Postsecret Ethos

Aaron Stokke
Sadashivan - Representation

Postsecret Ethos

I would attach the words pathetic, disgusting, perverted, and sick to the ethos of the creator of the postcard titled "man." Nobody would go dumpster diving for women's underwear unless they were all of these things. It is gross enough going dumpster diving, but somebody must have some serious issues to go looking for women's underwear.

I would attach the words playful, funny, artistic, and kind to the ethos of the creator of the postcard titled "mokawk." All of the people who I have known to wear mohawks have been artistic, so the creator of this postcard seems like he would also be artistic. Children smile are curious about mohawks, therefore I would assume that the creator also likes to see children smile and perhaps makes a game out of seeing if they can get the child to smile. This leads me to believe that the creator of this postcard is funny, playful and caring.

I would attach the words content, pleasant, free, and smart to the ethos of the creator of the postcard titled "happier." It is impressive for someone to grow happier with their body as time passes on. Most people that I hear of just grow less content with themselves and go to great lengths to find ways to change. The fact that the creator is happy with them self makes me think that they are a pleasant person to be around. To be happy with something that you cannot change makes me picture them as both smart and content.

I would attach the words unconventional, angry and depressed to the ethos of the creator of the postcard titled "impact." I feel that the creator is angry based on his usage of the "f bomb." The creator also leads me to feel that he is depressed and unconventional because he states clearly "fuck convention," he seems unhappy with how his prospects in life look. If he was not depressed he might have said that I am going to make an impact, not I want to make an impact.

I would attach the words romantic, thoughtful, and happy to the ethos of the creator of the postcard titled "growold." The creator seems romantic obviously because he is hoping that whoever may be in his life would grow old with him. Thoughtfulness comes to mind as well because he is thinking of that special someone in his life doing something as sweet at feeding the ducks with him at a ripe old age. Having a romantic and thoughtful nature would make anyone happy.

I would attach the words frustrated, angry, and pathetic to the ethos of the creator of the postcard titled "sorry1." The creator must be pathetic to check a website everyday, and probably several times a day at that. Also by emphasizing the every day in the postcard, the creator makes it pretty clear that they are getting fed up with checking the website to see if their postcard had made it on. Finally, I would attach angry to the creator because anyone who had written several postcards to a website promising that they would be put on but never were would eventually become angry.

I would attach the words afraid, nervous, determined and lonely to the ethos of the creator of the postcard titled "speech." I assume that the creator of the postcard is lonely because he has not told his family and friends who he really is inside, he has to live a lie. I also attached nervous and afraid to the creator because they must be nervous and afraid as to how their coming out speech will be met if they keep practicing it in the car. Finally the creator of this postcard must be determined if they keep practicing this speech. They practice the speech because they know that some day they will make it.

I would attach the words relieved, happy, and peaceful to the ethos of the creator of the postcard titled "ray." The creator seems relieved and happy because he has finally found his way. If somebody was lost in life and then miraculously found them self on the right path, the only natural response would be to find both happiness and relief. The choice in photograph, the water scene, leads me to believe that the new path that the creator is on is a peaceful one.

I would attach the words lonely, wishful, and unhappy to the ethos of the creator of the postcard titled "part1." The creator tells you that they do not feel like a part of anything, and follow it with an image of several snippets of happy people. This shows a longing for a complete place among those happy people. The fact that the creator claims to not feel a part of anything easily leads me to believe that she is both unhappy and lonely.

I would attach the words resentful, spiteful, deceitful, and tricky to the ethos of the creator of the postcard titled "fishstory." The creator tells us in the postcard that after her boyfriend left her to go fishing she bought a fish and told him that she caught it without him. This act in and of itself shows that the creator is both deceitful and tricky. The fact that she felt left out of the fishing trip and purchased a store bought fish to show her show up her boyfriend leads me to believe that she is both resentful and spiteful.

After looking over the website http://postsectret.com, I have been led to make many assumptions as to words that lend them selves to the ethos of each postcard creator. Several of the creators of these postcards seemed to feel unhappy with their lives or place in society. Perhaps as a result of these feelings, many of the postcards conveying these emotions appeared to have been created by amateurs. In fact, looking at the postcards again, all of them seemed to have been created by amateurs. Even so, subtle differences can still be drawn between the postcards.
All but four postcards that I looked at dealt with feelings of unhappiness, loneliness, fear, and pain. A common bond between all of the negative postcards is the lack of a face. Although the postcard titled “part1” had several fragments of faces, and the postcard titled “idea” had one face covered by many lines, not one forward facing face was present in any of the postcards. Perhaps this is because as amateurs the creators of the postcards were not able to come up with multiple ways of expressing them selves artistically in the way they needed to, or perhaps it is because feeling this way led the creators of these postcards to feel ashamed of who they are. Feeling ashamed of one’s self could easily lead to a lack of self worth, which may explain not feeling the need to show a face.
Just as there were similarities among the unhappy postcards, there are similarities among the happier postcards. The four postcards that were obviously created by happy people were titled “happier,” “mohawk,” “growold” and “ray.” It is strange to notice that something two out of four photos have in common is that they do not spoil the photograph on the postcard by writing over it. This is true of “Mohawk” and “ray.” So much of what the creator is trying to say can be said without words, that perhaps the words were just added in right before sending the postcard to http://postsectret.com as a way just to make sure that everyone got the message. The other two postcards, “happier” and “growold,” still are not overpowered by the words. In both postcards, the photograph says all that the creator needs to say, but the creator chose to write over the image anyway.
It seems that although all of the postcards created by happier people could have done without words, most of the postcards created by unhappy people needed some explanation. This is probably for the best, maybe having to do the extra work explaining their choice in photographs will keep people from describing their life and its secrets in such a negative way.