Just a quick something. If you like handwriting, get a fountain pen and revel in the feel.
I love pens. There is something more about the connection of thought to the motion of handwriting. I'm sure someone has researched it and typed a wonderful essay or paper about it, although I would imagine typing can catch stream of thought more easily. I own one fountain pen and only use it for the novelty, because I much prefer this pen. You cannot beat Japanese or Korean pens because the particulars of their written languages require good function. Writing kanji or hangul with the Bics you can buy at a gas station would be incredibly frustrating, I imagine. It writes like pushing melting ice across a smooth surface. The sound of removing and replacing the pen cap makes me feel like a Japanese man spent weeks at a lathe getting the fit perfect just so it would resonate as it does. When you put cap back on, the sound pitches up until it reaches the catch. The suction when placing and removing the cap to and from the back of the pen just makes me feel so satisfied. It's like pulling your finger out of a tube that fits so snuggly around your finger it makes the "pop" at exit, but without the pop.
But you never said what kind! What kind of nib is that, a medium? Cartridge? Converter? Lever? Plunger? I have three fountain pens. I have a Montblanc with a bold nib. It's very nice, but I almost never have really nice paper, so it often comes out a bit anesthesia and ink gets all over my hands. I love it. Carrying an ink bottle around is a pain though. I have a Lamy with a medium nib that is my everyday pen. It's made out of some kind of impact resistant plastic that can really take a beating. It can be tough to get the ink going again if I haven't used it in a while, but I like it enough that I'd buy another. They're still under $40 I think. Lastly, I have a Cross, with a fine nib, which I love, but unfortunately, the cartridges are really small, almost as if they were designed for a pen used exclusively for signatures. Anyway, I still have terrible handwriting but I love letting my hands shape the words and seeing how the lines are influenced by the implements. Tools are very important to me and I find that often the people who don't consider their tools to be important, are tools themselves. Edit: sleepiness errors
I have a Lamy as well, but with a fine nib. The plastic does seem like it could survive just about anything. It's a great, solid pen. The relationship between people and their tools is very interesting to me. I wonder if there are subtle creative benefits to using "your favorite ____" while working. Or if it constrains you within things created by it in the past. Or if it doesn't matter whatsoever.
I've only ever tried the medium. I didn't think to ask if other widths were available, though at the price, it's very doable. I did try one of the clear ones not too long ago and though color or opacity/transparency shouldn't matter, it did feel different somehow. I don't know if I liked it or not. I certainly think there are. I have no hard evidence, but when writing with a pen and particularly a fountain pen, sometimes I'll write something just because I enjoy the feeling of the nib on paper traveling through the pen and into my hand. Sometimes with typewriters I do the same, but because I like the sound, or the way I have to engage with it much more physically. On a computer I have noticed that I chop things up and move them around in ways that I can't otherwise and sometimes good things have come out of that. This is really interesting to think about and it hadn't occurred to me before. I have often wondered what it might be like to use the implements of someone I admire. I'd like to check this out someday, though I can't imagine what circumstances would have to conspire to make that a possibility, much less an opportunity.I wonder if there are subtle creative benefits to using "your favorite ____" while working.
Or if it constrains you within things created by it in the past. Or if it doesn't matter whatsoever.
Every once in a while I get the urge to learn calligraphy. I just imagine getting a fountain or dip pen and some nice, heavy pieces of paper and practising my penmanship. I've had horrible writing for as long as I can remember, it was one of the things my teachers commented on consistently throughout my time in elementary school. I recently started using a moleskine to try and organize my time and I quickly found out that the paper they use is absolute shit. It's so thin that sometimes the ink just sits on it like a drop of water on the counter. Eventually it'll sink in, but it just bleeds horribly through. Anyway, I should probably work on the content of my writing first before I work on penmanship.