Truly, Madly, Deeply (Savage Garden)
“I’d be your dream
I’d be your wish…
I’d be your fantasy…
I’d be your hope…be your love…
Be everything that you need…”
“I’d be your dream
I’d be your wish…
I’d be your fantasy…
I’d be your hope…be your love…
Be everything that you need…”
Good Monday morning everyone! This is my first day on the DIK island so I thought we would talk about love letters.
Love letters are awesome. We love to write them, we love to receive them and like the voyeurs we are, we like to read love letters from fictional characters in books and from people in real life. I like to call them, Passive Emotional Artistry or PEA for short. Heh. Love letters can bring two people closer, help to smooth over bad mojo, facilitate a little bedroom action and if we have learned nothing else from romance novels, we have certainly learned love letters are a powerful blackmail tool. If you are reading a romantic suspense they can also be a reason for murder and mayhem. Tribute anyone?
We can learn a lot about people and our past by reading their PEA’s. You can read a bunch of famous peoples love letters here, ( Click it. Don't be lazy DIK's) James Joyce wrote some dirty, dirty, naughty love letters to his wife Nora, here.
Here is the first sentence of one of his letters:
"Dublin 2 December 1909 …………………………. My love for you allows me to pray to the spirit of eternal beauty and tenderness mirrored in your eyes or fling you down under me on that softy belly of yours and fuck you up behind, like a hog riding a sow, glorying in the very stink and sweat that rises from your arse, glorying in the open shape of your upturned dress and white girlish drawers and in the confusion of your flushed cheeks and tangled hair.”
Holy canoli! Cue the pron music. I wonder if she was flattered. Nothin’ says lovin’ like talking about the stink and sweat of your wife’s arse, or comparing your making sexy time, to farm animals while doing her from behind. Apparently he also had a panty fetish. If he was still alive today, he could shop here.( Prolly should not click that if you are at work) See how much we learned about James Joyce and his wife in just one sentence?
I love it when the books I read have love letters in them written to and by the H/H. Some of them are quite beautiful like the one from Wentworth to Simone in Persuasion by Jane Austen. This is my favorite part of that letter:
“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own, than when you almost broke it eight years and a half ago.”
In Naked In Death by JD Robb, Roarke leaves Eve a PEA in the form of a message cube. Sort of a high tech form of love letter, and very few words, but no less touching and meaningful to Eve. I am reading At Grave's End by Jeaniene Frost, in it Bones gave Cat a PEA but I won’t spoil it for those who have not read it yet. Read it. It's good!
My husband and I used to write love letters to each other on full sheets of paper or stationary when we were dating and when we were first married. Now, after 25 years of marriage, we write post-it-notes. Why just the other day, I stuck a post-it-note to his wallet that had one word on it. “Trash”. He wrote back, “I might be easy, but I’m not trash”. Ha ha. He’s so clever. See what I did there? I was just reminding him to take out the trash and I actually wrote a PEA and didn’t know it. Moving, isn’t it? I think we should save it and pass it down to our grandkids and great-grandkids. Okay, maybe not. But my point is, is that PEA’s can come in all shapes, sizes and mediums. For our 20th anniversary, my hubby made a CD or DVD, I don’t know, for me. He scanned in pictures of our engagement, wedding, our children growing up and all the milestones of our 20 years together and put it to music in a Power Point (nerd) slide presentation. It made me cry buckets and I loved it. I still pull it out to watch it from time to time and I still cry buckets each and every time. I think it’s the best gift he ever gave me.
And to men who think writing a love letter is “girly”, I say this, romantic gestures do not make you less manly and the man that told you that is sad on the inside.
So tell me, what is your favorite PEA? Is it from a book, from a lover, lyrics in a song, or is it the note you got in Kindergarten from Tommy R. whose love you spurned when you checked “no” and then he threw a chair at you? And then you wanted to choke the little SOB because nobody throws a chair at you and lives... OR was that just me?
Tomorrow I will list my books I brought to the island and Wednesday we will talk about the heroes. Have a great day!
*Disclaimer- The formatting of this post may be wonky. I don't know what the hell I'm doing.
12 comments:
Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die."
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
Got that in a card from tall and blond once. He is a sweet.
My Great Aunt has many letter that were all left to my Mum and we've been transcribing them as they're becoming faded and they're too beautiful to loose. We discovered some love letters and boy, they're just a delight and a treasure. Here is a little bit for you, written sometime in 1972 to her from a lover...
-----
Sweet,
You know the price of life for me. It may be the same for you. PLACIDITY Me and placid? Placid?! it goes on about time they'd spent in Sabah and then... You were
“ The fire in the blood
And the dew in the morning”.
Still are.
But placidity? Placidity!
There’s a furious tension between us. Always.
On my side anyway. Still is.
When we are quarrelling. Making love.
Arguing. Anytime.
------
Gorgeous. I love this furious passion, the rest of the letter is also interesting, but those bits are just something a little special. She was such an incredible woman and I can imagine she absolutely caused such passion in some man.
Wicked cool post!
I think of James Joyce, going blind, living his life thru his other senses. Boy, he sure makes up for it, doesn't he? wow
3 months after we started dating my husband started grad school in VT (I'm in CA)
This was the days before email/internet was common. Our budgets allowed 1ce a week phone calls, but all our other communication was done by letter. For 2 years. (he was home Christmas/summer and I visited 1ce a year)
When I think of our courtship, I think of the box of letters I have from him. He also has a box of my letters.
Awesome, thought provoking post! :-)
Sarah~ I love Yeats. Haven't read him since college. Good job Tall and Blonde!
Isn't great when we find great keepsakes from our family like that? It gives us insight to them that we never would have had otherwise. My Grandmother has all the letters that my grandfather wrote her while he was in overseas during WW2. She hasn't shared them with us yet but I would love to read them.
Thanks for sharing that!
Renee~ Re James Joyce. I know! I was shocked when I read those. You know what's interesting is that his letters are still around but her replies to him aren't. He probably threw them away. I would have liked to seen those.
How wonderful that you both still have those letters. Because of email handwritten letters are probably going to become a thing of the past so I think that makes them more cherished.
Thanks for commenting! I enjoyed writing this post it stirred up some good memories for me too.
My parents write notes to each other all the time. It makes my heart go pitty pat anytime I see them. :)
I loved that letter Bones left for Cat (won't spoil). So heartfelt and sexy. Made me sniffle. :)
And the letter Wentworth left for Anne in Persuasion. Le sigh.
Hub and I were at separate universities so we would write to each other once a week. My letters ran to 6 or more sides of A4 and I would tell him how much I missed him, how much I loved him. He would write half to 1 side of A4, telling me about his lectures, with only a short 'I love you' at the end. I still treasure the letters because they suit his personality to a T. He's not romantic, or effusive or able to express his emotions but I know he loves me.
Aw. My love is dyslexic (which sounds like a song title) and he doesn't trust himself to write...but he sends me emails when he travels and I know that the words: I miss you and think of you often...are actually filled with LUST.
It's true!
Kim. Excellent post. Love that Joyce. He was a slippery one.
Bridget~ Awwww. That's so sweet. You need to grab those notes and save them!
Wasn't AGE great? I love Bones.
Jenre~ I think those short notes that they take the time to write are the best. It shows they were thinking of you even though they were busy. At least that's my excuse for the post-it-notes. :)
LB~ Hiya! My daughter is dyslexic so I know how that is. It's like pulling teeth to get her to write or read anything...and it's painful for all involved. So I know means alot when he sends you those lusty emails. Wouldn't you be surprised though if he started writing letters like Joyce? I swear, I didn't even know people used words like those in the early 1900's.
Kim! Great post. I love, love, love Love Letters. I think letters sent with love...whether they're from a lover or a sibling/parent/friend are items to be cherished forever.
My hubby writes I love you in his b-day and anniversary cards to me and that's it. Not a writer at all. But I have to say it means the world to me to have those cards that I've saved over the years.
Joyce - wow. Just wow.
Tracy~ Thanks! And yup I totally agree. I used to stick notes in my kids lunch boxes when they were little. That and stickers all over their sandwich baggies and juice boxes.
I keep cards too! I'm a packrat.
Did you read all those that Joyce wrote? He had alot of interesting things going on there. A little BDSM and a lot of paranoia when she didn't write him back...you know...sadly, I think those letters are the only thing I have ever read by him.
I did read it all. Again, Wow. It would have been great to see her responses to these letters.
oh and btw - you did great on the formatting - no worries. :)
great post!! I like that Savage Garden song.
And Wentworth's letter to Anne in Persuasion is my all time favorite!!
Me and hubby used to write love letters back and forth when we were dating *sigh*
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