But I loved pens, and fountain ones especially, partly because of their pose value but mainly because of the way they phattened my handwriting and made it look more authoritative - i.e. less scrawny - a vital illusion when it came to applying for jobs or when sending greeting cards to prospective girlfriends (well, okay, maybe not!) Indeed for years and years I used to sign any important papers with the same feisty Waterman guzzler, the confident look of the signature it created (as on that Bulgarian timeshare contract for example) proving to everyone that I was no mug!
Anyway. I was buying some stationery in town the other day and I noticed a bottle of Quink on the shelf which poked me into remembering that I hadn't really used the fountain pen for a fair while. So I bought the gunge and brought it home and after dying my hands dark blue, staining the table, the ceiling, the windows, the floor and my white shirt as I filled the cartridge, the old pen's blood started to circulate again.
I decided to write. I started with my signature and followed it by the words 'is cool' and then I tried to write a full paragraph - about nothing in particular. Before I'd written even thirty words my grip was gone, my wrist was sore, the writing was uneven and anyone reading it would have thought that I'd just drank ten pints. Jesus, I thought, I can't write anymore. And that frightened the sh*te out of me until it dawned on me that the last time I'd written anything other than my signature with a pen would have been as long ago as ... eh ... ten to fifteen years. At least!
Another Eureka moment. There's me moaning about the demise of the pen until I realise I haven't used one in three or four World Cups. The reason: because it is easier and handier and quicker to type. The evidence of this speaks for itself. Whether we like it or not the writing is on the wall for the old pen and has been for a while. And even if sandwich boards and whiteboards and chalk boards may give it cause to hold out for a while longer, the fingers and flat screens are only waiting in the wings. Then there'll come the full stop and the cap will be doffed for good.
More soon ...
Motivation training, yesterday!
I was writing a few cheques today (Yes I am that backward) and had to check a few times how I was holding the pen. I always held it differently to the supposed correct way and had many a knuckle slapped with a teacher's ruler as a result. Weird to think they would stop teaching the skill though
ReplyDeleteThey're still teaching it in Irish schools - my son is currently trying to master the noble art using the fountain pen.
ReplyDeleteI sat at a desk in my youth with an inbuilt inkwell which we never used but the fountain pen was mandatory coupled with reams and reams of blotting paper. I've had in my possession at one time or another Waterman, Parker and Sheaffer fountain pens until Papermate arrived on the scene sexing up the plain Biro and signaled the end. I hated the bloody things at the time but yearn for them now as I see my kids writing standard going from bad to worse. And now you tell me the end is nigh for handwriting itself. What next, the outlawing of mawla and the 10 times tables?
ReplyDeleteAnd digital signatures will put an end to you even having to sign something. It seems a step too far. Coincidentally I used a fountain pen today for the first time in 30 signing a legal document. I was really impressed how it noticeably improved my spidery scrawl and I was quietly impressed with myself. It was short-lived as i was quickly put to shame by the handwriting of my 89 year old mother.
ReplyDeleteJust spent half an hour explaining to my youngest why writing is important. It's a skill. Once upon a time it was alost an art form (remember your grandparents copperplate script?). Kids still have to write for 3 hours non stop twice a day during state exams. My daughter says joined up writing is too hard to do neatly. She's twelve.
ReplyDeleteAll is not lost . My girls learn joined up from very early.
ReplyDeleteYou should see Aline's handwriting nicer than mine ever was.
People will always want to write/make their mark. It's part of being human.