Saturday 24 September 2011
The end of history
When I was writing my thesis on Herbert Lewis my main sources were letters, diaries, and newspaper-cuttings. Lewis was a prolific letter writer; he even kept drafts of letters he sent to give an even fuller picture of his correspondence. Lewis' papers are kept at the National Library in Aberystwyth and at the Flintshire Record Office in Hawarden. Anybody can go along and read them, and then offer a different interpretation on his political career than I managed to do. That is history. However, an article by Hunter Davies in The Times entitled 'Lovebirds need letters, not fleeting tweetings' reminded me of the difficulties future historians will have when they try to piece together an interpretation of this age. Davies has published an edited volume of Alfred Wainwright's letters and is now working on a collection of John Lennon's correspondence. He makes the point that letter writing has virtually ceased with the advent of the email and the text. Unless these are printed out (and hardly any ever are) they will be lost to future generations of researchers. In future the hieroglyphics found on walls inside the pyramids will be more accessible that the musings of men and women made in 2011.
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The demise of personal, hand-written letters is incredibly sad, both for the loss of insight on people's lives from a socially historical perspective, but also for our own personal history. I had a collection of letters that had been written by my friends, sisters and particularly a young chap who I dated when I was 17 and he was away at uni. I kept them for years and I enjoyed coming across them, usually when looking for something else, and reading them again, being reminded once more of things I thought I'd forgotten.They were one of the things that got left behind when I got divorced.
ReplyDeleteDigital photography is similar, in a way. I'm sure less photos make it onto paper nowadays, and it's so easy to delete a photo now and regret it afterwards - and no negatives to get a reprint. But I'm now in danger of sounding like an old fart!
it is often said that the email has led to the death of letter writing and the subsequent loss to future historians of this important source. I'm not convinced.
ReplyDeleteNo one will be trawling through my emails in the years to come but I haven't deleted anything other than junk email for six or seven years. With storage so cheap there is no need to delete emails, nor digital photos. With backup so easy, cheap and remote future historians are going to have to sift through so much evidence. Volume will become the problem, not the scarcity.
In the future historians will be able to read not only the email but the whole correspondence linked to it as most people just hit reply, thereby including the previous message. This will enable context to be more accurately appraised. Interestingly so will the the location of the writers be able to be deduced.
Tim's comment Herbert Lewis keeping drafts of letters is telling. Letter writing tends to be more deliberate and considered than dashing off an email in the height of emotion. Perhaps future generations will be able to see the real character rather than the considered one?
Very good comment. It is accessing the data rather than the volume that I meant. Computer language will become difficult to read as the hand of ancient Egyptians. Even more so. Our videos on tape are now almost impossible to watch unless digitalised. Cine film and the like equally hard to access. Which version of Window or word will be vogue in a century from now?
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