Letters & Legacies

[olde_fashioned]

I don't quite know what led me to this train of thought, but I've been thinking. People in times past often left letters, journals, and other forms of the written word as one of their legacies. Think Samuel Pepys, or Anne Frank; both of whom are principally known for their diaries.

What are we, the modern and "technological" age, going to leave behind for posterity? Text messages? (OMG SRSLY!) Emails? (dude check out this link!) Chatroom conversations? (he is SOO HOTT!!!1) What happened to the age when people strove for perfection in self expression, dedicated themselves to cultivating excellent penmanship, and endeavoured to write letters not only worth reading, but worth rereading, and worth keeping?

When were we convinced that education (I mean true education, in the sense of the acquisition of knowledge, not that pursuit of a piece of paper from an institution that certifies you as having endured their method of brainwashing), was something not to be striven for, but scoffed at? When did being uninformed, not valuing books, and not caring about one's surroundings become "cool" and "hip" and desirable behaviour?

I write this not because I think I'm so special and I'm getting a kick out of showing everyone else how "special" I am because I'm "different". (That's another cliche I'm sick to death of hearing, about how we're all special because we're different, "only you can be you, and all that nonsense. We're all different from one another -- DUH! Have you ever heard of a fingerprint?) I write this because I'm concerned, and genuinely curious as to when this hand took ahold of the wheel of our civilization and steered us into dangerous waters. Can you see it? I can see it, but I can't trace it back to where it all started. Perhaps it was so gradual a transformation that no one can ever know the exact moment it began to happen, but hopefully, some of us can change this.

Let's bring back letter writing! (Hooray for inkwells and "dippy" pens, heck, even sealing wax and seals!) Let's start keeping journals and diaries! (Hooray for blank leather books!) Let's start expression ourselves intelligently like the beings created in God's image that we are.

It needn't be something devilishly clever, or fabulously well-written like something you'd read in a book (a good book, mind, not that trash which comprises the majority of modern fiction), but something beyond the mindless drivel that most of us, even myself, devote our creativity to.

Practice makes perfect. One small step at a time, let's start writing something worth leaving for posterity. ;-)

Comments

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

I've had a diary since well before 14 (probably closer to 4...lol!) and I keep most handwritten correspondence as well. ;-)

Thank you for the comment (and blessings!)

[miss-nikatya.livejournal.com]

(surprise, surprise! I started an account so I can comment! -- LOL, now you can feel like I'm stalking you. :P)

I agree with you... it's awful how people take no pride in their accomplishments any longer. I keep a bound journal off and on myself, but not as much as I should. My children will be trained up in a different manner than I've seen others, that's for certain. Sadly, I'm not all that wonderful with my handwriting, but I always say, 'practice makes perfect' -- :) I need to practice more.

Love you!
Lizzy

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

Mwahahahaha!!! I confess I've been a waitin'! (Stalking? Who's stalking? *lurks on your blog some more*)

My journaling is sadly much more infrequent than it was...but I think you might be able to surmise on the reasons for that. ;-P

Well you're able now to tell me how horrid my handwriting is! I'm sure yours isn't as bad as you say -- ALTHOUGH HOW AM I TO KNOW FOR CERTAIN??? *coughAHEMcough*

*smooths dress and smiles sweetly*

Lovely icon btw...she reminds me of Ingrid Bergman.

[greeneyedmissy.livejournal.com]

Very eloquently said. I totally agree with you that the written word has become something of the past, more to be ridiculed (why do you write? just send an email, it's faster) than treasured. We're just all so much more hurried than we used to be, even 30 years ago. Technology is making us become a society of shortcuts, IMO. Some good, some bad.

I think the decline of education happened when we, as a society, let it decline. We live in an age where it's okay for children to tell their parents to "f-off", overindulgence rules and reality stars are admired when their only redeeming quality is that they're relatively attractive. In this economy, an education is so important and yet more and more young people strive to become a cast member of The Real World to make their money rather than educate themselves to get a job and support a family.

I could go on but it makes me sad. *sigh*

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Ahhh, being hurried is something I'm lamenting more and more seriously. This world has us all going ninety miles an hour..."face pace, slow death."

Oh my goodness, the way most children behave nowadays! So very shocking! (And now I sound like an old lady, ha ha ha!)

[artekka.livejournal.com]

I feel the urge to play devil's advocate.

What happened to the age when people strove for perfection in self expression, dedicated themselves to cultivating excellent penmanship, and endeavoured to write letters not only worth reading, but worth rereading, and worth keeping?

I have the feeling that if people in the Regency period had had access to word processing and email, they wouldn't have been nearly as concerned with their penmanship. Meanwhile, most of the letters people wrote were probably not all that interesting and worth keeping. They probably read like, "I just heard that the Allens bought a new carriage! And I have netted a fringe." The same kind of boring stuff we post in chatrooms, etc. I mean, I had to look something up in Mary Shelley's diary once, and it honestly read like, "Read Corinne, nursed the baby. Took a walk." And that was a whole day's entry. Even my LJ posts are more interesting than that! And think about the vast numbers of people who not only did not CARE about letter-writing etc, but were actually incapable of it due to lack of education!

When were we convinced that education (I mean true education, in the sense of the acquisition of knowledge, not that pursuit of a piece of paper from an institution that certifies you as having endured their method of brainwashing), was something not to be striven for, but scoffed at? When did being uninformed, not valuing books, and not caring about one's surroundings become "cool" and "hip" and desirable behaviour?

Being "bookish" has had possible negative connotations for a looooong time. Note term "bluestocking" for women in particular. There have always been people who didn't know and didn't care about education or world events.

I'm not saying you're wrong in this post, I'm just trying to point out that it's often inaccurate when we try to romanticize the past. Ecc. 7:10

(BTW: props on your British spellings of "endeavour" and "behaviour". Firefox doesn't like your spellings, and I always think that's a perk. :P )

[elvenjaneite.livejournal.com]

I do have to agree that although I love letters (see below) I think we shouldn't romanticize the past. Yes, there are awful things about our world, but there were awful things about every period. Illiteracy kept so many people from even being able to sign their name, let alone write a letter. Unfortunately sometimes we tend to focus only on the middle and upper classes when we look at the past. It's important to consider all of society. I'm not by any means saying that we should stop writing letters, or that we shouldn't look to the past for inspiration. I just think we (society, especially Christian society) need to be careful of glossing over the unhappy parts to create a picture that's not necessarily accurate.

[sisterjune.livejournal.com]

oh I totally agree, that's what I tried to say in my own comment but I think you did it much more clearly and concisely!

[golly-loli.livejournal.com]

I don't want letter writing - actual letter writing to die out. I love writing them because I love getting them - but whoever I try to correspond with is usually too busy to respond, so that it becomes a one sided venture. So instead I write Thank You notes to whoever did something for me, however small, mostly because it's esaier to find good thank you cards than it is to find stationary, but also because it's one of the nicest gestures anyone can do anymore. I've also kept a physical journal ever since the 3rd grade, and I don't ever intend to quit.

The way this world is headed reminds me more and more of the novel 1984, and aren't people afraid of that? I remember that one part in which the main character risks his life to go to an antique store to buy an old notebook, which could get him even further into serious trouble. It scares me, because I can imagine something simular happening in just a short amount of time.

[hominygrits.livejournal.com]

Very thought-provoking post. Thanks for sharing.

[amore-di-libri.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what you mean! I was reading this wonderful collection of excerpts from various famous ladies' diaries, and all I could think was how glad I was that these women had left behind these pieces of themselves for us to read and connect with.

I started thinking that maybe our hard drives and the logs of our e-mail conversations might be the future's version of epistolary artifacts but somehow it doesn't quite have the same feel.

Perhaps, blogs? I know there are traces still, somewhere on the internet, of blogs I'd had through my teens, even now.

[elvenjaneite.livejournal.com]

What a nice entry! My friends and I all used to write copious letters back and forth to each other. Time and college have gotten in the way of that for now, but it's lovely to be able to go back and see the record of those years.

[sisterjune.livejournal.com]

I think what you are saying is true about teenagers but is less true about adults (middle and upper class adults but those are usually who can afford most of the higher education opportunities anyway)
I've yet to meet someone in my college who scoffs at me or anyone else for loving books, knowledge or trying hard in class. Because that's what we are all here for. In highschool and middle school it's different (unless you are in honors courses, which I was not) and some of that is just how youth culture is these days (which has its own problems to be sure) and the other part is that some people just dont enjoy that kind of learning be it books and paper writing or math work. I think everyone might have one class that they enjoy but otherwise school isnt a "fun" place except when you are with your friends. I do think there is some anti-intellectualism culture in our country and while I dont think it's universal I do think it ties back into the whole american ideal of the rugged hero who works with his hands and is an individual who gets thing done, he doesnt sit around reading books!
Which is why this anti intellectualism thing is especially heavy in regards to boys rather than girls. I suspect this is also part of the widening gap we have in achievement in schools between girls and boys (though surprisingly this gap closes considerably in college and above...)

I feel like I'm rambling. Anyway I dont think there is such a thing as "good old days", unless you are a white man otherwise though the past was probably not a magical wonderland where everything was better. Like for example the education you clearly value, would not have been entirely available to women such as yourself if we go back 250 years or so. I mean women got educated but they were not allowed or expected to have an education equal to that of men. and That's not even to say the complete lack of any education beyond the vocational (if even that) that people of color would have ended up with.
So basically, I think that while our society today has it's share of flaws and concerns for the future, I dont think necessarily that things were just so much better way back when. As much as it might seem that way sometimes. Just my two cents though, feel free to disagree~

[ashes-to-roses.livejournal.com]

I think that, in the technology "community," that online journals or blogs uphold letter writing or eloquent expression. That is, when they're used properly. If enough people read and write to each other via these journals, they become like letters that strangers an read. I'm sure many people have material diaries that they wouldn't care to share with others. I love online journals because they (should) carry what people wish others to know.

When a fellow writer friend moved away, we vowed to write each other letters. It hasn't worked out well with constantly changing addresses and forgetfulness. The idea of it still feels posh and personal. We used to pass notes in school and I think, to us, letters are an extension of that. What are "the kids" doing nowadays? Texting notes? I hope not.

[artekka.livejournal.com]

Kids can text without even looking at the phone, with their hand in their hoody pocket. It's crazy.

[littleflower518.livejournal.com]

My cousin,(who also my best friend) and I each buy a spiral journal, write/draw on every other page....then on the 15th. of each month...we mail them to each other and write on the skipped pages and on the 15th...mail them again to the other. The one *I* purchase, *she* gets to keep and the one *she* buys, *I* get to keep!! We are having a blast!! They are filled with pretty pictures, silly drawings, poems, scripture....you name it!!

[artekka.livejournal.com]

That is an awesome idea. I would totally love to do that. Now I have to figure out who among my friends would be interested in participating...

[iowagirl11.livejournal.com]

I agree with a lot of what you've said here. I especially mourn the loss of letter writing. My dad has a large cache of family letters going back 40 or 50 years, but they stop completely around the time the internet was launched. It makes me sad that we've lost that record of our family correspondence.

For Christmas, I got a sealing wax kit with a fleur-de-lys stamp and used it on my thank you letters. It made me feel like I had a small part in keeping an old-fashioned practice going!

[chloeandrudy.livejournal.com]

I've tried to save things that I've written on the computer in hard copy, and enjoy going back to read them. I plan on having my costume blog printed out in book form when I have enough done on it, since they offer that on blogspot.com. I've thought a couple times of copying everything I've posted in LJ for the same reason. I can't write anything down by hand anymore because it hurts my hand too much. I even have to type letters and print them out to mail them inside a card when it's more than just a line or two. I like to think I have committed more of my thoughts to "paper" this way than I would have if I'd simply written them. I'd also give anything to have the diary I used to write when I was in my early teens. I do have a book I used to write poetry in, all about my feelings but oh so much drama, I'm embarressed to show it to anyone. My descendants will get a laugh out of those. LOL.

[http://users.livejournal.com/lady_jane_grey_/]

I always had trouble sticking with handwritten journals. Now I have a couple of handwritten journals just for when I want to write something that I don't want to write online. One for venting, one for spiritual stuff, one for just contemplating. I don't know if people would realize it was really the same person writing them! I am so proud of myself for keeping up an online journal since 2004 (even though I lost a few years because I didn't back up GJ, GRRR!!!), and I hope I can save things for posterity. I save all my letters (and I mean ALL of them), and I like to write them as well. I love collecting vintage stationary, too, that I can use for writing letters :) Actually all stationary, lol! You've got a pen pal here if you are looking for one ;) I can't promise that you'll be getting weekly letters, but I try to keep up. You'd have to send me your new address, though.

Oh, and I love finding clever ways to word things that sound educated, like in a certain letter I had you read ;) Although in this day in age, it seems less friendly I think. Yes, I'm still not liking it :( But it would be so freeing to be able to write like that to someone who knew why I was writing like that. Correspondence really is an art.

[http://users.livejournal.com/lady_jane_grey_/]

Oh, and I love the dippy pens, but I'm not allowed to put up my inkwell because I'll spill it (and I have no idea where to put it . . . ) and I can't get the stupid quills to work properly! I did calligraphy with metal nibs that I dipped in ink and I could get some words in instead of parts of a letter, lol! Maybe that is another reason it is becoming a lost art? Since there is time between the writing and the dipping, you can think more.

[olde-fashioned.livejournal.com]

You've got a pen pal here if you are looking for one ;)

*squeals with delight* Oh yes! I'd love that! :-D :-D :-D

I can't promise that you'll be getting weekly letters, but I try to keep up.

Oh, phoo, that's fine by me -- I can't promise regular ones, either, but just even getting them once a month would be delightful! :-D

You'd have to send me your new address, though.

It hasn't changed. That's a P.O. box and we didn't change it after we moved, so you have it. ;-)

[visionsbeyond.livejournal.com]

What happened to the age when people strove for perfection in self expression, dedicated themselves to cultivating excellent penmanship, and endeavoured to write letters not only worth reading, but worth rereading, and worth keeping?
Wow well said ! Everytime I watch old movies and period dramas it makes me jealous that they got to ponder over such beautiful letters all the time!
The world is changing too quickly . I wish we were just stuck in time atleast for a little while!

[seventh-stage.livejournal.com]

There are many means in which we write not only for posterity in this age and ages to come indeed we write in the present, one example I think of is Thoreau.
The art of handwriting has in many cases utterly been forsaken for the immediacy of emergencies and carelessness (LiiKe fUr ReAlzz). As for the waters we now find ourselves in the fall of man is the starting point for no age was perfect and never can or will be. Remember the past is not without fault.
The irony of your post is amusing, yet your point is at once rejoiced in, acknowledged. The subtleties of that age have indeed vanished (such has the sacredness of holding hands)- and so have the barriers to becoming educated- 'you can have a fancy education and yet still not be wise.' With this age Pepys would never be in pain for the rest of his life from a successful operation in which he may have been able to have children. Keats may have lived on with his Fanny Brawne.
Take up Spencerian penmanship get an ink well and start writing if you have not already L, which I'm sure you have. It is more than the form or art, for I find there is only so much words give and yet still are priceless. The tangibility is gone in many respects for the sacrifice of haste - and sometimes that need of time is priceless.
We still honour the past, to be frank, libraries are still prosperous in many respects with many writings created in this age take 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'..and in a smaller scope cards of Christmas are not going to be easily done off with. For those otherwise 'Let them eat cake'.

[areth-lovejoy.livejournal.com]

Growing up, my family never had internet, so from age 10 I sent a monthly letter to several family members and friends. A lot of writing, usually with a calligraphy pen and whenever possible I liked to use quality letter paper and even wax and a seal. It was practice since I had horrendous penmanship. But I grew to love it and it was one of the few things I felt was my special creative project. I started getting compliments on my letters, which really encouraged me to keep up with them.

After we got the internet, I offered to start emailing people their monthly letters to save on stamps, but the unanimous response was "No! Keep sending them in the mail." They all received email all the time, but no personal letters. They said getting a handwritten letter meant so much more. And I have to agree. I write far fewer now, but I still manage three or four a month.

As for the decline of letters, it would be hard to pinpoint it, but I would mark it sometime in the 60's. It seems already, from my parents reflections that it was not considered very important and most people just would call.

[marianneevans.livejournal.com]

Here , here, oldfashioned! As I read your insightful post, I immediately added John Keats' love letters to Fanny Brawne to the list and another favorite of mine, Letters from Iwo Jima.

Is it also the purpose of a higher education to teach people to think with their own resources and not to accept all the dribble presented these days as irrefutable fact?

[spacious-soul.livejournal.com]

I really like this entry- well written and wonderfully thought-out. Quite refreshing, in fact! I agree- let's bring back the art of letter-writing.

[eileengallia.livejournal.com]

In high school I prided myself on my extensive vocabulary. After years of being ridiculed and repeatedly being asked "What does that word mean" I dropped it. I dumbed down my vocab and even started swearing. Both of these I highly regret. I think the biggest crack of societal change was the break between the 50's/60's. Not that the 60's were not great, but that is were I see the snowflakes that tip the avalanche.I've spoken to people alive during the 60's who think that the 70's were the break, so i still can't say for sure.

Maybe it was just a long steady decline. The ability to have so much instantly, we no longer strive for things that require time to work on. Or we want it, but not at it's true value.