Some people have bemoaned that thanks to things like Facebook, Twitter and blogs, the art of letter-writing is dead and gone. That’s not really the case though: I’m a member of the fanzine community, where it’s very much alive.
“fanzine” is short for “fan magazine”. They are periodicals devoted to a favored subject. I’m a member of several devoted to science fiction and I edit one about comic books for instance.
The editorial section is often similar in style to a family newsletter. The main body of an issue could be reviews of books or movies related to the subject or articles of the same nature.
The ‘meat’ of any issue though is the letter section. Readers/subscribers write letters . They give feedback to the editor and converse with each other.
In some there’s a high degree of knowledge too. There’s talk about US politics (as a Canadian, I’m not in the know enough to comment) in one, Roman history in another (I’m clueless there!). No one could say that these writers are dumb.
So this writing is still alive. You just have to know where to look.
