culture

Love Letters

The Portly Politico12 Comments

Last week I read Taki’s Magazine for the first time in awhile, and I’m glad I did.  The magazine’s owner and editor, Taki Theodoracopulos, wrote a piece entitled “A Love Letter to Love Letters,” about—in case it wasn’t clear—love letters.

I was on a letter writing kick a few years ago, as The Age of The Virus granted ample time to indulge in time-consuming hobbies.  I am still a proponent of writing handwritten letters, though I have not written nearly as many lately.

Taki’s piece, however, quite eloquently explains the appeal of writing letters.  While he focuses on love letters, his arguments apply to letters generally.

Here is the crux of Taki’s apologia for love letters:

Well, a woman is a person a man writes love letters to, and if this sounds very old-fashioned to emoji users, that’s just too bad. Defying modernity is the coolest of the cool, so if any of you young whippersnappers out there are having female problems, just sit right down and write her a love letter. The power of the love letter is incredible, and no member of the weaker sex has ever been able to resist it. And no member of the fairer sex has ever sold the love letter short. In fact, I shall go as far as to call the love letter the neutron bomb of heterosexual, romantic sex.

“Defying modernity is the coolest of the cool”—very true.  It’s why young people are co-opting Catholic imagery and becoming (or at least pretending to become) Catholic (or, if they really want online street cred, Orthodox).  Beyond picayune fashion, however, letter writing is like giving a middle finger to postmodernity; what could be more punk rock than that?

As for the love letter being “the neutron bomb of heterosexual, romantic sex,” I’m not so sure, but in that nuclear hyperbole is a massive grain of Truth:  a handwritten letter is a special, simple, but totally unique gift, capturing a sentiment or feeling or snapshot of a relationship (romantic or platonic) for a moment in time.  Writing letters takes an act of focus and reflectiveness, but as Taki points out, it mustn’t be too thought out; it should flow from the heart.

There’s also great joy in receiving a letter.  I wrote many letters to a former girlfriend, and she loved receiving them; they’d often arrive in the middle of a difficult workweek (and aren’t all workweeks difficult now?), and boost who through another miserable shift.  I have a friend who sends out tons of letters around Valentine’s Day; receiving one of her cards is always a nice reminder of what Valentine’s Day should be.

Of course, like everything now, who has the time?  But therein lies the additional charm of the letter in the rat race of the twenty-first century:  writing a letter by hand—when we could easily have AI conjure up a “letter” for us, ready to copy-paste into an impersonal e-mail—takes time and originality and creativity.  The very act of sacrificing those in the interest of bringing a bit of joy to someone else is the charm of writing letters.

So grab a good pen, some stationary, some stamps, and your address book, and commence a-writin’!

12 thoughts on “Love Letters”

  1. It’s been a long time since I wrote a love letter to Tina. We’ve been pretty much inseparable in our 16 years together so there’s no need. I’d like to hope that other couples write to each other but I doubt it. Most things are done electronically nowadays.

    By the way, who did you choose on Disco Elysium? I reckon you went for the same character we did – the Thinker.

    Poor bloke. I haven’t had a hangover like that in years! 😂

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    • I imagine you write Tina love letters through your actions every day. I am positive she does the same for you!

      Great minds think alike, and your hunch is correct, detective—I chose the Thinker! I’d like to play around with a user-generated class at some point, but I love having such a high Encyclopedia skill. I’ve been putting in two or three hours a night for the past two nights, and with my Spring Break starting tomorrow, I’m looking forward to losing myself in the game for a bit (and doing some overdue spring cleaning).

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  2. Not one for Audre. The language alone would knock her socks off. We’ve had a lot of fun with Garte. We got irate when he wouldn’t serve us! 😂

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  3. Of course you did! 😉

    I didn’t mind the drop in health to see him go postal on the mail box! 😂😂😂

    I wasn’t overly impressed at the drop of health and morale sitting on an uncomfortable chair getting heckled but the box more than made up for it! 😂

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      • You’d have lost it because its reply sapped your spirit.

        I’ve just been reading comments from DE fans on Youtube and most of them seem reluctant to offend Kim saying they hate having him disappointed at them. Tina and I don’t care who we offend. I’ve already told Kim to take a hike and I’ll do it again. I was annoyed because I couldn’t insult the potty mouthed kids at the start and like a good many player, I lost health trying to get the tie from the whirling fan.

        This game is superb.

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        • Hahaha, yes! I love hearing how you and Tina approach the game. I have worked hard to develop a good rapport with Kim. It opens up some interesting dialogue.

          I can’t remember how I avoided damage from the fan; I think I managed to turn it off, lol, but now I’m not sure!

          What I do know is that I stayed up nearly to midnight playing last night. Finally got the body down from the tree—in a very cool way.

          Glad you’re enjoying it! I agree; I haven’t been this immersed in a game since probably Morrowind.

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