Putting Pen To Paper

The summer is in full swing, the tourists mingle among us, and as we plan for autumn and finalize the next issue of the SQ, I am writing like a fiend! Of course, it needs to be said that I do the majority of my writing easily on my laptop, but I also do a fair amount of note taking by hand—on notepads and little bits of paper I find lying around. My notes are then transferred into digital form on my computer and further developed and transformed into articles, essays or poems, yes—poems!

Back in 2012 as I prepared to take some photos for the premiere issue of the SQ, I thought, wouldn’t it be great to have an old fountain pen in some of the shots for my editorial page? Well, what I didn’t know was the difficulty I’d have in trying to purchase one. I remembered how easy it was, back in the 70s, to have a selection of relatively inexpensive options; and now, I had to visit three stores just to see if they sold more than one.

We start writing, beginning with printing the alphabet and then move on to cursive writing or script. Amusingly, I remember in the U.S. being allowed to use pencil or pen for my schoolwork; however using an ink pen was mandatory when I attended school in Antigua, where we usually used fountain pens! And penmanship was a subject of study.

In Sitges, penmanship or “cuadrícula” usually ends around the age of 4yrs, and cursivo begins in the 5^th year. Unfortunately, around the western world, it seems this skill starts to really wane by the 11^th year when using the computer is required to complete schoolwork. This in itself is a big change, but also, the expectation is ambitious due to the assumption that every child has access to a computer, and can type, without having typewriting lessons! 

Handwriting is unique, expressive and believed to be a trademark of personality. Interestingly, the first book to describe how to analyze handwriting dates back all the way to 1611. And handwriting, believe it or not, stimulates functions of language, by actually using an alphabet or visual symbols (characters) of the sounds used in communication. And unfortunately, it appears the decline in physical writing by hand has a correlation to ones ability to decipher handwriting.

Commercial typewriting in the 1800s started to change things and made it easy to leave calligraphy as an art of the past, and it can be said the universal usage of the telephone (created in the late 1870s) also had an enormous impact on letter writing. 

Today we consume volumes of the written word via numerous web pages, eBooks, and posts on social media platforms albeit reduced to texting or using sms (short message service), emails and of course, tweeting… 

There is however, some good in these new shorter forms of expression using new technologies—remember the quick postings on Twitter and other social networks which created momentum for social uprisings in Tunisia and Cairo? And the effective #Black Twitter, a cultural identity on the social network focused on issues of interest to the black community, particularly in the United States during this tumultuous time. These postings are consumed, and actually bring about social change. 

The writing of letters by hand, one of the most personal of human acts, sadly is dying. But I hope we never lose the art of penmanship, a sometimes very beautiful expression of our uniqueness. Remember how wonderful it was to receive personal correspondence through the post?

Receiving emails somehow just doesn’t come close to feeling the pages of a hand written letter from a loved one.

For more interesting information go to:

http://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/tw-history.html