navin prasad

Has the Internet made communication boring?

Several months ago a blogger by the name of Shaun Usher began a blog called Letters of Note. If you haven't checked it out you really, really should. The concept behind the blog is that every weekday Shaun posts a scan of an old piece of correspondence, along with a transcription of the text. Moreover, the sender and/or recipient of each letter is usually a famous person that figures greatly into history.

I really enjoy the way that Shaun lets each piece stand for itself; at the beginning of each post he may give a small bit of context, but other than that we are left to read the letter and draw our own conclusions. It helps that almost every post is extremely outstanding, bringing history alive with emotion and drama. For example, here is a letter written by Mary, Queen of Scots to her erstwhile brother-in-law hours before she was to be executed.

Tags » writing

• 25 February 2010
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