h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Though I have had electronic mail in one form or another since the late-1980's, and have sent literally thousands of emails during that time to friends and family, if I want to truly express my feelings I will sit down with my fountain pen and a nice piece of writing paper and craft a letter.

You can tell a lot about a person by the letters they write. One of the most obvious is the fact that they care enough about the topic of the letter and about you to take the time to write it down on paper. They have spent a fair bit of time choosing their words (and perhaps even the paper) to most accurately convey their feelings. A brief, handwritten note can say a lot more than a ten thousand word email.

A letter can also be cherished, squirrelled away in a special box or between the pages of a book, to be read many years later, like little time capsules.

Though you can save an email, it's not tangible like a letter and it prone to system crashes, disk failures and similar calamities. When was the last time you had a piece of paper say "Abort, retry or fail?" when you took it out of the envelope?

With an email, on the other hand, the sender doesn't have to stop to think about what they're writing nearly as long as they would were they to use a pen and paper. Consequently, you can write something that may be misunderstood because you were hasty, even with emoticons to help guide the reader's interpretation.


Email is more analogous to a phone call than a letter because people tend to write as if they were speaking to the person. A letter is more akin to an intimate conversation without any distractions. I always hope to find a handwritten letter when I check my mailbox each day but sadly it's either empty or more frequently full of bills.

This was only a subject of conversation in a recent letter to a friend of mine in a distant town. Though we make the ocassional phonecall, SMS and regularly send each other tidbits in emails, both of us hang-out near the letterbox when we realise it's time for another letter to arrive.

Back when I was still at school I learnt the joy of receiving a letters when I joined a international penpals group and received letters from all over the world.
As a school student, with little disposable income, letters in the mail became more than just communication. A handwritten envelope on my pillow when I came through my bedroom door was like a tiny birthday present...a person outside my family knew I existed and cared enough to spend time creating a letter for me.

I think crafting a letter is right...I know for myself, I take a great deal of delight in finding a particular pen or paper, maybe designing an interesting format. I know the letters between myself and my distant friend are like journals of our lives that can be carried around and kept.

So, I appreciate my SMS and email, don't mind the ocassional phone conversation, but is you really want to get my attention...put it on paper.

Hey Miztres!

My sentiments exactly! By the way, keep an eye on that pillow. I posted something yesterday.

A learning disability in my youth caused me to recieve a failing grade in both writing and spelling for all seven years of elementary school. A sad parade of Xs and Fs preserved in old report cards along with teachers comments that pain me to read. My hand writing is still an embarassing scrawl legible only to myself, I have managed to learn to print clearly enough to be read but still not to be what you would call presentable. Since my schooling took place in the 50s and 60s it was thought that I was just lazy or disrespectful or not trying hard enough when I would mis-spell simple words or scratch out half the words I had written. This of course simply ingrained in me the feeling that my handwriting was an embarassment. My spelling for some reason began to improve in my 20s but only the advent of the computer and e-mail have freed me from the stigma of my scrawled words. I can now communicate with persons of importance in my buisness without embarassment. I can send notes to my friends and family that are easily understood and quick to compose. I can post little essays on discussion boards such as this. Those who are blessed with beautiful handwriting (my daughter but not either of my sons) may find joy in writing notes and letters that I will never know but I have been given the joy of comunication by technology and I am truly grateful. Perhaps handwriting will go the way of the buttonhook, because of my bitter experience with learning to write I have no love for it and would not be upset to see it preserved as an antique handicraft kept alive by private enthusiasts.

I love handwriting. Though, now that I have it, I could never give up my email either. I’m glad that I can do both. Even though, as my penfriends will tell you , my handwriting is not the best in the world.

I’m glad technology has given you a happy solution to your problem. It’s nice to hear the positive side of technology for a change. I work with computers all day, and sometimes I’d just like to kick their smug little screens in.

Why I never knew you had such violent tendencies!