What is a book, movie, song or piece of art that has moved you to tears?
Have you ever read a book so wonderful, listened to a song so powerful, watched a movie so inspiring, seen a piece of art so moving or listened to a podcast so relatable that you wanted to find the creator to share how much you loved it? Have you ever actually reached out — via email, mail or direct message — and told that person what the work meant to you and how much it meant to you? In “The Case for Writing Fan Mail,” Rachael Bedard, a physician and writer, says that when she’s truly taken with an artist’s work, she lets the person know: when I am activated to the point of mania by a book, essay, song, poem or photograph, I feel the distinct, familiar nausea of desire. And when I’m truly possessed, I say I love you: I write fan mail.
She continues: Writing fan mail creates an opportunity to take pleasure in my own intemperate passions. Articulating what turns me on about beautiful work transforms distant admiration into intimacy. I do not send these letters to receive a response. Instead, my fan mail is correspondence in the same sense that prayers or blessings are correspondence; it is something I do to consecrate a powerful connection, turning reverence into generosity and making no demands of the recipient.
You can write fan mail just to anyone; there is no public work too momentous or too personal to write about. To quote a song performed by the musician Bonnie Raitt (to whom I have written fan mail), “Love has no pride.” Fan mail doesn’t either: Sometimes I’ve no choice but to divulge my heart’s true feelings via the lowly Twitter D.M. or to send a note to someone’s publicly available email, where I know it will go unread. They’re a confession whispered into the wall, cathartic and fulsome because you doubt that anyone is listening on the other side. Done correctly, fan mail is sincere, risking indignity through self-exposure and naïveté. I once admitted to a writer that “I felt affirmed by [your piece] and chastened by it, for not having myself come to such elegant ways of seeing the world.” A few years ago, I worked up the courage to write fan mail to a novelist I had long admired. His most recent book had exhilarated me, and I was sleepless over it. Before I sent this note, I sheepishly asked a dear friend, a much better writer than I, to read it over. She was mortified on my behalf and edited the letter to make it less effusive. Hers was the better version, but before I sent the letter, I restored everything she had cut. This was no time to play coy! Had I tried to be cool, I would have given up the catharsis I was seeking. My students, read the entire essay, then tell me: Have you ever written fan mail — whether an email, a letter or a direct message — to an artist whose work you loved? Why did you want to tell the person what the work meant to you? If you’ve never written fan mail, what do you think has held you back from doing so and pursuing that path? Has Dr. Bedard’s essay persuaded you to reach out more often to the artists and creators whose work you consume — even knowing you might not get a response back? Why or why not? Dr. Bedard says that writing fan mail is a cathartic way for her to build intimacy and connection, and “an opportunity to take pleasure” in her passions. What does writing fan mail do for you? Or, if you’ve never written it, what do you imagine it might do for you?What is a book, movie, show, poem, photograph, podcast, song or other piece of art that has had an profound effect on you? If you were to write fan mail to the creator of that work, what would you say?
She continues: Writing fan mail creates an opportunity to take pleasure in my own intemperate passions. Articulating what turns me on about beautiful work transforms distant admiration into intimacy. I do not send these letters to receive a response. Instead, my fan mail is correspondence in the same sense that prayers or blessings are correspondence; it is something I do to consecrate a powerful connection, turning reverence into generosity and making no demands of the recipient.
You can write fan mail just to anyone; there is no public work too momentous or too personal to write about. To quote a song performed by the musician Bonnie Raitt (to whom I have written fan mail), “Love has no pride.” Fan mail doesn’t either: Sometimes I’ve no choice but to divulge my heart’s true feelings via the lowly Twitter D.M. or to send a note to someone’s publicly available email, where I know it will go unread. They’re a confession whispered into the wall, cathartic and fulsome because you doubt that anyone is listening on the other side. Done correctly, fan mail is sincere, risking indignity through self-exposure and naïveté. I once admitted to a writer that “I felt affirmed by [your piece] and chastened by it, for not having myself come to such elegant ways of seeing the world.” A few years ago, I worked up the courage to write fan mail to a novelist I had long admired. His most recent book had exhilarated me, and I was sleepless over it. Before I sent this note, I sheepishly asked a dear friend, a much better writer than I, to read it over. She was mortified on my behalf and edited the letter to make it less effusive. Hers was the better version, but before I sent the letter, I restored everything she had cut. This was no time to play coy! Had I tried to be cool, I would have given up the catharsis I was seeking. My students, read the entire essay, then tell me: Have you ever written fan mail — whether an email, a letter or a direct message — to an artist whose work you loved? Why did you want to tell the person what the work meant to you? If you’ve never written fan mail, what do you think has held you back from doing so and pursuing that path? Has Dr. Bedard’s essay persuaded you to reach out more often to the artists and creators whose work you consume — even knowing you might not get a response back? Why or why not? Dr. Bedard says that writing fan mail is a cathartic way for her to build intimacy and connection, and “an opportunity to take pleasure” in her passions. What does writing fan mail do for you? Or, if you’ve never written it, what do you imagine it might do for you?What is a book, movie, show, poem, photograph, podcast, song or other piece of art that has had an profound effect on you? If you were to write fan mail to the creator of that work, what would you say?
