In the video they talk about the features of the magazine and he spends a bit of time on the letters page and one thing that is missing from the internet is that comment sections and fora have not faithfully replaced the dynamic of letters to the editor. They were an artform of their own. I pursued it (admittedly) under various names with some success in prior decades.
They were refereed, the constraints of brevity and civility had the effect of refining thoughts down to their essential pith and gravity while elevating the discourse and the reader. The internet has not replaced that feeling of reading a weekend edition in a corner cafe, finding your devastatingly understated opening salvo after "Sir,..." the customary harbinger, and then, dragon slain, coffee in saucer, all was right in the world. Indeed, we were the lunatics. I wish these upsetting people luck.
They were refereed, the constraints of brevity and civility had the effect of refining thoughts down to their essential pith and gravity while elevating the discourse and the reader. The internet has not replaced that feeling of reading a weekend edition in a corner cafe, finding your devastatingly understated opening salvo after "Sir,..." the customary harbinger, and then, dragon slain, coffee in saucer, all was right in the world. Indeed, we were the lunatics. I wish these upsetting people luck.