Love Letters

[Charles Skinner]

In today's newspaper, there is a long article about the love letters written by two young adults back in the 1870's. The two young lovers lived about forty or fifty miles apart in a rural area. The thing about the letters that I want to comment on is about how skilled these two young people were with their writings. Beautiful sentences, beautiful thoughts, and beautiful ways of expressing love, while still "holding back" just a little. I don't know why I often think that rural people in the 1800's were not "educated," and that they likely could not write as well as we do today. How foolish! Some just plain 'ol regular people were great letter writers! I remember reading some letters written on the battle fields during the War Between the States that were extremely well written. So, we should not ever think that those folks back then "could not write" as well as we do today. In fact, the modern way of writing because of Facebook and Twitter has actually worked against "good writing." From reading parts of those love letters, it was clear that each young lover took great pains to select just the perfect word, and to arrange the words exactly right in order to achieve the desired results. My, my! Where has writing skills gone? Speaking of writing skills, please excuse any mistakes I have made in writing this! Remember, while a hand written and signed and dated letter is a historical document, an e-mail is just a puff of smoke! Long live "the paper and the pen!" C. S.

[Dimitry V.]

Interesting read.

 

I must agree with the fact that all the social medias work against good written language. I am pretty certain that people back then were overall better writers (form and matter) than we are now, mostly because everything they wrote, they did it by hand.

 

Anyway, I find that the average level of the written language on these forums is quite outstanding. Facebook and its "imma go 2 ur hous'' has nothing on us.

 

 

Kind regards,

Dimitry

 

 

PS: Paragraphs would have been quite nice

 

 

Edit: Typos

Edited February 14, 2013 by Dimitry V.

[Sasha Royale]

T'day we txt 4 info, rather than communicate by words. It promotes a culture that has

no regard for vocabulary and grammar. Other times, people use facial gestures and body

movements in place of words, during a sentence. The result is beastial communication.

We tolerate mis-usages, such as "pleaded". It is a slippery slope, on which our children

decline to "simian-isms" in the language.

 

The feelings are already in the heart. The mind can be taught to convey the feelings in

a "love letter". In the absence of such training, what emerges is "Grunt-gunt. U hot."

 

Am I singing and dancing, or just kicking a clump of dirt from the path ?

[Octo]

Indeed! All my grandparents wrote well. My grandmother, born in the late 1800's and a farm woman all her life, taught me the names of garden flowers and wild flowers. She used the Latin names, genus and species.

[MarneM]

In today's newspaper, there is a long article about the love letters written by two young adults back in the 1870's.

 

Is the article online, perhaps? I'd love to read it.

 

My husband and I wrote love letters to each other at the beginning of our relationship. I kept them all (as well as any cards and other notes he sent me) and put them in a binder in clear plastic sheets. Perhaps someday I'll make a scrapbook, but even this way, I figured our grandchildren could read them some day.

[Giordana]

The reference to letters written during the Civil War era remind me of joke of the late comedian Greg Giraldo..so sad, so true!

Here's a short audio clip for those who want a laugh:

 

Anyways, I agree on the decline of love letters. Nowadays, it's an overabundance of plush animals,chocolates, and flowers, which I am not going to lie, that is still nice, especially when/if you're a kid first experiencing the pangs of puppylove and "crushes" (sigh ) . Tradition aside, I'd rather like a box of chocolates and a fountain pen than receive a love letter! In fact, I've been hinting to my boyfriend, "I want a big Pelikan." :roflmho:

Love letters can be done for any other time of the year, right?

[Lisya72]

I ran across this on CNN's page: http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/14/living/love-letters-mystery/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

 

Different era, different people, but the story brought tears to my eyes.

[Rumpy]

Edited, because I was in the wrong thread!

Edited February 15, 2013 by Rumpy

[Runnin_Ute]

I have to go on facebook tonight and change my password. I am dreading it. I just don't use it much, but I don't want to shut it completely off either......

 

 

Don't have to worry about a password with the written word on pen and paper.

[Runnin_Ute]

I ran across this on CNN's page: http://www.cnn.com/2....html?hpt=hp_c3

 

Different era, different people, but the story brought tears to my eyes.

 

Me too.

[K. Power]

T'day we txt 4 info, rather than communicate by words. It promotes a culture that has

no regard for vocabulary and grammar. Other times, people use facial gestures and body

movements in place of words, during a sentence. The result is beastial communication.

We tolerate mis-usages, such as "pleaded". It is a slippery slope, on which our children

decline to "simian-isms" in the language.

 

The feelings are already in the heart. The mind can be taught to convey the feelings in

a "love letter". In the absence of such training, what emerges is "Grunt-gunt. U hot."

 

Am I singing and dancing, or just kicking a clump of dirt from the path ?

 

Language evolves. If what was yester year's wrong, becomes accepted over the course of time. That said, the writing used in texts messages is much like the writing used for sending telegraphs, for much the same reason (brevity), and will most likely be thought of similarly over the course of history. As an asside I have a type of dislexia that makes spelling (but not reading) difficult, so some of my words will be "misspelled".

 

Did you know that standerised spelling came about because of an attempt to prevent "lower" (less wealthy) class people from getting into the well paying (or at least less taxing) work. Only moneyed people could afford the years of study required to gain the "standerd" (crazy) spelling.

 

Critising people for having diffirent priority's (or natual skills) is not a great way to win friends and influance the dialog around penmanship, and writing.

 

K-

Edited March 2, 2013 by K. Power

[AShrewdLawn]

T'day we txt 4 info, rather than communicate by words. It promotes a culture that has

no regard for vocabulary and grammar. Other times, people use facial gestures and body

movements in place of words, during a sentence. The result is beastial communication.

We tolerate mis-usages, such as "pleaded". It is a slippery slope, on which our children

decline to "simian-isms" in the language.

 

The feelings are already in the heart. The mind can be taught to convey the feelings in

a "love letter". In the absence of such training, what emerges is "Grunt-gunt. U hot."

 

Am I singing and dancing, or just kicking a clump of dirt from the path ?

 

Language evolves. If what was yester year's wrong, becomes accepted over the course of time. That said, the writing used in texts messages is much like the writing used for sending telegraphs, for much the same reason (brevity), and will most likely be thought of similarly over the course of history. As an asside I have a type of dislexia that makes spelling (but not reading) difficult, so some of my words will be "misspelled".

 

Did you know that standerised spelling came about because of an attempt to prevent "lower" (less wealthy) class people from getting into the well paying (or at least less taxing) work. Only moneyed people could afford the years of study required to gain the "standerd" (crazy) spelling.

 

Critising people for having diffirent priority's (or natual skills) is not a great way to win friends and influance the dialog around penmanship, and writing.

 

K-

 

I came here to say much the same thing. No dialect is superior to another. All languages and dialects follow their rules with some exceptions and can be used equally expressively. Just because somebody isn't competent in your culture's prestige dialect, that doesn't mean their linguistic competence is inferior. They speak a different dialect.

 

Also, language is separate from intelligence.

[ZachWasniak]

I'm gonna look into some old letters now..

[Joker4Eva]

I do think the context plays a large role in whether one chooses to write without much thought to grammar and vocabulary.

I'm in my early twenties, and I frequently switch between those two forms. Speaking a few languages and having friends who also have that skill, we intermittently switch between languages, as it seemed like a way of proving to others how well we've mastered a language. However, with monolingual friends, I can also switch to a more grammatically correct figure of speech.

Due to the fact that SMSes 12 years back could only contain a meager 100+ characters, using l33t5p34k or short forms in order to save money and insert more information into one SMS. Although we seldom require so many characters now, sites like Twitter has made it so that our attention spans need only be so long, and many still try to shorten their words to insert more information.

I haven't been writing love letters, mainly due to my lack of a recipient, but it'll be nice to see how one can at the same time, express their emotions, and also hold back, just so I know how the standards are.

[Sasha Royale]

T'day we txt 4 info, rather than communicate by words. It promotes a culture that has

no regard for vocabulary and grammar. Other times, people use facial gestures and body

movements in place of words, during a sentence. The result is beastial communication.

We tolerate mis-usages, such as "pleaded". It is a slippery slope, on which our children

decline to "simian-isms" in the language.

 

The feelings are already in the heart. The mind can be taught to convey the feelings in

a "love letter". In the absence of such training, what emerges is "Grunt-gunt. U hot."

 

Am I singing and dancing, or just kicking a clump of dirt from the path ?

 

Language evolves. If what was yester year's wrong, becomes accepted over the course of time. That said, the writing used in texts messages is much like the writing used for sending telegraphs, for much the same reason (brevity), and will most likely be thought of similarly over the course of history. As an asside I have a type of dislexia that makes spelling (but not reading) difficult, so some of my words will be "misspelled".

 

Did you know that standerised spelling came about because of an attempt to prevent "lower" (less wealthy) class people from getting into the well paying (or at least less taxing) work. Only moneyed people could afford the years of study required to gain the "standerd" (crazy) spelling.

 

Critising people for having diffirent priority's (or natual skills) is not a great way to win friends and influance the dialog around penmanship, and writing.

 

K-

 

I came here to say much the same thing. No dialect is superior to another. All languages and dialects follow their rules with some exceptions and can be used equally expressively. Just because somebody isn't competent in your culture's prestige dialect, that doesn't mean their linguistic competence is inferior. They speak a different dialect.

 

Also, language is separate from intelligence.

 

Yet, Charles Skinner applauds the letters of two nineteenth century lovers, while making no

mention of the tomcat who, in the same year, brought a dead mouse to his feline mate, under

the porch.

 

Absent additional effort, my dislexia hinders reading of your posting, While you might have,

otherwise, conveyed your feelings by spitting on my windshield, or mumbling various obscene

terms, you did not. Instead, I have the pleasure of reading a well-composed expression of

your passion. (I wager that you'd write a nice love letter, too.)

[Runnin_Ute]

Where did all the Love Letters go?

 

Some will say they went the way of the Dodo. That is extinct.

 

I would argue no, that they have just taken a different form. Do they have the same impact as when they were written with pen, ink and paper? To me they don't but they might to those who wrote them.

 

So much of our daily communication is no longer tangible. And there is just something about the tangible nature of pen, ink and paper versus a bunch of 1's and 0's stored electronically.

 

Just some thoughts I jotted down earlier today on this topic.

[Sasha Royale]

Where did all the Love Letters go?

 

They go !

 

While aboard ship, half a world away, I wrote many letters to my fiancee.

While attending career seminars, I wrote letters to my wife at home.

Sometimes, while she is shopping, I enjoy a cigar and a drink on the patio,

and write a letter for her to find upon returning.

 

She has kept them all, but wills that they be burned upon her death. They

are hers alone.

 

Martha Washington did the same. So, there are but two known, surviving letters

from GW to MW. Pity. He was a tall, handsome, articulate 18th century gentleman.

[Lisya72]

I just recently started writing love letters to my husband. He was quite surprised and pleased with the first one. I don't know if he's found the second yet (I snuck it into his briefcase last night).