by beatriceotto | Sep 22, 2017 | you got mail |
Referring to the letters between Mary Delany and her beloved sister Anne, Molly Peacock aptly describes them as a paper mosaic, given that Mary more or less invented the art of collage. ‘In a way, Mary’s letters to Anne are a paper mosaick of days and weeks,...
by beatriceotto | Sep 1, 2017 | you got mail |
A moving comment on the effects of time and separation, and the hiatus of news caused by war. Firstly, the sorrow and regret of discovering the death of a loved one after months of silence, only thanks to the efforts of strangers. Then the question of how many other...
by beatriceotto | Sep 1, 2017 | you got mail |
When was the last time you received – or wrote – an 18 page letter? I think I have managed to write one or two in my life and that’s even allowing for my quite large handwriting. What was in this letter, completely covered in a tall, straight hand...
by beatriceotto | Sep 1, 2017 | you got mail |
This letter is magical. It is delivered by boat and announces the arrival of another boat at an assignation point. So much promise! May the whole world seem to be open before you. ‘Tonight a letter by boat from her. “I have bought us a twenty-foot cutter,...
by beatriceotto | Sep 1, 2017 | you got mail |
In the 19th century, it was customary to use black-bordered paper and envelopes to inform someone of a death. Here Sebastian finds unused sheets in some forgotten bureau in the vast pile that is Brideshead, and decides to inform his friend Charles of the death of his...
by beatriceotto | Sep 1, 2017 | you got mail |
Letters were a lifeline for people in war, whether fighting it or waiting for someone who was, or simply trying to avoid becoming collateral damage. So, hard to imagine the communication vacuum this short sentence implies; a population essentially held incommunicado....
by beatriceotto | Sep 1, 2017 | you got mail |
It is now so rare to receive a letter (not talking about bills or other officialese, but real letters) that it’s hard to imagine receiving more than could be read at a sitting, let alone being able to stuff a bundle of them in your bag. I sorely miss receiving...
by beatriceotto | May 19, 2017 | paper shaper, you got mail |
You may not have noticed, but air mail envelopes and the corresponding lightweight letter paper are dying out. I am by now resigned to the decline, and am simply stocking up for the duration. A while ago a Brazilian friend visited and offered to bring me some...
by beatriceotto | Jan 19, 2017 | a quote to note, you got mail |
Picasso seems to have had an ambivalent relationship to letters. He tortured himself by reading tirades from his ex-wife, and here, suspends letters in full view, like clothes on a line, to reproach himself. For what? For whatever they accused him of, or for simply...
