I just finished watching a documentary called Trumbo – A film about a blacklisted screenwriter, his experiences, life, etc. And it’s told, primarily, via his writings – letters to friends, to business associates, etc. Interesting film.
Something occurred to me, however, in watching the film… And you’ll have to stick with me on this because it’s a long road. It’s like the foul mouthed pianist joke (PUNCH LINE: “Know it? I WROTE it…”). The difference being that my blog entry won’t likely have you rolling on the gum wrapper littered floor of your Geo whereas the pianist joke might. So here goes…
If you go to the archives in DC or to the Huntington Library or some museums, you’ll find these amazing historical letters. A letter Ben Franklin wrote to so and so or a letter Shakespeare wrote to so and so, etc. And what you realize is that, at least with some of the more prolific writers, there are a good deal of these letters out there – these guys and gals were writing letters constantly to each other. They couldn’t just pick up the phone – and, in cases where they lived long distances from each other, couldn’t meet in person to exchange ideas or just “shoot thy shit”. I just watched an entire film that was based around, primarily, the writings of one individual and in more recent of times (i.e. within the past 100 years). Writing letters was the primary, accessible form of personal communication.
I have to imagine that when telephone lines and long distance and phones became more commonplace, letter writing as the primary form of communication became antiquated. Why go through the whole process of writing a letter, getting an envelope, a stamp, etc. when you could just pick up the phone and find out how Uncle Trevor was doing instantly?
But flash forward to nowadays with the interwebs and “smart” phones. We e-mail. We instant message. We text message. I am writing constantly. Verbose e-mails to clients. Disgusting text messages to my friends. Sharing information and ridiculous links to cohorts over instant messenger. It occurred to me that, while technology has essentially advanced, we’ve swung around full circle to more people writing to communicate than, in many cases, talking over the phone or even in person.
And then I thought, “Whoa… I just blew my own mind…” And then I grabbed a cookie.
