Golden Age?

 

 

Letters, not electronic letters, are a carefully composed  illuminating 'clear -ification' of the person's soul to another distant soul, but  profoundly present in  the heart and mind of the writer. 

"In the 17th century, Vermeer expressed this sentiment in his extraordinary painting Girl Reading  a Letter at an Open Window.

The young woman stands before the large window,but she isn't looking through it. She is transfixed  by the words  on the luminous  sheet of paper she holds in her hands."

Letter writing,  globally, in the new century had entered the trail of the dinosaur with the explosive advent of email.Except for business purposes,most letters are transactional documents, only a  few consist of the soul- exposing  and espousing variety.

But the loss of missive sending has,according to some staunch fans entered a niche market for the 21st century and perhaps beyond. The  fiery claim of the personal letters upon the heart of the females is more in tune with the domain of the 17th century poetry than the Frankentein' s monster  blend of technological  driven and computerised  language of emails, e- proposals and the like.

The practice of Calligraphy is  renewed becoming the focus of the parallel process of love- writing on the paper. missives 

 Thankfully,letter writing not only helps the lover express themselves  but can sustain and deepen relationships.

In an age of disposables and rampart consumerism, we find that some things are meant to outlast emailed or text immediacy? Love beautifully expressed with a subtle vein of desire, that hard- to- find coupled earnest splash of exuberant enthusiasm but everyone -knows - it, life -element outlasts  most sexual encounters.

 But what  once hastened  the dearth of the lover's expressed desire to navigate and communicate with words  on a  processed  pulp sheet to create a bridge between his ( or her) wholly other relational being is no longer an isolated and relegated to antiquity task.

There are bird songs or morning reminders of a long past reign of a golden age of physical letters.

 It seems that some things last even if in their older form and outlast  normal generational, technological and cultural revolution.

Do you still write physical letters? Let us know if you do? Do you think that personalised paper missives are making a comeback? What primary purpose is helping letters make a comeback? Care to discuss?

NB: the above post is inspired by the book Superbloom by Nicholas Carr.

(Final form by Digital Anvil)