Last Post* for Britain's Card Habit?

　　One of Britain's few distinctive contributions to world culture may be doomed, according to a survey that suggests holiday postcards are being emailed and texted into extinction. More than half of the 1,000 holiday-makers interviewed said they had decided to send fewer cards, turning instead to their electronic rivals. A quarter of the respondents dismissed postcards as old-fashioned and slow to arrive. A further 14% admitted that thinking of something to fill the space was too challenging, compared with a call home. Although officially invented by a Hungarian, Emanuel Herrmann, in 1869, the idea of illustrated cards was taken up with most enthusiasm in Victorian Britain, joining Gothic architecture and landscape gardening as fields in which the country excelled. "If the British postcard did become extinct, we would lose for ever something of great importance to the nation," said Chris Mottershead of Thomson Holidays, which commissioned the poll. He was backed by Marie Angelou of Sussex University, who has investigated the importance of sending and receiving postcards. "Postcards are nothing like phone calls, instant texting and direct photo shots via the mobile," she said. "All these are useful, practical devices, but postcards offer something else, something additional that is not mundane and simply functional, but imaginative and personal. They can evoke the real atmosphere of your holiday in a way that nothing else can do. They're also for more than a moment--with some people adding them to collections built up over years and years." Postcard-collecting, or deltiology, is third only to coins and stamps in Britain's allied tradition of collecting things. The country's uniquely postcard-related achievements include the invention in 1902 of the "divided back". With the address taking up half of the writing area, brief postcard scribbles became the precursor to today's cryptic text messages.

　　一項調查顯示，節假日明信片正在被電子郵件和手機短信趕向絕路，這意味著英國對世界文化為數不多的獨特貢獻之一可能遭到滅頂之災。接受采訪的1000名度假者中有一半多說自己已經決定少寄點兒卡，轉而借助電子通訊工具來傳情達意。1/4的受訪者對明信片不予考慮，認為它又過時、到得又慢。此外，14%的人承認要想出點兒東西來填滿卡上的空白實在太困難了，相形之下還是打個電話回家來得容易。帶圖畫的卡片是在1869年由匈牙利人埃曼紐爾·赫爾曼正式發明的，但這個點子是在維多利亞時代的英國才得到了最熱烈的歡迎，并與哥特式建筑、庭院設計一起成為了英國的強項。 湯姆森假日公司委托進行了此次調查，該公司的克里斯·摩特謝德說：“如果明信片在英國絕跡，我們就永遠失去了一種對這個國家無比重要的東西。” 蘇塞克斯大學的瑪麗·安格魯對收發明信片的重要性進行了研究，她也支持摩特謝德的看法。她說：“明信片和電話以及通過手機瞬間發送的文字和照片完全不同。那些東西也很實用，但明信片會帶給我們一些別的東西。它們不同尋常，也不只是有用，其中體現了想象力和個性。它們能帶來真正的節日氣氛，這是別的東西做不到的。 它們也不是轉瞬即逝的事物——有些人會收藏它們，年復一年。”英國的收藏傳統根深蒂固，而明信片是僅次于硬幣和郵票的第三大收藏對象。英國在明信片方面有一些獨特的成就，1902年發明的“背面分割明信片”就是其中之一。由于地址占據了一半的書寫區域，明信片背后的文字變得簡短而潦草，由此為今日含糊不清的手機短信開了先河。

　　Remarks：下次收到賀卡的時候，別忘了在心里說聲謝謝——愿意花時間“想出點兒東西來填滿卡上的空白”的人真的是越來越少了。

　　Notes:

　　*last post：盡頭，末路。英國軍隊在夜間會吹兩次熄燈號（post），之后滅燈就寢，因此last post的原意可能是“最后一次熄燈號”，引申為“末路”。