Photo by Allie Smith on Unsplash

The Last Word

Hello ______,

I am writing to say how much I loved your last book, ______. It was phenomenal. I didn’t read it – not the whole thing at least, but I didn’t have to. I’m going to be bold now and say in modern times, we don’t need to read whole books anymore. Who has time for that? Not the under-60 and New York City crowd. Long novels are a pre-smartphone understanding of entertainment. The greatest works of literature never tell anything to an audience because they always allude to more, and now that more never has to be written. It’s commonly understood among fans of horror films and strip clubs that the most potent source of fear is our own imagination. From the very last line of your novel, ______, I was hooked, and I’ve read more book endings than anyone. I like to go to the bookstore and spend sunny afternoons reading the last paragraphs of hundreds of books. That is why I’m such a fan of your work, even the last typed word of ______ is perfect like a bullet to the heart or a nail gun to the hand.

This brings me to the point of my email. I’d like to propose, a new type of book: a collaboration between us of just endings to novels that never need to be written. What words do we pay attention to? Someone’s dying words of course. This book will be like the last words of a dying poet summing up their whole life into the most important things they thought. A greatest hits album without all the filler of random songs the audience skips. If you are hesitant, just think of Morse Code or the telegram. Did sailors sit in submarines at the bottom of the ocean to intercept and listen to the beautiful rhythmic tapping of enemy ships? Was there an art to Morse code? It doesn’t matter because art has evolved and so must we. 

As it is, I’d like to let you know that a lot of young people are using YouTube not to watch films but the most emotional clips from films. Oftentimes it’s a street kitten being rescued into a forever home or a favorite song mixed with an anime. Even more convenient are top ten lists. Anything can make us have that emotional connection we crave like the wind through the trees, a cloudless sky, or a family soup nobody remembers how to make anymore. To do it fast, check out the top ten saddest movie scenes on YouTube. I propose the same but with literature. 

I want to create a brand new form of writing. With your connections in publishing and my knowledge of technical innovation, I know we can.

Thank you ______.

For faster communication feel free to text ______.

Best,

______

About the Author

Born in Venezuela to creationist parents who fled communist Russia for their absurdist beliefs in dinosaur bone churches and annual biblical floods, Alejandro was frequently an outcast among outcasts. Very early on, he saw writing as a tool – a shovel, and that shovel would dig him out of the jungle, and straight to New York City for college. His current attempts to solve astrological mysteries are solely to chase God out of the visible world and into the realm of fantastical wonder where it belongs.