I love pens and writing implements. That shouldn't come as a surprise to many people who read this blog, but I've been giving a lot of thought recently to why I like these things so much. Not just why I get up early to take the time to post three times a week or more, but why I care enough to regularly deal with aligning nib tines, cleaning up ink burps, or sharpening pencils, when it would just be so much easier to fire up Word and have at it. Why I care enough to take at least two annual trips to mingle with other like-minded enthusiasts at pen shows around the country. And why I think our reasons for liking pens offer some insight into some recent controversy that's generated a lot of discussion.
I Buy My Pens to Write with Them
To me, my pens aren't just a frivolous interest; they're a core part of my workflow. Members of this community (and my comments here are applicable to the entire "analog writing" community, not just the fountain pen community, though fountain pens is where I have most of my experience) often hear their interest derided as "impractical" and a "waste of time and money," since everything is "going digital" and handwriting will be "obsolete." As you might expect, I disagree. I write a minimum of 30 pages a day for my job, and every single thing I write, whether it be a brief, oral argument, etc., starts with pen and pencil on paper. As far back as I can remember, I've used pen and paper to collect my thoughts, outline, and even write entire first drafts by hand. Since high school, I've had to deal with people (teachers/bosses/colleagues) urging me to improve my "efficiency" by moving everything to a computer, only to have them back off when they see the end result.
I'm not one of these people who wants to preserve handwriting for handwriting's sake. I'm ambivalent at best on whether cursive is essential, and think schools traditionally have placed too much emphasis on what handwriting looks like as opposed to what it accomplishes. I'd bet money on the fact that many people who want to "kill handwriting" still resent the fact that they were marked down in school because their teachers didn't consider their handwriting "pretty" enough. My own childhood handwriting was uniformly criticized as atrocious (and it kept me off the elementary school honor roll for six years, hah!). Abolishing handwriting altogether, however, is insane, and the equivalent of not teaching kids how to do math because we have calculators. Handwriting is a powerful tool for thought and analysis. My parents were always great about assuring me that the "process" of writing things out by hand was what mattered, that it helped develop your thinking, and that sooner or later nobody would care whether your handwriting was "too small" or "too cramped." I kept at it, and sure enough, they were right. Today, having moved into a supervisory role at my job, I'm seeing firsthand the consequences of people abandoning handwriting altogether. Writing is disorganized, research is shallow, and, overall, the quality of work is poor and getting worse every year. If there ever was an argument against abolishing handwriting, it's what passes for professional writing in the modern workplace. On the other hand, whenever I'm blown away by the quality of something someone has written for me, more often than not I'll find their desk littered with pen cups, notebooks, and legal pads.
Given how much I use my pens on a daily basis, and the value I place on handwriting, I won't dignify the "pens-are-a-waste-of-money" argument with a response. (Though I will say that I'll gladly put the total cost of my pen and ink collection up against what some of my friends spend going out to dinner/drinking on an annual basis, and happily have an objective discussion about what qualifies as flushing money down the toilet.)
We Are Largely Users, Not Collectors.
I will often refer to my "collection" of pens, but I don't consider my self to be a pen collector. "Collector" conjures up an image of someone sitting in a room with boxes upon boxes of items, some displayed, some not, perhaps categorized by rare variant, but hardly ever used. I buy my pens to write with them. If a pen sits for more than a few months without finding its way into the rotation, then I find a new home for it. I didn't pay good money (sometimes in the hundreds of dollars) for what is essentially a tool to sit around unused.
I've been a "hardcore" fountain pen user for 5 years now, and I've been blogging for just under two. By my count (and take this with a grain of salt, I'm writing this at 5:45 a.m.), I've been to seven pen shows. While there have been some awkward experiences mingling with other members of this community at those shows, on the whole it's been a positive experience. Without exception, the people whom I've met through this somewhat offbeat interest of mine have been interesting, intelligent, and most of all, friendly and eager to meet others who also see the importance of working offline in an increasingly digital world.
Matt Armstrong's write-up of his experience at the 2016 Los Angeles Pen Show sparked a flurry of blog posts, tweets, and spirited discussions over e-mail and Slack. In short, a great many people have the feeling that they are "unwelcome" at pen shows, and that many of the vendors and exhibitors at these shows don't want to give them the time of day. From several things I've witnessed first-hand over the years at shows, these feelings are justified, and a lot of them are indeed attributable to blatant agism, sexism, and a lack of appreciation for the overall more diverse crowd that makes up the new community of people interested in this stuff.
But I think there's something else going on here as well, that hasn't received much play. The new group of fountain pen enthusiasts that's started to attend shows are, on the whole, users, not collectors. They are coming to shows because, today, unless you live in a major city or near one of the few specialized shops devoted to fountain pens and fountain pen accessories, it's nearly impossible to go to a retail store and try out a fountain pen--it's simply not economical for most brick and mortar retailers of writing implements to stock them, where such retailers still exist at all. This generally younger crowd doesn't have the disposable income to purchase a pen that's going to sit in the case, or on display, and never be used. If they come to a show, and a vintage pen catches their eye, they're going to want to use it.
