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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 6 of 6. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by noa on July 21, 2000, at 12:56:39
Have any of you ever seen the film 84 Charring Cross Road, or read the book? It is about a correspondence relationship that develops between an American woman and a man who runs a bookshop in England.
I have never seen the movie, but I just reread the book. It is an quick and easy read, just a collection of letters exchanged over about 20 years. It is by Helene Hanff, who was a tv writer in the fifties and sixties.
She started a correspondence with a London bookshop, inquiring about an out of print book. Over the course of 20 years or so, she and the store's employees, mostly one employee, but also others as well as his wife, and a neighbor, and after his death, his daughter.
The letters are very emial-like in style. Well, Helene's letters are, the bookshop people are less so. All the letters are fairly brief. Helene often ignores capitalization and writes in informal syntax. She gets very friendly quickly, and is very expressive in a conversational way. She uses all-caps to shout. She teases and uses sarcasm a lot.
At one point, she writes to a friend who is living temporarily in London, and tells her that though she envies her ability to go to the store and meet the people in person, that she suspects that despite her forwardness in her letters, she would probably go into the store, spend a few hours there and leave without ever telling people who she was!
This sounded very much like the internet phenomenon: bold interactions in writing, timid in person.
I started to wonder if Helene Hanff had a bit of social phobia herself. One gets the impression of her holing up in her apartment a lot, as she complains about the idea of venturing out to book stores, etc. as being a major chore, and says she much prefers puschasing the books by mail from this store. But she mentions being in a Democratic Club, being the only woman there, and I think she says she got elected president. Still, I don't know how structured a club it is, that could be significant in terms of her social ease there.
Whether she was socially anxious or not, I also thought she would love the internet. I want to find out if she ever got to use the internet before her death in 1997. She seems like she would be thrilled with it, and would be an avid ebay user (love of old books) and frequent emailer and perhaps also a bulleting board user or chatter.
There are a couple of personal web pages on Helene Hanff (don't you just love the internet!!!).
She died in 1997 at age 79. I have written to one of the web site owners to ask if HH ever got online. I'll let you know.
Posted by dove on July 21, 2000, at 15:13:34
In reply to 84 Charing Cross Rd: Email style letters Pre Email, posted by noa on July 21, 2000, at 12:56:39
Yes Noa, I've been trying to recall the name and author of that book forever! My grandma read it to me when I was a youngin' and I just adored it. I would follow along as she read aloud, laying across the painful and ancient steel-spring bed, elbows planted firmly with chin resting on my hands, and eyes glued to the delightfully expressive text of this ongoing and mutating relationship so detached from my personal reality and life at that time.
It awoke something inside my imagination that just soaked up the ambience, I so desired to be part of this lovely occupation that crossed oceans and nationalities. To be occupied with yellowed pages of old-letter set print, flowery script too intricate to actually read but beautiful none-the-less. To be always surrounded by musty gorgeous books. To observe the strange, eccentric, and odd, in both book and person. To be detached, yet so close, to be intimate and yet so very guarded.
I dreamt of England, her coal stained buildings covered by a damp chill blanket of fog, always dimming the yellow-vapor street-lamps as Dickens-esque street urchins scuffle about with their big hungry eyes and scrawny asymmetrical limbs. All the while, my Grandma kept reading, turning this page, the next, and the one after that, her velvet voice a distant thrum in my dream world's ears. And my eyes would grow heavy for once in my life :-) as I drifted off to sleep dreaming of writing, and books, and partaking of distant conversations with very intriguing and unusual people.
But as I said, I can't remember many details from the book, but I will be tracking it down for another read. Thank you *so* much Noa, you've reminded me of such beautiful memories. I am very blessed!!! Sometimes we forget the small things, the pearls hidden beneath the grimy crust. The core of what we find pleasurable and comforting often rest there, hidden and forgotten. Lovely lovely thoughts going out your way (((Noa)))
dove
Posted by noa on July 21, 2000, at 15:30:52
In reply to Re: 84 Charing Cross Rd: Email style letters Pre Email, posted by dove on July 21, 2000, at 15:13:34
Dove, wow.
I had read the book about 10 years ago, and remembered the title but not the author's name. I decided to find it and reread it because I was trying to think of an analog for internet-based friendships, and I decided it must be similar to pen pal friendships. Then I remembered the book, and decided to see if there were any parallels.
Then, I went looking for info on her because I wanted to know if she lived into the internet era. She died only 3 years agok, so maybe she did become an electronic communicator. I found 2 sites devoted to Helene Hanff. Here are the addresses, in case you are interested:
Posted by Rach on July 21, 2000, at 23:59:13
In reply to Re: 84 Charing Cross Rd: Email style letters Pre Email, posted by noa on July 21, 2000, at 15:30:52
> Dove, wow.
>
> I had read the book about 10 years ago, and remembered the title but not the author's name. I decided to find it and reread it because I was trying to think of an analog for internet-based friendships, and I decided it must be similar to pen pal friendships. Then I remembered the book, and decided to see if there were any parallels.
>
> Then, I went looking for info on her because I wanted to know if she lived into the internet era. She died only 3 years agok, so maybe she did become an electronic communicator. I found 2 sites devoted to Helene Hanff. Here are the addresses, in case you are interested:
>
> http://freespace.virgin.net/angela.garry/hanff.html
>
> http://www.totalswing.com/jim/hanff.htm
Posted by Janice on July 22, 2000, at 23:10:32
In reply to Re: 84 Charing Cross Rd: Email style letters Pre Email, posted by dove on July 21, 2000, at 15:13:34
hello dove,
you're sentences have a way of drawing me in so much so I forget myself for a few moments. And that is always a great pleasure for me - to forget myself in someone else's words.
Please don't be scared off of Topamax. This month (month 2 on Topamax) has been a PMS dream. a hysterectomy? A lady Karen B, is seeing a specialist soon about her PMS - actually it is considered a separate disorder when the PMS is so bad. A man was posting about his wife a month or two ago - I believe she had to follow a diet.
Me I'm sticking with the disorders I have, don't need no more initials behind my name. Plus the pill is working.
Great to see you posting again, Janice
Posted by noa on July 25, 2000, at 12:17:22
In reply to Thanks for sharing - I'm going to have a read! nm, posted by Rach on July 21, 2000, at 23:59:13
Well, I rented the movie over the weekend.
As Anne Bancroft plays her, she does NOT seem to have any social phobia. On the contrary, she plays her as quite gregarious.
In the film, it is clearer that her reasons for not braving the lines at the post office (for money orders vs. sending cash by mail) and going the the bookstores, is that she feels it a waste of time.
Also, in the film, they hint at a boyfriend or husband lost to the war, which hints at a reason she is alone.
The movie is rather uneventful. I enjoyed it, because of my interest in the book. But I can see how it wasn't a smash success, because not much happens in it.
This is the end of the thread.
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