September 25th, 2023 to October 1st, 2023
This week, we focused on love letters from World War 2. Now, for me personally, I was a little excited to go into this portion, however, the audio format did not do it for me. With physical letters, I like that I have the ability to reread, annotate, etc. whatever parts of the letter caught my eye, and I can immediately put down my thoughts. I can’t exactly do the same for audio recordings, which while I do like to listen to, and found My Dear Bessie entertaining, for academic purposes, this is not useful for me, as it makes it difficult to note the interesting aspects and portions of it and add my own commentary.
However, I did like hearing about the “Dear John/Jane” letters on Tuesday. I found it interesting how that one man, who preserved his “Dear John,” kept it, whereas other men on his ship would get together and burn them to protect their manhood, in a sense. It’s a different method of coping with a breakup, and I suppose, one of the less directly aggressive ways. I suppose it also could have acted as bonding between the men of the ship. You were hurt, I was hurt, we were hurt, so let’s figure this out together. Although, perhaps not directly in that line of thought, but more in a manly expression of, “We don’t care that these women broke our hearts, so let’s burn the letters to express our hidden heartbreak” (Also, not direct line of thought, I’m assuming).
As mentioned earlier, I did enjoy listening to My Dear Bessie. At certain times, it felt as though I were reading a (slightly spicy) Jane Austen novel due to the way Bessie and Chris both wrote, although we certainly saw more from Chris’ perspective. The pair felt very connected through their letters, even though they hadn’t seen each other face-to-face in years, and slowly fell in love through their letters. I like that idea, of falling in love, not by looks or what they may give face-to-face, but by intellectual thought and sharing of experiences. I’d like to think that’s what their early letters were like. However, there were certain parts that did feel a bit too intimate to listen to or read. They weren’t exactly expecting thousands of other people to listen to their love story either, leading to Chris detailing how badly he wants her hundreds of miles away. There were many vaguely explicit details from both parties. It felt a bit like I shouldn’t have been there!
Back to my essay predicament, I have also introduced in my head the idea of queer love letters from the era, but I’m unsure of how to find those resources where I could personally read them. My next best bet are Last Letters of the Holocaust from the Soviet Union. I think I do want to explore the Soviet Union, but I’m not sure what aspect I want to explore. Perhaps my meeting with Annaliese tomorrow will help me decide my school of thought so I can begin writing. I will likely also have to have another appointment with her in the days leading up to the turning in of the essay, to fix-up any details or delivery. Here’s hoping!
