Re: The future of literary correspondence?
Posted by:
calonlan (IP Logged)
Date: 7 August, 2011 07:18PM
K_A_Opperman Wrote: obviously, to alleviate this concern, everything on this site should be backed up on a disc - there is a great deal of highly insightful and valuable first-hand data on this forum - just print it fellas -
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> Part of the trouble is that most writers will have
> no clue in their lifetimes whether or not their
> correspondence will ever be of interest to
> anyone--and of course, it's a little egocentric to
> assume such. I don't currently save what little
> correspondence I send and receive (via email, of
> course); I read it through maybe two or three
> times, depending on the content, leave it in my
> inbox for maybe a few months, then ultimately
> delete it (I suppose if the email were
> particularly interesting, for whatever reason, I'd
> print it out).
>
> I myself do tend to write very, very long emails,
> and they do often contain my thoughts on my own
> writing, and snipets of literary ideas, etc.--but
> I'm just a nobody! (for now, heh heh heh). In all
> probability, I will never be famous, and no one
> will ever care to read my correspondence. I've got
> no reason to save it--but then if, against the
> odds, I somehow did make it into the weird
> literary pantheon, there'd be no trove of
> manuscripts to scour for miscellaneous
> biographical info! I hate to think of a world in
> which we didn't have Smith and Lovecraft's
> letters...I don't think they ever expected anyone
> else to want to read them, but because of the mode
> of the day, their letters ultimately were
> available for people like us to read--thank
> Cthulhu and Tsathoggua! But now...now things have
> changed...