The epistolary novel was one of the not bad form in literature . Popular during the 18th century , this bod basically consisted of people write long , longsighted letters to each other , narrating their lives . One of the most famous epistolary novel of all time is Clarissa by Samuel Richardson — which many people study one of the smashing novels in English .
technical variety kill the epistolary novel . Can more technical changes bring it back ?
Update : On Twitter , Paul Weimerjust charge out that Dracula is one of the dandy epistolary novels , something I ’d forgotten since it ’s been so long since I looked at it .
https://gizmodo.com/could-science-fiction-bring-back-the-epistolary-novel-5945685
As far as I can tell , thing like the telephone and the car wiped out the approximation of a novel made up of longsighted letters , between best friends who never meet in person . you may speak to your Quaker all the time , and you may visit each other much more easy than when unlike share of England were like opposite sides of the world . Even different voice of the planet no longer feel as far apart as they once did .
And even if you primarily communicate via email ( or Livejournal posts ) these are n’t formats where you could only send a varsity letter once every few days , forcing you to write one long update . Part of what made the epistolatory novel such addictive reading was the notion that you would catch up with each pressman after a few day had passed , and everything ( well , a few thing ) would be dissimilar . Often , each letter would begin with breathless declarations like , “ So much has happened ! I scarce know where to begin , ” etc .
Every now and then people marvel if the epistolatory novel will make a comeback , thanks to some new development in technology — like , for example , e-mail . I think of reading about several attempts to publish novel that consist wholly of email conversations between citizenry . In 2004 , for deterrent example , Eric Brownwrote a “ Digital Epistolary Novel ” address Intimaciesthat consisted of emails and instant - message conversation , which you had to download special software to take . Around the same time , Lauren Myracle was writingyoung - grownup novels that were wholly in the expressive style of clamant - message chats — books include ttyl , ttfn and l8r g8r . ( One wonders what title she would have prefer if she ’d get up to ten books and already run through kthxbai and brb got 2 pee . )
There have also been try at textbook - message novels , I ’m reasonably sure . And there have been Twitter novels , most notablyMayor Emanuel .
But I also find safe in read that the epistolary novel has n’t experienced a major comeback — and again , I ’m break to blame that on the data format . Greco-Roman epistolary novels were immersive , because writing letters was a bounteous deal . People took their time meter reading and writing letters , and getting mail was a major event . None of this instant - gratification stuff and nonsense . Also , when you read novel by mass like Richardson , you ’re struck by the claustrophobia of these characters , who seldom get to go anywhere themselves . They ’re trap in one place , with one situation they ca n’t scarper , and writing letter to a admirer is literally the only exemption they have . The only privateness , too .
And like I order , there ’s nothing quite as immersive as a good epistolary novel , because the letters draw you into the fabric of someone ’s life and the break between letters make a space in the narration for things to come about .
Back when Clarissa was being adapted for British television , one paper goggle box critic fretted that this was obligate to be a thudding goggle box show — since all it would be was people sit at desk indite to each other . pretty miss the decimal point that the activeness is actually what happens in between the letter - committal to writing , and the missive merely describe the natural action .
So to work , the epistolatory novel must be a dim conversation between two people who never see each other and ca n’t convey in a more interactive fashion . It ’s almost impossible to imagine how those circumstances could arise again . But then again , maybe science fable could make it chance ?
I can think of four unlike science fiction scenarios that could recreate the circumstances of the epistolary novel :
1 ) A retentive blank space ocean trip , with only intermittent communication with home . The more we ’re study about space travel , the more I wonder : will we even be able to communicate across light years ? At Worldcon , we heard from some laborious skill fable author who believe it ’ll be almost impossible to beam subject matter between asterisk system without the signal demean . One could easily imagine a rich - space traveler who ’s only able to send written substance , and only once every calendar week or so . And meanwhile , aboard the distance capsule , they ’re trying to blackmail her into marry the wrong man . ( Well , maybe that part would be tricky to make believable . )
2 ) A post - apocalyptic humankind . Or even a world where energy is suddenly a lot more expensive , so we ca n’t range host farms nonstop and jet around the macrocosm as easily . All you really need to bring back the epistolary novel is to envisage a world without fossil fuel , where we have n’t figured out a inexpensive enough replacement . But it ’s possible that you might need an apocalypse to make this credible , too . In either casing , there are mess of skinny - future cataclysm scenario that could make communicating slow and hard .
3 ) Beaming messages across meter . What if you could receive content from the future , but only intermittently ? Say , once in a while — and they might have to be carefully censored by the temporal non - interference guild before you sire them . Text only , because images might reveal too much .
4 ) A post - Singularity world . Maybe after the Singularity , our brain will be so overclocked we ’ll be capable to air a dozen paragraphs fo text as well as we now send an emoticon ? And there will be a vast revival of the drill of write detailed letters because we ’ll have so much spare Einstein power that we ’ll want an release ?
In any caseful , I trust somebody find a way to revive the epistolatory novel . Even if they have to strike a Modern label with the suffix “ -punk ” in it . The epistolary novel is a uniquely compelling , charming mannikin that relies on a basic paradox about hoi polloi : the harder it is for us to communicate with each other , logistically and otherwise , the more that communication means .
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