May 25, 2004
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... After the Beep
My friend Mary, says that she usually doesn't know what she thinks until she writes it down. I approach it more like I know what I think, but I'm not sure why until I get it on paper. Usually, I begin a blog with a conclusion in mind and I wander around my mental landscape until I reach it. No such animal today. I have a question. Really, it's one of those things I think in the middle of the night, that usually fade with the morning mist. But this one is still with me.
Remember when we all got answering machines? And we left all those cute messages for callers? We put a lot of work into it, saying just the right thing in just the right tone. Or we tried to be funny. Nowadays, most answering machines spout a business-like greeting to inform the caller that there is indeed an answering machine and a message may be left.
I woke up this morning with several thoughts in my mind and one of them was simply voice MAIL. I take letter writing seriously. If you've ever received a letter from me, (or even an email,) you know what I'm talking about. My letters include salutations and benedictions. There is a definite body. I think of letter writing as an art form. I love to receive mail - I love to send it. There's something magical and otherworldly about entrusting my words to paper and then handing them off to be carried through time and space until they are physically held in your hand.
I once had a novel in mind - okay actually it was just the first paragraph of a novel - in which a woman mails a letter than she's been carrying in her purse for three months waiting for the moment to fire it off like a bullet from a gun. I spent a lot of time day-dreaming about what that letter might have said, and who the recipient might have been. Never wrote the novel.
SO here's my question - (and maybe all the rest of you have "been there done that" but it never dawned on me that the mail I leave on your answering machine - voice MAIL - might be an artform as well.) Have you ever deliberately called a person at a time when you knew they would be gone so you could leave voice MAIL? I mean deliberately thought out words and phrases in a particular inflection that would be hanging in a sort of alternate universe of time waiting for the recipient to hear. Messages in a bottle ... epistles to be read and perhaps reread if they have the capacity to "save" your message.
What kind of message did you leave? A love note, an apology, or perhaps a poetic thought you wanted to share? Something that was particularly suited to being spoken as opposed to written or text messaged...
What do you think? Is it possible that I (we) have been missing an opportunity to develop a new form of communicative art? OR when these thoughts come to me at 5 AM - should I simply roll over and go back to sleep?
Comments (18)
Nope, not voice mail. If I call, I want you to be there. An art form? Definately!
Sail on... sail on!!!
I've gone so far as to write down what I wanted to say on the voicemail before I called. Sometimes paper isn't enough to convey emotion, and sometimes you need to just say what you have to say without there being anybody who just might interrupt the spiel. I want to know what that letter says! Write that book!
I have done this...There is something nice, about being able to leave a message, and knowing, when that person gets it..there will be a smile...or a sigh...
And likewise, I've received these voice mails..some good..some I know with the intent of 'not getting me' on purpose..you know..like 'hey, I'm really sorry, I won't be able to make it over today..' kind of thing. But I still think..the good ones make it worth it. I save them. My cell phone is full of messages from people..a place in time..an inflection in their voice..a laugh..
I think this is most definatly a new form of communicative art..most definatly.
Hope your week is going well!!
All my love..
Jen
That novel idea sounds interesting.....yes....you should write that one! I'm worried if what I leave on people's voicemail is art. That would be some darn pitiful art!
Now I'm going to be even MORE nervous when I hear the beep! 
I work in a world where voicemail and ourgoing messages are expected to have certain characteristics. It's boring. I miss the old days when voicemail was fun. (And yes, I actually thought of this one day recently...)
Do you remember in college when my outgoing message said something like "You've reached the nymphomaniac hotline. All our operatives are busy at the moment but leave a message with your name, number and measurements and we will get back to you within the half hour."? I actually had a phone solicitor think that was so funny she left the requested information ... but for her her best friend. I actually returned the call and mayhem ensued.
Come to think of it, I don't really miss it that much.
I've saved a few I've received, but all those were meant to reach me in person I assume.
I have however occasionally preferred to text message someone a few (abreviated) private thoughts, like during their work day where a phone call itself would be an interruption, but a text msg rather discreet.
It sounds like an interesting novel. Puts me in mind of Bernice Rubens, something small and clever and detailed. Write it!
I'd read that book... I bet Tim's cooking up some good answering machine messages right now...
its both a convience and an inconvience
Nice thought. I'm all business and use Ans Machine only because it is necessary. Too dead and cold for me to warm up to and leave a nice message. I see from other answers that I'm in the minority. Thanks for making me think.
I did recently save a message from my wife that she left while she was in Florida. I could hear the surf in the background and she was say "ha ha, I'm on the beach and you're not." She is so sweet.
The only art I can render is the art of tears. (And who knows if that's an art or not. I figure over here these eyes cry over happy things, sad things, made believe things, the bird sleeping, the dog sheeding. Not crying mind you, just tears.
I've never thought of it that way. I always see them as intrusions so I make my messages short and to the point. I get more than 100 emails a day, so, I'm mostly just thinking about replying quickly rather than artisticly.
I have to have a script to read from when I'm leaving a message, but that's because I hate talking to machines so much.
I love to write letters, though.
I think everyone has their own favored form of communication. For me, email is the Best Thing Every Invented. I spend some time over my emails (well -- since you get a lot of them (although not enough lately!) -- you know sometimes they're off-the-cuff
), taking care that the message is well-crafted. Voicemail? Can't bear it. Hate it when I get it (particularly at work, where it means something ELSE I have to handle NOW), hate it when I have to give it. I don't like the sound of my own voice, and always feel entirely inadequate when faced with the 'beep,' because KNOW I'll say 'umm' too much, or giggle inappropriately, or forget my own name (or phone number or address -- that really has happened) or something.
That said, it is a lovely thought that some people would carefully craft a voicemail.
I have done this, but it wasn't that I wanted to say anything in particular.
I collect chidren's books, and a friend of mine gave me one of those with the soundeffect strip along the side. On this strip was a little recording of a woman giggling with a little snort on the end, and it always cracked us completely up when we heard it.
So once when my friend was having a hard time of things, I called when she wasn't home and played that little sound effect into her answering machine, just so she'd have something to laugh at that day.
absolutely enchanting idea...
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