The Lost Art of the Letter

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On Monday night, I watched an item on BBC News about a new Van Gogh biography that attempts to explode the legend that the troubled artist committed suicide. The primary research materials have been the thousands of letters left by Van Gogh and it got me thinking. So many biographies rely on correspondence either written to, by or about the figure in question, and letters usually provide the largest body of material due to their inherent "keepsake" nature. Call me a Luddite, but there's something irresistable about the letter. Emails don't make that satisfying "thwap" sound on the doormat. They don't have the same tangible feel, and they don't feature random doodles. The lack of handwriting makes them so impersonal.

It did make me wonder exactly what form future biographies will take. Will they quote casual tweets as an indicator of a person's mental wellbeing? Will access be granted to inboxes to allow researchers to comb through years of spam and Facebook notifications? Will blog posts become the favoured means of communication, replacing the personal correspondence of a beloved or notorious figure? As our private lives become increasingly public through the use of social media...will there even be a place for the biography?

Seven Random Facts About Icy

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I've been tagged for another Versatile Blogger award. This is the third time I've had it, after both Danielle LaPaglia and Grace Motley handed it out, but now the awesome Tony Noland has bestowed it too. So here you go.

Seven More Things About Icy
1. My favourite Disney character is Sleeping Beauty's Maleficent.

2. I actually have the beginnings of a grey streak, but I will continue to dye my hair until it gets wider and I can pretend to be Rogue.

3. I began my DJ career by playing music for hen nights, corporate functions and birthday parties at a restaurant in Newcastle.

4. I have a deep-seated loathing for PowerPoint.

5. I love gunslingers, highwaymen and cavaliers but I find pirates to be uncouth.

6. I find few sounds more full of despair than the sole caw of a lonely crow on a wet afternoon.

7. If I won a considerable amount on the lottery, I really would consider the construction of an underground supervillain lair. And all my henchmen would be dressed as Abba's Benny and Bjorn.

You can read my original seven points here. Now I'm tagging Ian Collings, Rebecca Clare Smith and Lady Antimony...

Random musing on melancholy

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I'm pretty convinced that there's nothing more melancholy than the caw of a lone crow on a wet Monday in December.