Reading and writing in Óbidos are more than just an old legacy handed down – they are an active cultural practice. Alexandre de Sousa, who writes from the medieval town, describes how ‘literature has become a social practice, not a luxury – it’s bread and wine, the things we share at the table.’
Laura and Irene both speak of their personal relationship with letter writing. Laura is apt to send letters to whoever on her Facebook friends list wants one, while Irene sends long digital letters in the form of emails to a friend in New York. In a beautiful analogy, Laura then compares letter writing to kintsugi.
In this day and age, writing morally calls for recognising that every sentence is written inside a burning house. To write anyway is not an act of purity but an act of responsibility. It is not putting out the fire, but bearing witness to its heat, its smoke, and the people trapped inside.
Today, we discuss pseudonyms, the forces that shape our reading habits, the debate over separating art from artist, and the Ukrainian letter-writer who believes that ‘some nations, if they read more books from other nations, would feel less inclined to attack their neighbours with rockets.’
Nowadays, the ‘muse’ has a more tangible sense. Its divine connotations have evolved over time, yet the compulsive power of inspiration remains inexplicable. And it is this power that permeates Soviah Khoriyati’s letter in the upcoming print issue of The Letters Page, where she relates the discovery of her muse Ibu E.
The more letters we write, the more moments we capture, and the more fragments we preserve, the closer letters come to revealing our complete identity. Letters become our own personal archives, splintered across time and space. Here, I leave you with a splinter of me.
To trace the origins of letters is to trace humanity’s evolution, from necessity to narrative, from survival to expression. Letters serve as proof that human culture hinges on exchanged words between people and the faith that understanding can cross time – something illuminated by the upcoming print issue of The Letters Page.
Letters are important to our latest contributor, Rachael Smart. So much so, that she will send them even when she’s unsure whether they will ever reach their intended addressee. When I ask who received her most recent missive, she reveals that it was Dolgellau, a mountain town in Wales. Or, at least, she hopes it was received.
The return to ‘shed season’ provides our latest contributor, Nicola Varley, with ‘that bit of space to think and drift off and daydream’, discovers the The Letter Page’s Maria Rocha, as she sits down with Nicola to discuss the creative process, her hopes for the future… and cat pictures.
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