Letters, Email and History/Biography Books
DiscussionsReaders Over Sixty
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1bookblotter
Wildbill in #8 under the topic "Letters, we write letters! Do we?" indirectly hints at an interesting point. What will be the impact on writers of history & biography of the lack of "real" letters (because of email, Twitter, Facebook, Friendster, etc) being sent today. Not too long ago I read David McCullough's bio on John Adams. One of the topics that interested and impressed me was the warm and mutually respectful correspondence between John and Abigail Adams.
If someone writes a biography in 2160, say, about someone current today, will all the electronic messages exist and be readable? It seems to me that the existence of and access to such material will be in doubt and that content today isn't nearly as gracious, thoughtful and well stated as it was in the past. How will Twitters, for example, assuming they are readable, be interpreted and read. They're so brief and to the point.
If John and Abigail were around today, Abigail would be Twittering John saying something like, " potatoes rotting in field. no one to harvest. every man in army. :-{ what to do? Love. :-) " Sure gives me a warm feeling.
If someone writes a biography in 2160, say, about someone current today, will all the electronic messages exist and be readable? It seems to me that the existence of and access to such material will be in doubt and that content today isn't nearly as gracious, thoughtful and well stated as it was in the past. How will Twitters, for example, assuming they are readable, be interpreted and read. They're so brief and to the point.
If John and Abigail were around today, Abigail would be Twittering John saying something like, " potatoes rotting in field. no one to harvest. every man in army. :-{ what to do? Love. :-) " Sure gives me a warm feeling.
2wildbill
One book I have that I am looking forward to reading is The Adams-Jefferson Letters. It is the complete correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams. I think that history writers in the future will be able to find the emails and tweets, nothing that is put on the web goes away. I was reading an article that made that point. It will always be on a server or a hard drive somewhere.
I think the difference in content goes along with the general loss of humanity that is part of living in a technological society. We don't have the time, the training by example or the real education that it takes to write a thoughtful letter. But then our children don't die with the same frequency as they did in those times.
I think the difference in content goes along with the general loss of humanity that is part of living in a technological society. We don't have the time, the training by example or the real education that it takes to write a thoughtful letter. But then our children don't die with the same frequency as they did in those times.
