Back to my Hitchcock reread this afternoon... the next story in the book is 'Agony Column' by Barry N. Malzberg. And even before I started reading, this story seemed familiar. It's very much about how people shouted into the void before social media existed. I feel like I definitely remember reading it the first time round.
I'm not sure where 'Agony Column' wants our sympathies to lie. There's a suggestion that we should relate to Martin Miller, who says he's just desperate to be "recognized as an individual" and whose frustration escalates as this doesn't happen. But, on the other hand, Martin Miller is sending unsolicited and sometimes uninformed opinions to a variety of people in an attempt to "correspond" with them. There's an incredible arrogance to his assumption that, if he has an opinion, he must be entitled to an audience.
You could literally reformat this story as a series of tweets, rather than letters, and it would feel very current. Weird to think that the last time I read it, I'd only just got my first email address!
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