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After my dad died, we found the love letters

jenn.site

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Re: After my dad died, we found the love letters

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

honestly ive had it with the shift key myself. just a nuisance. besides, the text looks much nicer and 'even' when every letter is broadly the same height, but that is ofcourse subjective. it would be good to track down the 'etymology' of capital letters.

Capital letters came first.

SIC·EST

Re: After my dad died, we found the love letters

#92
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the capitalization of the quote your own doing or was it displayed like it for you? There isn't a single uppercase letter when I open the article, it's impossible to me to read it because it feel like a single sentence and I can't breathe

The author obviously has this as an acquired habit or affectation, possibly for stylistic reasons. It's interesting that some people can read this just as well as normal prose, but to others it feels as if someone is pouring sand all over their well-oiled gears. I gave up after a paragraph as well. I fully support people writing in whatever way pleases them, but for broadly accessible article length text capitalisati…

Many readers rely on articles being written in a specific language, does that mean every writer is obligated to publish every piece in every language?

Has it occurred to anyone who sees capitalization as a must-have for legibility, that an opportunity is being presented to train oneself to read text without traditional capitalization?

Maybe it's because I studied poetry, or because I was a voracious reader of experimental writing when I was younger, but I've probably worked my way through thousands of pages of uncapitalized or unconventionally capitalized writing; I can empathize if it's more difficult for you to read (personally I would consider an absence of paragraph breaks a nearly-unforgivable travesty), and I wouldn't even deny you the opportunity to complain about it.

But I think calling it "a must" for accessibility is perhaps overstating it a bit.

Re: After my dad died, we found the love letters

#93
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I just hope they repair their Shift keys soon.

I don't know the age of the author, but interestingly, Gen-Z doesn't seem to use that key

This is not really anything new, back in AIM and SMS messaging days, people would type "wuu2" or "whats up" to a friend, but to express the same idea in an email, you would probably be sending some variant of "What are you up to?"

There is massively different subtext between the two. Autocapitalization and autocorrect represents a limit on the subtextual bandwidth you can communicate along with a message. Restrictions on subtextual bandwith are not ideal when your generation relies on text-based communication for evermore intimate interactions - that "whats up" message might be the start of you asking someone out on a date, I don't want it formatted the same way as a message I would send my boss.

Re: After my dad died, we found the love letters

#94

I'm a dad too, and I'm in a somewhat similar situation. My son is under five, and it feels like I'm still at the very beginning of his story. I've known I was gay since high school, probably even earlier, but I kept choosing whatever seemed like the easiest path. It felt easier to stay closeted. Easier to date a woman. Easier to move in together, propose, get married, and even have a child than to face my truth. I lo…

I'm pretty certain that children are quite perceptive, and will sense an unease that something is not quite right at home. It would be a service to them to put something concrete to that unease.

Re: After my dad died, we found the love letters

#95
post #75

Ouch. This hits incredibly hard. I’ve been this dad who sits frozen at the TV every evening. I had the affairs with the emotionally unavailable men, and became one myself. Before you judge the man in this story too harshly — and there’s certainly much to judge, especially given the follow-up post — consider the environment he and I grew up in. Being gay as a young teenager in the early 1990s could feel literally like…

I have heard this play out too many times. Most recently here, a college junior's wife revealed four months after marriage that she is actually a lesbian (she didn't share it – he caught her in their bedroom with a colleague of hers when he returned home early from the office), and he would be free to do what he wants; she should be too. Hit him hard, but he said they should go for an annulment— out of question; a di…

[deleted]

Re: After my dad died, we found the love letters

#96

I'm a dad too, and I'm in a somewhat similar situation. My son is under five, and it feels like I'm still at the very beginning of his story. I've known I was gay since high school, probably even earlier, but I kept choosing whatever seemed like the easiest path. It felt easier to stay closeted. Easier to date a woman. Easier to move in together, propose, get married, and even have a child than to face my truth. I lo…

Since you took this path, I'd suggest you not have affairs while married. Either divorce now or consider waiting 10 years while your son really needs you.

Re: After my dad died, we found the love letters

#98
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know, personally I enjoyed the general aesthetic the choice created.

I'm now feeling slightly odd that I read all three posts without even noticing the capitalisation.

I envy you. For me, it felt like dragging something a bit heavy across an uneven floor. Doable, but unpleasant.

Re: After my dad died, we found the love letters

#99
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I just hope they repair their Shift keys soon.

I don't know the age of the author, but interestingly, Gen-Z doesn't seem to use that key

I've always wondered what the point of capital letters even is? It doesn't seem to add anything worthwhile to the language. You need to learn 26 extra shapes, and then some arbitrary rules for when to use the majuscule. But if you never heard of capital letters, nobody will be confused by what you wrote.

Re: After my dad died, we found the love letters

#100

Man… the battle between cultural expectations and our true selves is humanity’s oldest conflict. A few people get lucky. Most of us survive in the cracks. No capitalization was as surprising as the narration itself… not sure how to feel about it! Counter culture?

honestly ive had it with the shift key myself. just a nuisance. besides, the text looks much nicer and 'even' when every letter is broadly the same height, but that is ofcourse subjective. it would be good to track down the 'etymology' of capital letters.

Capital letters at the start of sentences makes reading easier for those who are used to reading languages where that is customary. The absence is a noticeable reduction in ease of reading.

> it would be good to track down the 'etymology' of capital letters.

Easy: Latin script.

The more interesting question is the source of lower case letters which appeared much later.

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