Lately we’ve been reading other people’s mail. Not only those among us with NSA security clearances, but even the average person is suddenly privy to the epistolary activity of strangers. Why? Because of the soaring popularity of the “Open Letter.” Long a useful communications tool, the Open Letter is having its moment in the digital sun. Indeed, the whole public sector Internet could be renamed the OpenLetterProject–for what’s a Facebook post or a Tweet if not a message in a bottle hoping to be found? And found again and again? Singer Sinead O’Connor’s Open Letter to entertwerker Miley Cyrus caused a sensation last week, with its textbook mix of admiration and admonition, its passive-aggressive maternalism. “You make great records,” O’Connor wrote, so don’t be such a slut. Cyrus pinged back–openly of course–saying thanks for your concern, codger, but Ima do my own thang. Weeks earlier Russian President Vladimir Putin used the same tactical blend (admiration/admonition and, in his case, paternalism) in an open letter to the American people, publishing it in the New York Times. (Granted if you’re writing to 300 million people, “open” is really the way to go.) Americans’ response to Putin? A little like Cyrus’s. Thanks but a…
Émile Zola authored probably the most famous Open Letter, with the unbeatable standard-setting title, J’accuse. And of course there is Paul in the New Testament, forever chastising yet encouraging the likes of the Corinthians. The singer Amanda Palmer, who wants the Miley-Sinead thing to be a threesome, has added her own Open Letters to the current contentious chain of pop star mail. (O’Connor is, at the time of this writing, on her third letter.) But if O’Connor was ostensibly writing to Cyrus, why not–um–write directly to Cyrus? (Is the notion of a private communique just too bizarre for 2013?) Having seen her own celebrity dim over time, O’Connor might be accused (thanks, Emile!) of borrowing some reflective fame from the red hot Cyrus. But O’Connor’s reluctance to court fame after being inundated with it 20 years ago seems like a conscious and unregretted decision. More likely, the older singer used the Open Letter format and the recent example of Cyrus’s performances to assert a larger opinion about debased sexuality–hoping to compel discussion, debate and even change. Paul, for instance, really really wanted the Corinthians to get their shit together. It was probably only a small part of him that wanted to be famous for the advice. The Open Letters of today contain, as they always have, a delicate mix of sincere cause-espousing and self-promotion (hey, that Putin sounds quite sane here, not like the guy who rides bears.) The “unknown” musician Raina Rose hits the right notes in her Open Letter about the Cyrus Affair–which speaks her piece and promotes Caldera, her new release. Try writing one yourself, whoever you are. Surely there’s somebody you want to write to, where it might be satisfying if others listened in. Dear Verizon, Dear NSA, Dear Uncle Phil, Dear Justice Alito, Dear Jonathan Franzen, Dear Nancy Pelosi, Dear Dr. Phil, Dear Santa…
