4 ms·

I attended a school where calligraphy was still a major aspect and we were taught to use fountain pens. You know how in the Harry Potter series there’s all that

by qubex 6y ago

I attended a school where calligraphy was still a major aspect and we were taught to use fountain pens. You know how in the Harry Potter series there’s all that very real-feeling ‘tradition’ about how a wand chooses its master? That feels real because J. K. Rowling drew inspiration from the tradition of schoolchildren choosing ‘their’ pen and it sticking with them for evermore. I’m 39 now and use them almost exclusively, and I have a collection of over fifty (predominantly metal-bodied, because I like the heft, but I have three or four Lamy pens too, including two transparent ones loaded with fluo ink which I call “the lightsabers”). I still write letters by hand and send them by post. I sit down and erupt fifty handwritten page documents detailing my plans or thoughts before typing them up for editing. There’s something almost zen-like and cathartic about writing in cursive with a good pen, weighty, well-balanced pen. Anyway, if you’re really interested in upper-crust writing, I strongly recommend the Graf von Faber-Castell “Tamitio” calligraphy set (see http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/331163-first-look-graf-von-faber-castell-tamitio-calligraphy-set/ http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/331163-first-l... for a review). If you have good cursive skills and know how to glide over the page rather than dig in and apply force, it’s heaven to write with.

michaelg7x 6y ago
I love the idea of letters being hand-written. In fact, having just done the requisite minimum amount of writing with my fountain pens to keep them working[1], I wondered about building an app which can record you via the camera hand-writing a message, remove your hand and perhaps the pen from the video, speed-up and create a time-lapse video which can be sent to someone. Add a background from wherever you're holidaying (our desks for now, haha) and it's a modern-day postcard. I don't have the specific skills to build it but would love to show the time-investment in the process when sending someone a message. I'm sure that time-lapse video apps already exist, just not with the ability to auto-remove objects within the video. [1] The two Lamy Safaris I have dry out if left pointing upwards after a couple of days. They're ridiculously wet and concentrated if left nib-down. Somewhat hit and miss if they're left level. The Waterman and Pelikan are both unaffected by their direction of repose. The cheap and now very old Parker doesn't seem to suffer either.
- qubex 6y ago
  To be honest, I can see where your idea of the app is coming from... but what’s the point? Wouldn’t it be just yet another piece of self-aggrandising performance art in this already totally narcissistic age? One writes to leave one’s mark. One writes well because one recognises the importance of presenting one’s thoughts in an aesthetically pleasing manner — a manner that in a certain sense ‘costs’ the writer a great deal because it implies maintaining discipline and order. One sends letters because one wishes to make an effort to avoid the transient and facile nature of modern electronic communication — and because in a certain sense one wishes one’s communication to be ‘timeless’ and transcendent. How does filming oneself writing and sending it actually fit into this?

by qubex 6y ago

michaelg7x 6y ago

I love the idea of letters being hand-written. In fact, having just done the requisite minimum amount of writing with my fountain pens to keep them working[1], I wondered about building an app which can record you via the camera hand-writing a message, remove your hand and perhaps the pen from the video, speed-up and create a time-lapse video which can be sent to someone. Add a background from wherever you're holidaying (our desks for now, haha) and it's a modern-day postcard. I don't have the specific skills to build it but would love to show the time-investment in the process when sending someone a message. I'm sure that time-lapse video apps already exist, just not with the ability to auto-remove objects within the video. [1] The two Lamy Safaris I have dry out if left pointing upwards after a couple of days. They're ridiculously wet and concentrated if left nib-down. Somewhat hit and miss if they're left level. The Waterman and Pelikan are both unaffected by their direction of repose. The cheap and now very old Parker doesn't seem to suffer either.

qubex 6y ago
To be honest, I can see where your idea of the app is coming from... but what’s the point? Wouldn’t it be just yet another piece of self-aggrandising performance art in this already totally narcissistic age? One writes to leave one’s mark. One writes well because one recognises the importance of presenting one’s thoughts in an aesthetically pleasing manner — a manner that in a certain sense ‘costs’ the writer a great deal because it implies maintaining discipline and order. One sends letters because one wishes to make an effort to avoid the transient and facile nature of modern electronic communication — and because in a certain sense one wishes one’s communication to be ‘timeless’ and transcendent. How does filming oneself writing and sending it actually fit into this?