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From: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Re: The "Reality"/typing vs handwriting
Message-ID: <574@rti-sel.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 10-Dec-85 17:41:48 EST
Article-I.D.: rti-sel.574
Posted: Tue Dec 10 17:41:48 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Dec-85 06:46:01 EST
References: <917@cvl.UUCP> <352@whuts.UUCP> <11@ttidcc.UUCP>
Reply-To: wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly)
Distribution: net
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, NC
Lines: 40
Summary: 

In article <1600@rayssd.UUCP> hxe@rayssd.UUCP (Heather Emanuel) writes:

>So once we've established that everyone loves to hold that letter in
>their hands and cherish the look of the postmark and smell the
>perfume that the letter carrier was wearing the day she/he delivered
>it ...

Back in the old days, young children spent many hours perfecting
elegant and aesthetically pleasing handwriting styles. And people went
to great lengths to select ink, paper, and envelopes that would
complement their handwriting. The notion was that a letter and the
handwriting style of its writer comprised an object that was
aesthetically pleasing in and of itself, without regard to its
content. Our attitude toward language was at one time (I believe) a
little closer to the attitude of a people whose written language
involves visual aesthetics, and whose characters bear some
relationship to the objects they represent. An ideographic language,
in other words, like Chinese. The ready availability of the typewriter
in the U.S. in this century and the neglect of handwriting and
calligraphy in primary schools since WW I has lead to a certain
contempt for the appreciation of a written letter as an object of
beauty. Also, people used to take TIME writing a letter and making
sure it looked right (my grandmothers both took great pride in their
elegant and beautiful handwriting); the very concentration and skill
required to write a beautiful letter made its arrival a special joy.
It's a matter of attention to the small details of life, and an
appreciation of the simpler joys in life: things we've forgotten as we
sit in the discarded fragments of a culture no one seems to have time
for any more.

I'm no better than anyone else at this, of course; I buy nice
stationary to write people letters, and then stare in disgust at a
handwriting made ugly by thirty years of neglect and pressure to get
the job done as fast as possible. We get things done much more rapidly
these days, but oh the price we pay for it in stress-related illnesses,
interpersonal problems, and a general malaise that seems to be related
to our inability to enjoy anything anymore that doesn't jump up and
stridently scream for attention...

                          -- Cheers, Bill Ingogly