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In Praise of Letters

Christopher Crompton

Internet

12 April

Dear Internet,

Many moons ago, while perusing the dusty shelves of a Cambridge University library, I came by chance across an old and worn copy of Hemingway’s Selected Letters. Several hours later, I had forgotten all about the topic I had visited that library to research, instead having veered into an entrancing ramble through many of the six hundred or so letters in the volume. They had been found in Hemingway’s Cuban home after his death, letters that formed parts of exchanges with everyone from family members, to his editors, to other prominent figures of the day, and they span much of his lifetime, ranging from 1917 right up to 1961, when he took his own life. These letters are private correspondences that Hemingway never meant for publication, which made me, as their unintended reader, feel I had stepped a little sheepishly into the unguarded office of his mind and rifled through his desk drawers, but that was also partly why they became so fascinating. The man’s frank thoughts and feelings are on full display, punctuated and elevated by his very evident wit and linguistic flair. He writes home from Milan as he serves in the Italian Army Medical Corps during the First World War, as he tries to come to terms with the very real and imminent prospect of death: “Dying is a very simple thing. I’ve looked at death and really I know”. In later letters, he writes in unfiltered praise or condemnation of others’ books, or enthuses about boxing and bullfighting. Hemingway’s personality, experiences and thoughts on the world are perfectly encapsulated through the many flourishes of his pen, and the collection functions as a biography as complete and insightful as anyone could wish for. As you may tell, it is one of those books that has really stuck with me. In the course of his correspondence, Hemingway also makes two claims about the act of letter writing itself. He casually muses that writing letters is “such a swell way to keep from working and yet feel you’ve done something”—it was, to him, the ultimate procrastination. Elsewhere, he asserts that “Plenty of times people who write the best write the worst letters. It is almost a rule.” I am a writer and editor by trade, which I would hope means that I write fairly well. Perhaps then, if Mr H is correct, I have little hope of being a stellar man of letters. Nonetheless, it is a form I have been drawn to for as long as I can remember, and I insist that it is not, in my case, an act of procrastination that serves as a welcome pseudo-productive distraction from loftier forms of writing. Rather, letter writing is a worthy end in itself and can, in the right circumstances, prove to be one of the most useful, effective, emotive and insightful means of discourse. Despite his self-effacement and levity, Hemingway’s own collected letters are a perfect testament to this. I admit that I have little occasion to use letters as a form of correspondence with others. There seem few who can really be bothered with such slow and formal forms in an instantaneous world of abbreviated illiteracy, and besides, e-mail can be very efficient and performs many of the same surface functions as written hand. There are even some who use email with a similar level of traditional courteousness of tone and address, although such users seem few and dwindling. But conventions like these are not, for me, the principal advantage that the letter tends to hold over its electronic counterpart, nor are they the reason I do still write letters when the opportunity presents itself. I think that a letter is what it is precisely because it is a slow thing. It is not in a hurry. The act of consuming the blank page before us is not hastily perfunctory, but calls for a little pondering, a little critical thought, a little pause to remember some anecdote or conjure some image that adds colour to the sketched outlines of ideas. At the same time, it is personal enough to feel like an emotional line to somewhere outside of us, yet just impersonal and spontaneous enough to allow things to slip through with a little less filter than may inhibit face-to-face interaction. At its best, the art of letter writing, if we may call it an art, facilitates a kind of engaged flow, a mindful and considered stream of thought. If two (or more) people can cultivate such a flow in reciprocity, then a very pleasant and meaningful exchange can ensue. It is this same engagement of the faculties in awareness and expression that means a letter can be valuable even if it never sees a reply, and even if it is never sent. It is a recognised tool in therapeutic repertoires to recommend that a person write a letter to someone else, or even to themself, then screw it up and throw it away. While this might at first seem a rather extreme and pointless exercise, in fact it points to the worth in distilling thoughts and feelings about a subject and containing them on a page. Perhaps the awareness that no one else will ever read it stirs the highest levels of honesty and frankness. In Collate, we are presented with a halfway house between the traditional letter and the e-mail. In forming that compromise, some things are necessarily lost. For someone like me who enjoys the tangible physicality of putting a fountain pen to a champagne-tinted page, I lament that this is a typed form of letter. It does nothing to revive the beauty and skill of writing in copperplate script, as was the norm in the not-so-distant past, and which I find so appealing. I also miss the physical presence of a letter dropping through my letterbox, although the platform is attempting to send physical copies in its early stages at least. But in spite of such concessions, I applaud that the spirit of lively and considered exchange is alive here. I hope that this is a platform where we can all be encouraged to read, ponder and respond to others’ ideas and stories with a real measure of thought and respect. We also see here the potential to effect change in the world through the influence and visibility of the carefully constructed written word. Above all, I hope that in turning away from walls of instant feeds and reactions, we are here encouraged to slow down, to record something of our minds and souls that may one day earn a place in each of our personal Selected Letters. Yours sincerely,

Christopher Crompton

17 June

Dear Christopher Crompton,

Thanks for your delightful letter. I’ve actually been to Hemingway’s home in Cuba and your experience reading his letters describes a similar experience to visiting it. Being there was a window through his eyes and into his world. Seeing the beautiful location, architecture and interior design of the house showed Hemingway as a man of acute aesthetic taste. It seemed to me natural that this taste translated into his literary achievements and has since made me eagerly aware of it in his writings.

In many ways what you describe as valuable in letters are their aesthetics. It is so satisfying to hold the feathery weight of a letter curled up and creased in the thick paper. With hand-written notes, you can see the movement of your correspondent’s hand. You can sense from the neatness or messiness of the ink a calmness or excitement. Much of the romance of letters is in their ability to translate the author's emotion into physical beauty. This is true with typed letters too; with an artisan or neatly designed letterhead, they retain a formal elegance.

As letters have become less used as a medium of discourse, they increasingly stand out in their aesthetic value against the backdrop of our modern mediums. Our perception of beauty is an expression of humanity’s innate oneness. It transcends identity or language. The experience of going to a concert or art gallery extends the beauty of the art because being surrounded by others who feel something in response, just like you, proves to everyone there that we aren’t alone in our human feelings. Isn’t this exactly what’s missing in our modern media? To me, it doesn’t seem necessary to lose the beauty of the letter medium in order to gain the benefits of modern communication technology.

The technologists who built the internet, email and the big social networks have built the most potent communication machines humanity has ever seen. But apart from Steve Jobs (lost too young!), they seem to think we are machines too. This resembles a common critique of modernist architecture: that it makes a home soulless and cold in search of the purest functionality. The father of modern architecture, Le Corbusier, famously wrote: “a house is a machine for living in”.

But Hemingway, despite living in his Cuban home at the height of modernism’s vogue in architecture and being a modernist writer himself, ignored the fashion for a metallic functionality in his home and instead lived in a space that was subtly luxurious, homely and organic. The house is full of decorative art, joyful colours and natural materials: wood, ivory, animal skins and stuffed heads from Hemingway’s hunts. This wasn’t a ‘modern’ home in the 1930s, and yet it didn’t look outdated when I visited six years ago. With an upgraded toaster and TV, the home would be as desirable now as it was then.

Hemingway was a cornerstone influence on modernist literature, stripping his prose down to only the most necessary, simple wording. But unlike some modernist buildings, his prose retains a rich warmth and nostalgia that imitates his Cuban estate. Collate is utilising the letter theme and format to infuse beauty into the design of a modern, digital communication tool. Not only will it be a more enjoyable experience, it will also allow people to better connect with each other and avoid the destabilising effect (both personally and societally) social networks can have because they forgot about beauty.

It’s time we created a digital channel of mass communication that utilises an artistic mindset as well as an engineering one, that values beauty as well as reach. A digital tool that values the quality of time spent using it over the quantity of time being used by it. If we can pull this off, we’ll be making up for the loss of tactile letters in our hands with a communication network that truly connects people across the world through beautiful writing, ideas and arguments.

I hope my letter inspires in you half as much thought as yours did mine. If so, I’m looking forward to reading your response.

Oliver

P. S. Your letter triggered many thoughts. I started on the aesthetics route and got swept away. Here are some of the others:

-- I do want to explore how we can make Collate a hybrid platform that allows its members to benefit from the old-school pleasure of letters in their hands. What do you think of the ability to write a letter to a Collate mailing address and have your letter digitised and uploaded to Collate to be used in the same way as letters on Collate now are, but with a unique UI?

-- The slowness of letter writing as a desirable feature of it becomes increasingly valuable in a world where media content moves faster and faster. Digital stimulation punctuates our lives continually with decreasing intervals. VR is set to make that stimulation continuous, with no intervals at all. To stop and think for a while is not only good in itself, as you mention, but it is increasingly necessary for any independence of thought at all. Slow thinking is a bulwark against our minds being taken hostage by an overwhelming tsunami of information we don’t control.

-- You missed a characteristic of letters that distinguish them. They are long-form writing directed at another person. What is it about writing a letter to someone else just for yourself, only to throw it away once it is written, that makes it so therapeutic? Rather than ruminating by talking to yourself in your mind, questioning your own decisions and behaviours, writing a letter to someone even if not sending it interrupts this habit and provides your self-image valuable relief.

Oliver Kraftman

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Tobias Lim on 29 September

Responses: 2

Dear Internet, [center][i][highlight=transparent]“I should like to open my heart to you henceforth if I may... I plainly see that the truth is the same at Toulouse and at Paris.” — Pascal to Fermat (1654) [0][/highlight][/i][/center] [highlight=transparent]We migh...

What are your views on the state of American politics and leadership today?

Tobias Lim on 2 October

Responses: 0

Dear Erik SuarezΦ, [highlight=transparent]I saw your tweet about Collate a few days ago. [1] As an early adopter of the platform myself, I have to agree. I’ve been using Collate as an opportunity to reach out to public figures, to improve my writing, and to muse about ...

Dealing With Our Gelatinous Ignorance

Tobias Lim on 3 October

Responses: 0

Dear Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, [highlight=transparent]Firstly, I want to say thank you for your newsletter. For basketball fans around the world, your achievements, both on and off the court, have achieved a sort of mythical status. So it makes me happy that one of the greatest-of...

Bridges to Infinity and God

Tobias Lim on 10 October

Responses: 0

Dear Michael Guillen, [highlight=transparent]A few weeks ago, I bought a worn copy of your book, Bridges to Infinity, from my local bookshop. The intriguing cover and table of contents caught my eye immediately. And having read the book, I can see why you won awards as a ...

Nurturing a Child’s Lifelong Love for Books

Tobias Lim on 13 October

Responses: 0

Dear Jan Hasbrouck, [highlight=transparent]I’ve been wondering about ways to improve global education outcomes around the world. In an ideal world, such a policy or initiative should: (1) help students to discover and unlock their potential; (2) not drain the public cof...

Solitude, Obligations, and a Rewarding Life

Tobias Lim on 18 October

Responses: 4

Dear Fenton Johnson, [highlight=transparent]I want to thank you for writing At the Center of All Beauty. I appreciated your reflections on silence, solitude, and the creative life. I also enjoyed the serenity you evoked as I moved from page to page. More importantly, yo...

Me & U after Ashoka

Divyansh on 19 October

Responses: 2

Dear Riya Behl, I don't know how this works. I do see this is as a space to have a different strand of conversations from our regular ones. The letter format provides a sense of continuity with no pressure to respond. So let me take this opportunity to start somethi...

Truss was the first Tory leader in decades to wrap herself in the image of Thatcher. But would the Iron Lady have approved of Trussonomics?

Sir Anthony Seldon on 24 October

Responses: 3

Dear Lord Charles Moore, [color=rgb(34, 34, 34)][highlight=transparent]It is an honour to be corresponding about Lady Thatcher with the most distinguished authority and interpreter of her in the world. [/highlight][/color] [color=rgb(34, 34, 34)][highlight=transparent]Brit...

Alternative Technology for Biomedical Waste Disposal, Govandi Deonar Mumbai

Govandi Citizens #𝑺𝒂𝒗𝒆𝑮𝒐𝒗𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒊  on 28 October

Responses: 0

Dear Internet, Story of the residents fighting to shut down the biomedical waste treatment plant in Govandi. It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that I realised that I must join the fight for clean air. As biomedical waste increased tenfold at health facilities an...

test to kevin

Kevin P2 on 30 October

Responses: 0

Dear Kevin P., [justify]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas et suscipit purus. Sed placerat augue et ullamcorper imperdiet. Donec nec hendrerit tortor. Curabitur viverra sapien non leo lobortis iaculis. Duis ullamcorper risus et porta ...

Please, can you tell us how to protect democracy?

Tobias Lim on 7 November

Responses: 0

Dear Jennifer Dresden, [highlight=transparent]I am an ordinary citizen who is concerned about the future of democracy. You know better than I that the US midterm elections will be a bellwether for things to come.[/highlight] [highlight=transparent]You gave a fantastic int...

Edit Buttons, Selfies and Life

Tobias Lim on 8 November

Responses: 0

Dear Internet, [highlight=transparent]I have sometimes wished for an edit button on this platform. I even went as far as to send the founder of Collate a request for this very feature. I happen to be a clumsy perfectionist, you see. I have an uncanny knack for find...

Thickheaded Corporations

Tobias Lim on 14 November

Responses: 0

Dear Internet, [highlight=transparent]A few months ago, a family-friend who we will call Valerie bought two tickets for herself and her friend for travel long overdue. They were excited to visit someplace exotic after extended lockdowns and closed international bor...

An Addendum to Gelatinous Ignorance

Tobias Lim on 14 November

Responses: 0

Dear Internet, [highlight=transparent]A few weeks ago, I wrote a short letter about the “[/highlight][color=rgb(17, 85, 204)][highlight=transparent][url=https://www.collate.org/closed_letter/dealing-with-our-gelatinous-ignorance/sender]gelatinous ignorance[/url][/h...

Why are video games so violent?

Tobias Lim on 15 November

Responses: 0

Dear Michael Kasumovic, [highlight=transparent]I came across an interesting article on [/highlight][color=rgb(17, 85, 204)][highlight=transparent][url=https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science-tech/why-do-we-play-violent-video-games#:~:text=Kasumovic%20says.,to%20satisfy%20...

Love, Terror, and Brainwashing — How can we stop cult-like politics?

Tobias Lim on 15 November

Responses: 0

Dear Alexandra Stein, [highlight=transparent]In light of recent political developments, I was looking for books and papers to better understand the nature of human organization and social structure. I found your research on cults especially illuminating. So t[/highlight]h...

What are your plans for Cressbrook Dale?

Christopher Crompton on 21 November

Responses: 0

Dear Rachel Elnaugh, I have been visiting the Peak District National Park for many years and regard Cressbrook Dale as one of its gems of natural beauty and biodiversity. The woodland and wildflowers through the seasons are a particular joy, and as National Park access l...

A question about the mindful athlete

Tobias Lim on 21 November

Responses: 0

Dear George Mumford, [highlight=transparent]I bought my second copy of The Mindful Athlete a few days ago. This time, I plan to give it to a friend as a Christmas gift. You see, this friend of mine is facing a series of setbacks and personal hardships. But I am hopeful t...

In Praise of Classical Music

Dale Joseph Ferrier on 22 November

Responses: 0

Dear Internet, [justify][highlight=transparent]Our culture around the world is immensely varied with a myriad of arts, traditions, and literature. But possibly the most defining of these for each of our societies is music. The various ways we generate what would or...

Letters to Tarkovsky

Tobias Lim on 4 December

Responses: 0

Dear Internet, When a nobody like myself writes in letter form to a public figure, there is only a small probability that she will see my words amidst the flood of mail and messages that she inevitably receives. Beyond that, there is an even smaller chance that she...

Related letters

Dear friend.

Only the recipient can respond....