It's not very often that I feel overwhelmingly heart-warmed by some cutesy little love letter between a couple I'm not even in. It almost seems kind of intrusive, really, the thought of reading someone else's private thoughts for their lover — so I was surprised to find that Lena Dunham's heartfelt love letter to her boyfriend, fun. rocker Jack Antonoff, actually made me feel... like, feelings. The letter was released as a part of that ongoing "We Think Alone" project from Miranda July, which basically showcases the personal emails of a few celebs including Dunham, Kirsten Dunst, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
For added effect, read this while listening to "The Gambler" by fun. It works, OK?
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Lena Dunham Date: Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 5:14 AM Subject: a love letter to Jack M. Antonoff To: Jack Antonoff
Dearest Baby,
I'm trying to keep a journal on this trip. Historically I have done really poorly with a journal. The idea of writing without an audience seemed futile at best and like a bad voice over on a cancelled ABC show at worst. When I was little I left my journal out, open, for my parents to find (then hid behind the counter waiting for them to read it so I could be incensed.) But somehow my book makes every piece of writing feel as though it has an eventual home (maybe that's how your album feels?) and gives record-keeping a kind of fullness it never had before. Which is good, because my old move was to write these long belabored emails to people at home and find a way to enjoy my travels by imagining them imagining me enjoying my travels. I think I can enjoy my travels on my own this time, but I did have one revelation:
I was walking through a beautiful Indian garden this morning (Lodi garden! The oldest in the city! It looks like if someone crushed Versailles with a giant Doc Marten) and passed a big green pond with a dozen disorderly swans. All the old people in my party were cooing about the swans but I was focused on this young couple, late teens or early twenties, curled up on a bench talking really animatedly. We spent 40 minutes walking around the garden and when we circled back they were still there, chatting like fiends. And And I thought of you, like always, and I felt I could spend four days on a bench with you and it wouldn't be enough time to hear all the stories you have to tell-- I literally want to know everything you have ever seen and what you felt like while you were seeing it. And I will be so much better my whole life for knowing those things.
I love you,Lena
Doesn't it just want to make you say "aww"? If not, you might be heartless.
Anyway, it's also funny considering how sentimental and sweet this letter is — kind of like the anti-Girls, in a way, at least if you refer to Hannah's Season 1 speech to Adam where she tells him how she wants him, but doesn't want a boyfriend, but that he's so charming she can't help it. "...consider it a testament to your charms, because you might not know this, but you're very, very charming. And I really care about you. And I don't want to anymore, because it feels too shitty for me... so I'm gonna leave."
Anti-Girls. Love turns us all into softies.
