Comments on: Emails of a… http://www.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/ Meditations on strategy and life Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:25:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Kojisan http://www.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11957 Kojisan Sun, 25 Apr 2010 21:59:29 +0000 http://dev.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11957 Speaking of letters, I read this review of a biography on Muriel Spark and thought of your blog. A man Spark had an affair with sold her letters to a collector. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/books/review/McGrath-t.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/books/review/McGrath-t.html</a> Speaking of letters, I read this review of a biography on Muriel Spark and thought of your blog. A man Spark had an affair with sold her letters to a collector.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/25/books/review/McGrath-t.html

]]> By: Kojisan http://www.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11956 Kojisan Fri, 23 Apr 2010 08:02:07 +0000 http://dev.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11956 Emails have replaced letters as the modern day correspondence, so maybe in a few more decades when all of the people that wrote the emails are dead there will be more of these types of books published, provided there is still a traditional publishing industry. I enjoyed reading Advice to a Young Wife from an Old Mistress. It's a short little book and is from the perspective of a mistress talking to a new wife, and while it's just written as kind of a one way address, if that book were an email exchange with a new wife's perspective as well, I probably would be interested in reading that. Maybe one of the dangers of email exchanges vs. actual letter writing with pen and paper involves the fact that email is so off the cuff. It's much more unfiltered and way too easy to put the trigger on the 'send' button. When people commit to pen and paper they think about what they've written a bit more, and it takes premeditation to actually fold the letter, put it into an envelope and affix a stamp to it. If I did that with every email I send, I would probably only send about one third of the emails I send. Yet with that said there are many people I correspond with via email and have been for years and prefer writing to the phone. Sometimes I get so sick of writing but it's like my primary form of communication... I never even got a 'birds and bees' conversation from my mom-- just a letter slid under my door, and she was down the hall. Emails have replaced letters as the modern day correspondence, so maybe in a few more decades when all of the people that wrote the emails are dead there will be more of these types of books published, provided there is still a traditional publishing industry.

I enjoyed reading Advice to a Young Wife from an Old Mistress. It’s a short little book and is from the perspective of a mistress talking to a new wife, and while it’s just written as kind of a one way address, if that book were an email exchange with a new wife’s perspective as well, I probably would be interested in reading that.

Maybe one of the dangers of email exchanges vs. actual letter writing with pen and paper involves the fact that email is so off the cuff. It’s much more unfiltered and way too easy to put the trigger on the ‘send’ button. When people commit to pen and paper they think about what they’ve written a bit more, and it takes premeditation to actually fold the letter, put it into an envelope and affix a stamp to it. If I did that with every email I send, I would probably only send about one third of the emails I send. Yet with that said there are many people I correspond with via email and have been for years and prefer writing to the phone.

Sometimes I get so sick of writing but it’s like my primary form of communication… I never even got a ‘birds and bees’ conversation from my mom– just a letter slid under my door, and she was down the hall.

]]> By: Alex http://www.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11955 Alex Thu, 22 Apr 2010 22:50:23 +0000 http://dev.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11955 From some of your posts, it sounds like you know some pretty notable people. If you don't mind me asking, what's stopping you from compiling such a collection yourself? From some of your posts, it sounds like you know some pretty notable people. If you don’t mind me asking, what’s stopping you from compiling such a collection yourself?

]]> By: Ryan Holiday http://www.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11954 Ryan Holiday Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:33:04 +0000 http://dev.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11954 "The Mansion of Many Apartments is a metaphor that the poet John Keats expressed in a letter to John Hamilton Reynolds dated Sunday, 3 May 1818." The letter is the source of the idea, not the allusion to it in a poem published a year later. “The Mansion of Many Apartments is a metaphor that the poet John Keats expressed in a letter to John Hamilton Reynolds dated Sunday, 3 May 1818.” The letter is the source of the idea, not the allusion to it in a poem published a year later.

]]> By: chris http://www.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11953 chris Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:12:37 +0000 http://dev.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11953 Not emails, but faxes... <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Tea-Creation-Business-Personal/dp/0385420579" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Tea-Creation-Business-Personal/dp/0385420579</a> Not emails, but faxes…

http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Tea-Creation-Business-Personal/dp/0385420579

]]> By: jhl http://www.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11952 jhl Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:29:03 +0000 http://dev.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11952 Along the same veign as what you're asking about: <a href="http://myrsky.net/faust3/danimal-archive" rel="nofollow">http://myrsky.net/faust3/danimal-archive</a> Along the same veign as what you’re asking about: http://myrsky.net/faust3/danimal-archive

]]> By: Jbow http://www.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11951 Jbow Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:08:21 +0000 http://dev.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11951 regarding the Keats letter, the wiki says those ideas are in fact expressed in The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream... but I get the point Great email conversations will no doubt be published.... I think people will also start OKing the publishing of their entire gmail accounts (chats and all) after they die regarding the Keats letter, the wiki says those ideas are in fact expressed in The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream… but I get the point

Great email conversations will no doubt be published…. I think people will also start OKing the publishing of their entire gmail accounts (chats and all) after they die

]]> By: Alex http://www.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11950 Alex Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:22:33 +0000 http://dev.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11950 Link to Old Gorgon Graham ebook <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12106" rel="nofollow">http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12106</a> Link to Old Gorgon Graham ebook http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12106

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11949 Anonymous Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:17:02 +0000 http://dev.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11949 Letters from a Stoic were almost certainly written for publication and were one of Seneca's major literary accomplishments in his lifetime. It is, in truth, a compilation of private essays more than the record of an actual correspondence. More analogous to a blog than an email exchange. -Alex Letters from a Stoic were almost certainly written for publication and were one of Seneca’s major literary accomplishments in his lifetime. It is, in truth, a compilation of private essays more than the record of an actual correspondence. More analogous to a blog than an email exchange.

-Alex

]]> By: Michael Clapp http://www.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11948 Michael Clapp Thu, 22 Apr 2010 11:42:05 +0000 http://dev.ryanholiday.net/emails-of-a/#comment-11948 I know it's not as profound as some of the people you were envisioning, but there is book of the e-mails between Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan over the Red Sox World Series winning season. I think it's in the same vein as what you are referring to. I know it’s not as profound as some of the people you were envisioning, but there is book of the e-mails between Stephen King and Stewart O’Nan over the Red Sox World Series winning season. I think it’s in the same vein as what you are referring to.

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