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I don't remember the full context, but once my uncle said: "It must be an old person, because the handwriting is so pretty." To which my grandfather replied: "
by repiret 14y ago
I don't remember the full context, but once my uncle said: "It must be an old person, because the handwriting is so pretty."
To which my grandfather replied: "you had to write like that with a fountain pen"
I've never used a fountain pen, but I gather you have to maintain a fairly constant speed as the pen moves along the paper. If you want that handwriting back, I think you have to get rid of ball-point pens and pencils. Although while pretty handwriting is nice, I'm not convinced its worth the time to learn. (Which isn't to say legible handwriting isn't worth learning)
- ams6110 14y agoThere's something about a fountain pen. I have a few, and without fail I write more neatly, and make fewer mistakes, than when using pencil or ball-point. I think it's that they demand slightly more concentration on mechanics to make them work, and that's enough to make a big difference in the writing quality.
- fusiongyro 14y agoEh… I have one I use daily (a Pilot/Namiki retractable nib) and it certainly hasn't made my handwriting any better. It is nicer than a regular pen though.
- shmerl 14y agoThat's simple. Dip and fountain pens allow you to create lines of different thickness, which can result in interesting calligraphy. It's simply impossible with ball pens which produce constant thickness lines.
- ciupicri 14y agoI used both fountain pens and pencils when I was in school and I had similar results, regardless of the tool. Though my writing wasn't exactly beautiful, but it was pretty readable. Regarding the ball-point pen, when I switched to it, I had to write fast, so the writing might have deteriorated from both the speed and the tool.
- duaneb 14y agoA fountain pen is generally more expressive, but it takes a lot of time to control and you can't rush it.
- robin_reala 14y agoI was required to use a fountain pen at school (late 80s UK). Needless to say as a left handed person my enforced writing style one word, blot, one word, blot was anything but fluid.
- troels 14y agoAt least you weren't forced to write with your right hand. I have been told that was fairly common a generation further back (At least, my dad claims so).
- sdoering 14y agoI have been lucky, not being punished for writing with my left hand. My mother was forced to write with her right hand. But even in the 1980s pupils in Germany were forced to write with the right (in both meanings) hand. We now know a lot more, about what this does to a child's brain, but then, teachers just believed to be right.
- btilly 14y agoI knew a left-handed math prof who had had that treatment growing up in Holland. But he'd developed a party trick. One day he told us about this. And said that the result was that he could write with both hands. Different things. He demonstrated. Wrote with both hands at once, different things, on 2 neighboring boards. Kept on writing. Got to the bottom of the boards. Then turned around, began lecturing from the first board, reached the bottom, and continued the lecture from the second. He had laid out the boards perfectly to do this. It was a very impressive party trick.
- eru 14y agoWe had a slightly less impressive professor, who erased with the right and wrote with the left. Also at the same time.
- slurgfest 14y agoIt doesn't do anything to a child's brain, it's just gratuitously cruel. That is reason enough. But many people the world over learn to eat or whatever with a certain hand and it does not hurt their brain.
- josephcooney 14y agoI think even if your handwriting is crap a fountain pen just looks better, or at least more auspicious. Horrible for lefties of course, but very nice to use if you're right-handed.
- fractallyte 14y agoIf you're left-handed, handwriting proceeds best by mirroring what the right hand would do (ie. write 'backwards'). It's far more natural. Alright, so others will need a mirror to read it - but that ought to be society's problem, not yours! ("Equal rights for the Sinisterous!") In a gradual shift toward ambidexterity, I've found that questioning society's insistence on 'right-ness' can be enlightening...
- lifeisstillgood 14y agoPresumably script that proceeds right to left (and even upwards) was originated by left handed scribes edit spellchecker : left handed scribes became left handed scones. The history of heavy baked goods in the development of human civilisation has been scandalously neglected by a blinkered academic community.
- ithkuil 14y agoI remember I read somewhere about the fact that right-to-left script was preferred when carving script on stone. as right hand people supposedly prefer to hold the hammer on their right hand. I'm not sure if that's really the cause. Furthermore in many ancient scripts the direction was quite unimportant, in some cases even reverting in each line (Boustrophedon). Interesting take on direction of writing: http://shkrobius.livejournal.com/292987.html http://shkrobius.livejournal.com/292987.html
- dimitar 14y agoI don't get it. Why is it harder for lefties? Aren't the pens themselves ambidextrous?
- 14y ago