Using The Right Tool

Thanks to that marvelous Libelle pen wrap that Lynn gave me for my birthday, I am travelling with eight fountain pens.  In the past, I rarely travelled with more than two or three, for fear of losing one of the expensive ones (although in the more than fifteen years that I've been using exclusively fountain pens, I believe I've actually misplaced exactly one), but the wrap helps me keep them all together.

So I burst out laughing at myself at my little table at Andy's last night when the one pen that I brought with me when I went out to supper ran out of ink two pages into a journal entry.   It was about 7:30 when I got to my hotel, and I'd planned on having a steak sandwich and drinking some wine and listening to some excellent local jazz while I wrote for an hour or two.   Three out of four?

I never go anywhere without at least one fountain pen and a notebook (and I usually check the pen to be sure it's at least half filled).  This goes back to the days when my carefully constructed personal life was crumbling.  I'd been keeping a journal since I was in my early teens, but it was typically with a pencil or a cheap ballpoint on whatever inexpensive spiral notebook happened to be around.  The friend who helped me sort through some things in those difficult days introduced me to the tactile pleasures of using a fountain pen and good paper.

I'm not a collector -- I don't think I have a collector's temperment -- but I suppose that I now have perhaps as many as 20 or so fountain pens, ranging from that very first cheap Sheaffer to some fairly expensive pens that have been gifts from Lynn.     When one runs out of ink, I set it aside for awhile and fill up a different one so that over the course of some months, they all get a chance to get used.

I do a lot of writing at the keyboard, and I enjoy that process.  I'm a fast typist, and I can get into a good rhythm, where I feel as if the clackety-clack of the keys is actually helping me pull new sentences out of thin air.  All of my professional writing is done at the keyboard, and I can't imagine that I would ever try to write an essay that I intended to publish with a fountain pen.

Still, every morning, I start my day with fountain pen and a good notebook.  I'm asked from time to time where I find time to keep up the blog.  It's easy -- I just use part of the time that I've already set aside for decades for that morning writing.  If I don't get a blog entry written, it's not because I'm not writing; it's because I'm not willing to give up the luxury of writing with the pen.

The flaw in the thinking of the technophiles who await the day when e-books will replace printed books altogether is that they fail to understand that a printed book and an electronic text are fundamentally, organically different.  A printed book is not simply a container for text, and a fountain pen is not simply a device for recording sentences.   They are physical things, with esthetic qualities that are intrinsic to their physicality.    There are many, many instances where the new technologies are better for the purpose than the older technologies -- but the older will always have a unique value as well.

Along with the pens and the notebooks, I almost always carry fine stationery with me.   I never know when I might be inspired to write a love letter to Lynn, despite the fact that on any given day, no matter how far apart our travels might take us, we're likely to have a couple of phone conversations, several exchanged emails, and a quick IM chat or two.  Having all of those communication options available is wonderful, but for a love letter, there is no substitute for a fountain pen and fine stationery. 

My father was a mechanic, and very skilled with his hands.  I may not have inherited his facility for making things, but I certainly learned the importance of using the right tool for the job.

Comments

[Speedmaster]

Nice sentiments. I keep my 2 Lamy pens with me almost every day. I have a number of fountain pen and Moleskine posts in my blog that might interest you. Have a great weekend.
http://amateureconblog.blogspot.com/

[Tom Roper]

The pen wrap is wonderful. I have been waiting for one of these all my life. I am going to see if anyone sells them in Britain.
I have dreadful trouble finding pens with italic nibs. Even Pelikan, who still did, have stopped, except for one with a steel nib which I find unsatisfactory.

[Lesia Fontana]

I am not sure how many people relish using a fountain pen these days. I, for one, am such a person. I (re)started using one few months ago, after my better half got me a Parker Fountain Pen for my birthday and I found it a sheer joy using what we used to call ‘ink pen’. Sad thing is that these days, I seldom get to write anything and as a result, my handwriting has deteriorated considerably. Now, I make it a point to write at least few lines of crap just to relive the good old school days when we used to return home with fingers painted blue.

[T Scott]

A dozen or so years ago I was doing my daily journal almost exclusively on the computer, and I got to the point where I found writing by hand to be difficult and tedious. So I went back to the daily handwritten journal. My handwriting has never been great, so it still comes across as a scrawl, but at least I spend 30 minutes to an hour every day writing with a good pen on good paper.

And then there's letters, of course. When I write to Josephine, I slow down and try to write extra-legibly. She's only two and a half now, so when the letters arrive, her mother puts them, unopened, in a special silk covered box for her to open and read one day when she's ready. I sort of picture her as being around eight to ten when that happens, so I try to write as I would to a reasonably bright kid of about that age.

And when she finally does get to the point of opening and reading those letters, I'll give a special fountain pen so that she can start writing back.