
Finding Wisdom in the Letters of Aging Writers - diodorus
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/12/finding-wisdom-in-the-letters-of-aging-writers-samuel-beckett-saul-bellow-elizabeth-bishop/510140/?single_page=true
======
tapan_k
> This year saw the publication of the fourth and final volume of Samuel
> Beckett’s letters, The Letters of Samuel Beckett: 1966-1989, representing
> his correspondence from the age of 60 to his death at the age of 83.

History has many examples of beautiful revelations from letters written by
famous people. I have to wonder what is a modern equivalent of this
phenomenon. People seldom write letters these days, leave alone keep a copy
for posterity. Emails are private, and are unlikely to be opened up for the
general public after the owner is gone. The closest something else gets to
this is bloging. However, the author is cognizant of the fact that she is
writing for public, while a letter is intended to be read by the recipient
alone, thereby influencing the tone accordingly. Is there a way for the future
generations to ever learn from the personal message exchanges of today's
greats?

~~~
logicallee
My personal reaction when I first read about the revelations of the scope of
private email and chat, "every keystroke, know what you are thinking before
you do" collection by spy agencies was: wow. This shitstorm is like Mount
Vesuvius and the world's mails are Pompeii.

As everyone knows, Pompeii was a thriving Roman city that was instantly buried
under volcanic ash by Mt. Vesuvius, in a very dramatic natural disaster. But
it is also a fertile and excellent historical snapshot of people's lives at
that time - historians got to see people frozen in time doing their daily
activities. Juvenile graffiti in classrooms and on the city walls. Everything.
It is sooooo useful historically, despite being a fatal natural disaster.

Likewise I thought that the public revelations of how much state agencies
collected from unsuspecting email users was like a natural disaster, that
removed people's trust.

But I also thought that it would be sooooo cool if in 2000 years historians
got that record. (I think it would be cool for various reasons that I don't
want to get into.)

While perhaps it is good if these collections stop, I hope that future
generations will have complete access to that data store (for example, that it
is not deleted or made inaccessible, like the Library of Alexandria.)

On the much shorter term, one or two decades, though, you are right - it is
very unlikely for, say, Google to release the archived emails of someone who
died 20 or 30 years ago... And of course it is literally state agencies' job
to say they don't even have it. (And they should act like that in every way,
it literally shouldn't make any difference to anyone whether they write
privately or speak in person, etc. Nobody wants to live in a surveillance
state.)

Still, Google does have that information and I am sure their EULA says they
can do whatever they want with it (they're still doing the don't be evil
thing, right?) so it's just a question of whether they would/should do things
like release some part of famous dead people's emails (perhaps to historians,
who can be sensitive to their legacies.)

------
Gobiel
The tone of letters does allow for a more personal and spiritual take on what
is said. As if you were heeding advice from a more experienced close friend of
yours.

More reading: Letters to a Young Poet Moral Letters to Lucilius

