The Marketers’ Senate

Do you think anyone has declared moving type to be the end of
civilization in the same way people said typewriters were
killing letter writing, telephones were isolating people, and
television and the Internet were isolating young folk from other
people? Did anyone rouse the mob to drive out that wicked
Johannes Gutenberg and his dreadful machine? Certainly the
people who said that telephone was killing the art of letter
writing have yet to suggest that email is bringing back that
same historic art.

Obviously, few emails are works of art, and you can’t write and
email in a graceful flowing hand on beautiful soft crème paper
with an intense and delightful color of ink. But then, most
people can’t write in a graceful flowing handwriting, and never
could, even with the right pen, right ink and right paper. On
the other hand, what people CAN put in an email is steadily
expanding. We already have the option of colored text,
delightful fonts, pictures, and even animated pictures in the
email. The fanciest handwriting on the most expensive paper
never managed moving images. A friend of mine has picked an
appealing color and an attractive ‘handwriting’ script and used
them for her name in her ’sig’ file. This is so every message
she sends can be ’signed in a graceful flowing hand.’ When you
email people you can send all of your friends an interesting
article or photos of your newborn baby without delay and without
sending photocopies of the original.

Clearly we have all the tools to revive the art of letter
writing. Do we also have the patience and the artistry? Are we
willing to expend that artistry and time on emails? Or, are
emails doomed by their humble and colorless beginnings to
forever being the brief notes of the electronic world, while
‘the artistry’ is poured into blogs and web pages with their
larger readership and longer life?