The Chief Pleasure of the Correspondance

«He wrote me long letters on lined legal-pad sheets, and I wrote him short typewritten letters. A correspondance is a kind of love affair. It takes place in a mall, closed, private space—a sheet of paper within an envelope is its vehicle and emblem—and it is tinged by a subtle but palpable eroticism. When we write to someone regularly, we begin to look forward to his letters and to feel increasing emotion at the sight of the familiar envelope. But if we are honest with ourselves we will acknowledge that the chief pleasure of the correspondance lies in its responsive aspect rather than in its receptive one. It is with our own epistolary persona that we fall in love, rather than with that of our pen pal; what makes the arrival of a letter a momentous event is the occasion it affords for writing rather than for reading. »

Janet Malcolm, The Journalist and the Murderer