Ria Lina: A Litany of Letters

Written by: Ria Lina
Published: Friday 19th August 2016

Ria Lina's Fringe show this year is about how she has decided that she must record everything that she wants her daughter to know, just in case the unthinkable happens and she isn't able watch her grow up. In this blog post though, Ria suggests 'open letters' are a bad idea...

We're an arrogant lot aren't we? Humans in the West in particular. We've championed the rights of the individual to such an extent that we actually think people are interested in what we have to say. The internet is mainly to blame, with Twitter and Snapchat giving us an initial, if fleeting, voice; at least on Facebook our musings are semi-confined to our 'friends'.

Celebrity can also be forgiven for thinking that we wish to listen. In days of yore it was the intellectuals, the thinkers, that we paid heed to, consuming their knowledge in the form of essays, talks and letters. Nowadays, it is the burden of the known to highlight issues for the unknown regardless of whether they know anything on the subject, or heaven forbid, care; and via any medium possible.

Of late, that medium very much seems to be the open letter. A letter written from one prominent person to another (or in some cases, a soon-to-be-prominent-person-because-of-the-letter-they-wrote to an-already-prominent-person). It is a statement of opinion: one that the author wishes to be known to have. Often, the author actually cares more about the audience's reaction than the recipient's - as evidenced by the fact that they didn't send the letter directly - but published them instead. Quite prominently. So that everyone could read it.

But wait! I hear you cry. Of course the recipient will receive it, they probably have an assistant with a Google Alert on their phone, or a publicist. And I say to you: the whole point of a good assistant/publicist is to specifically make sure such a letter is never actually seen by the intended. So the whole exercise is really pointless. Hammers are still getting licked.

But why an open letter anyway? When did this become a 'thing'? Letters used to be a true artform, the private outpourings of one individual to another. And they tended to be based in love. The personal outpourings from the bottom of one heart to the mind and heart of another. And there are so many fabulous examples of love letters in history, from Jimi Hendrix to Napoleon, that are all the more poignant for having been kept private all these years. Who doesn't love a good root around in someone else's relationship even if both are long dead?

Ah! But again Ria, you forget all the letters that are written not to celebrities about how to lick sledgehammers naked, but to loved ones that are either dead, dying or about to hypothetically survive the writer themselves. Not to mention all the letters written to one's past or future self, meaningful in their own paradoxical ways.

Ah! But I don't, I quickly respond. I haven't forgotten any of those. How can I? They are everywhere. And not even handwritten or teared-upon as any good letter should be. But typed and printed, very kindly, by the magazine supplement of the Sunday-Papers-Are-A-Dying-Breed-Gazette. And again, these are a monster of a product, designed to reflect light back onto the author the best way they can - by shining out at them from an LED backlit computer screen. Are they truly the innermost convolutes of a tormented reflective soul looking for peace through the avoidance of the same mistakes in others? Are they fuck. They are self-indulgent wank.

A letter needs to be personal, heartfelt, considered, earnest. Ideally it is handwritten, dated for posterity, and NEVER intended for publication (if someone else chooses to down the line, well that is a different matter). If you're still not sure how or who to write to, or you worry that it isn't natural, that you aren't skilled or educated enough for such a personal endeavour, then fret not. Instead, go and find your mother and I will guarantee that she will still have the first letter you ever wrote to her. In an unsteady hand, spelling barely legible you will see how exactly how easy it is to write the most cherished letter in your family's history... you just need to write like nobody's reading. Get it right, and nobody, but the intended, ever will.

'Ria Lina: Dear Daughter' is at Gilded Balloon at 9:15pm until the 29th August. Listing