Collected Letters, will they become Collected Emails in the future?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

collected emails of bret easton ellis?

discuss

― Erik, Monday, 26 May 2003 09:02 (twenty-three years ago)

The Collected Text Messages of Jay-Z

― oops (Oops), Monday, 26 May 2003 09:44 (twenty-three years ago)

i keep all mine which aren't actually spams or like "see u at 8 tonite outside the cinema"

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 26 May 2003 09:59 (twenty-three years ago)

but i don't know why — i'm just bad at "throw this away mark s"

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 26 May 2003 10:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I keep all of my messages too, especially the ones i've sent. It's like keeping a diary, if you read the e-mails in chronological order.

― jellybean (jellybean), Monday, 26 May 2003 10:43 (twenty-three years ago)

THIS BUSINESS CARD HAS A SILVER-TIPPED EDGE CALLED 'KISS MY HONEY TINTED BUTTOCKS'... PAL ;-)

― Gordon (Gordon), Monday, 26 May 2003 11:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I think this is a really interesting question! But I don't know how many writers there are whose letters will be deemed worth collecting; the whole concept of The Author has changed a lot. Who's the most recent author to have had his/her letters collected?

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Monday, 26 May 2003 12:24 (twenty-three years ago)

Mine would be a collection of unsent emails coz I write really good 2000 - 3000 word emails about all sorts of stuff and then don't send them.

In fact, I use Outlook Express to store all my stuff in. Coz an email has multiple fields in which I can put keywords in about the main text, I just store everything I want to recall or remember in my Drafts folder.

I love Outlook Express except for when it makes carriage returns double spaced in cut and pasted text. I'd rather it didn't do that.

― toraneko (toraneko), Monday, 26 May 2003 15:05 (twenty-three years ago)

I keep mine too. I've got some from 1997 I think. My hotmail account has been hovering just a few kb from overload for over a year, so I want to download all the old one's onto my computer, but I don't know how to do it except for copy and pasting and that would take forever!

― Dan I., Monday, 26 May 2003 15:23 (twenty-three years ago)

I just cut the funny bits out of my friends' emails and save them in a separate file. I throw all my own emails away. I started doing this about a month after I realised I was too lazy to become a successful author.

― Poppy (poppy), Monday, 26 May 2003 15:27 (twenty-three years ago)

my gran had a collection of groucho marx's letters (= as a book, not she wz his stalker)

haha the nick h0rnby letters (= "u stink grandad!! fk off luv mark s" x 24598762908)

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 26 May 2003 15:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Dan, I feel your pain on the hotmail front. I spent weeks copy-pasting ones from my Yahoo account and still lost lots when I forgot to log in for a month. I'm sure there's loads of demand for a webmail 'download to file' option - it would be the only thing that would make me pay a premium. The one I'm on now (mailup.net / fastmail.fm) promised it as a forthcoming feature on their paid-for tariff - haven't checked to see whether it's available yet.

Yeah, I have most of my emails from about 95 onwards. Even the 'sure see you in the pub at 8' ones. Lost another bunch though when Lotus Notes mucked up some export process without my realising.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 26 May 2003 15:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Interesting one this - I keep all my emails, particularly ones that have any kind of wider significance than just arranging to meet up with mates for a pint.
I was only thinking about this the other day, as I ended up reading through a bunch of my sent mail and realised that there's a lot of personal history from the past couple of years documented right there, which I'd never really realised until sat there scanning through it.
Also worth considering, though (if only coz it will help me out of a romantic ettiquette-type of dilemma): have emails genuinely replaced regular mail?
I've found myself in a position lately where I really need to write a letter to someone (as aforementioned, it's a boy-gal thing), but find myself barely able to hold a pen after years of computer-based work, far less write thousands of legible and coherent words by hand. However, I can't help thinking email is horribly impersonal, so is it acceptable to use email for matters of courtship, or should it still be on paper; old-fashioned and traditional, like?

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 26 May 2003 16:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I wouldn't propose by email, if that's what you're asking.

― slutsky (slutsky), Monday, 26 May 2003 16:48 (twenty-three years ago)

The last guy I was dating broke things off by email.

― JuliaA (j_bdules), Monday, 26 May 2003 16:54 (twenty-three years ago)

ah, that's awful...
anyway, to be honest, I never really had any intention of using email for any level of romantic discourse(!) be it starting something or finishing anything Ð doesn't really seem right for some reason... but this does prove a point in a way: there are certain kinds of correspondence that emails and texts message can't really replace

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 26 May 2003 17:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Email is fine for romantic discourse. Love letters are for sissies. No, I don't think I'd break up with or propose to someone via email, but I sure as hell wouldn't do it by post either. Who proposes by post except soldiers in the war?

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 26 May 2003 17:17 (twenty-three years ago)

Hey... hold up a second, who mentioned anything about proposing?!!!

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 26 May 2003 17:20 (twenty-three years ago)

don't forget stalkers, nick!!

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 26 May 2003 17:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Ah, memories! When I was 15 I broke off my first Way Heavy Duty Relationship via the U.S. Post. Sent the letter on Friday afternoon. Spent the weekend pretending everything was peachy. (this incidentally proved most of Sartre's major points for me: nothing like applied theory) Live and learn, I guess. God, that was stupid.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Monday, 26 May 2003 17:23 (twenty-three years ago)

I won't, mark.

Dave - slutsky did!

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 26 May 2003 17:25 (twenty-three years ago)

or stalking!?!?!?!? I'm a well-balanced individual (despite spending too much time on ilx) who is not a stalker and not about to propose to anyone either!

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 26 May 2003 17:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, right.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 26 May 2003 17:31 (twenty-three years ago)

Julia, the last guy you were dating was a weak piece of human garbage. Or do you still like him?
I toss most of the emails I get, even the personal ones. This is odd since I do consider myself sentimental. I still prefer letters, I guess.

― Bryan (Bryan), Monday, 26 May 2003 17:35 (twenty-three years ago)

last time i come to you lot with questions of modern manners!
nah, on a more serious note, i still think that most things relationship-based etc, shouldn't be carried out via email - therefore it's prob safe to say that there's life in this particular publishing genre yet...

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 26 May 2003 17:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Thanks, Bryan. Your post made me grin. Nah, I'm over him.

― JuliaA (j_bdules), Monday, 26 May 2003 18:01 (twenty-three years ago)

I keep most of my e-mails too. There's something rather satisfying about being able to see My Life In An Inbox.

Dave, I think it's fine. I don't think the medium is the message in this case.

― Anna (Anna), Monday, 26 May 2003 18:58 (twenty-three years ago)

I like the idea of this.

I keep a lot of e-mails I receive but none I send.

I suppose I was relying on others.

whoops.

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 26 May 2003 19:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Jan 23rd, from xxx@comcast.net, to xxx@mac.com, xxx@etc.edu, xxx@sfoo.org:

DUDE WTF, this new something something is FUCKING WICKED
http://link to some new gadget/service/article
I'm gonna go out and fucking blah blah blah with blah and blah like you WOULDN'T BELIEVE blah blah motherfuckers!!
Out!
.sigfile

― Millar (Millar), Monday, 26 May 2003 19:18 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't think the Collected Emails Of Martin Skidmore would be hugely interesting.

Dear Sirs,

Thank you for your kind offer to provide me with enlarged breasts but I believe I will pass on this occasion.

Yours faithfully
Martin Skidmore

After the first several hundred such it might get a bit boring.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 10:30 (twenty-three years ago)

I am a packrat, and e-mails are small. I keep most of them. There are mailing lists that I'm on where I keep everything despite them being archived. (But I don't trust Yahoo, do you?)

― Chris P (Chris P), Tuesday, 27 May 2003 16:46 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

Who's the most recent author to have had his/her letters collected?

Most recent I know of: Robert Crumb!

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 9 September 2005 11:30 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.