Collecting readers' letters as an obsession
Roman Baczynski
Roman Baczynski is the editor and publisher of 'Discontent and Liberal Opinion - Non-partisan readers' letters to British local newspapers since the late 1960s' (published by Metaballon Books). He writes: 'The dominance of economics in the political debate is as unhealthy as the dominance of sex and violence on our film screens. Thus everyday life is denied access to debate and imagination, robbing us of vital data we need for a comprehensive critique of society. I seek to collate peoples' observations and experiences as found in the printed word toward what Walter Benjamin called a Magical Encyclopedia.' The following is extracted from the preface and introduction to Baczynski's book:
When I started collecting readers' letters, it was no more than a hobby but one so absorbing that it became an obsession and I started eventually doing it full time. What fascinated me most were the things that upset people in everyday life. If the subjects most commonly raised in readers' letters columns in local newspapers were to be judged for their efficacy to generate a positive discontent that would in turn lead to some creative solution to a pressing problem, then the likelihood of such an outcome would have to be considered remote.
'All degeneration begins with taking big things seriously and regarding it as self-evident that little things should not be taken seriously'
Yet how else can we tell what is wrong with our society unless we consider the whole range of people's complaints? Because many of these seem petty they are not taken seriously, especially by politicians only interested in problems that they can solve. But as Herman Hesse said: 'All degeneration begins with taking big things seriously and regarding it as self-evident that little things should not be taken seriously' ('Reflections', Cape, 1977).
'Relatively minor hassles, the minor daily annoyances, often have greater effect on health than do the large-scale traumas in life'
Sociology can be subdivided into many branches, but of the 32 listed in the Encyclopaedia of Higher Education, nowhere does the Sociology of Everyday Life get a mention. By writing letters to their local newspapers, people are using one of the few options for protesting and letting off steam that are available to them. For example, under our legal system there is not the slightest recourse that can be taken against personal insults. (Insult is not recognised as a real injury.) Recently, however, a survey carried out by the University of California, Berkeley, found that 'relatively minor hassles, the minor yet frequent annoyances we experience daily, often have greater effect on health than do the large-scale traumas in life.'
When it comes to matters dealing with everyday life, everyone's opinions ought to be equally valid. In order that the 'experts' may have more material on which to expound their theories it would seem natural that ordinary people's experiences should be taken more account of. The lack of space devoted to readers' letters in newspapers and the subsequent lack of attention paid to those that have been published is therefore disquieting to say the least.
The following is from a sample letter in the anthology, from A.Hodgson in the Nelson Leader:
Surely the council should be setting a good example on how to save fuel by not having men driving around all day spraying our dandelions with a chemical mess. The dandelion may be a weed to the lawn fanatic and council worker, but it has a long and interesting history as a medicinal plant and as a foodstuff.
Roman Baczynski, 21 Lancaster Gardens, London W13 9JY (tel 081 567 3213). 'Discontent and Liberal Opinion - Non-partisan readers' letters to British newspapers since the late 1960s' is published by Meteballon Books, ISBN 0 9512511 0 8, 1987, L9-95.
Previous / Next / Table of Contents