Regular followers of this blog post are aware that we have been eternally interested in the societally existential subject of interpersonal interaction. In this essay, we will relate some historical and developmental observations on the vital phenomenon and development of the written form of communication. Our present focus, however, is specifically limited to our empirical observation, as contextually distinguished from a more extensive and esoteric examination of the phenomenon, such as a discussion of ancient Middle Eastern Cuneiform or Old Nordic runes. Additionally, our observations are sporadically colored by a measure of personal anecdotal recollection.
“Retro” individuals who persist in the employment of the traditional “pencil” might describe it as a small slender rod of solid marking substance (usually, graphite) enclosed in layers of soft wood, and used for writing, artwork, and marking. The development of pencil (point) sharpeners was pragmatically necessary so that the written end of the pencil might periodically be rendered in usable condition for transcriptive use
As will be remembered by mature readers, pencil sharpeners (small and handheld, mechanical or electric) were common tools employed in shaving the worn wooden surface of the pencil’s end for exposure of the graphite, affording continued use.
We can vividly remember our immigrant mother’s use of a wooden pencil in her regular course of correspondence, (in the Yiddish language) implemented by way of the pragmatic facility of the penny postcard, with her elder sister, Anna, living “far distant” from Brooklyn, New York, viz., in the then perceived exotic territory of Middletown, Connecticut. Her postcards to our “Tante Anna” always commenced with the salutation, written in Yiddish, [phon.]” Liebe Schvester”) [trans.] “Dear” Sister,” The conduct of such regular familial correspondence was personally made somewhat more difficult due to an amputated right index finger, medically performed in primitive, rural White Russia (Belarus) ie, “the old Country;” and notably illustrative of Russian 20th Century medical sophistication as appropriate to badly infected fingers. Her sporadic need for a pencil sharpener was satisfied by the use of a sharp, dextrally employed kitchen knife. It may be confidently said that such personal messages were light-years in aesthetic distance from the iconic letters (“Belle Lettres”) of Henry *8th to Anne Boleyn, Frida Kahlo to Diego Rivera, or those of Zelda Fitzgerald to F. Scott Fitzgerald, but functioned as an effective assurance of the continuance of a close sibling relationship, now resident in the new country.
During our public school era, “dipping pens” were the contemporary school implements universally employed for writing. The implement was a wood with an attached metal-tipped version of the archaic writing goose feather quill, which as in the case of its avian ancestor, regularly dipped in ink to imprint alphabetic letters,.was uncomfortably scratchy and often accompanied by ink blots, some as disturbingly regular as chicken pox. The wooden desks, stereotypic in the time’s early grades featured lidded metal “ink wells” at the right corner for continuous pen dipping.
Our handwriting was never aesthetically admirable but did somewhat improve with the advent of the “Scripto” ballpoint pen. Ballpoint pens quickly replaced the “dip” pens, systemically contained the necessary ink for transcription, and were easily portable, Today our hand-written activity is accomplished with an attractively designed “roller” ballpoint pens. Stylish “Fountain pens,” pens with enclosed ink blatters were always available, but needed periodic suction ink filling.
Written communication, however, manifested, has always had the salutary characteristics of reassuring personal nuance and familiarity to the addressee and afforded the communicator time to select words most reflective of their intended meaning and\ tone. It has uniformly been our view that the written mode of communication is the most articulate and emotionally accurate.
It was this most valuable and humanistic avenue of the societally existential interpersonal mode of communication that was sadly sacrificed to the keyboard laptop and the inadequately articulate “smartphone” (sic) that catalyzed contemporary diversity and feelings of neurotic insular loneliness.
It may be of interest to observe that it was the copious, invaluable letters of ” Pliny the Younger” (79 A.D.) that famously provide a historical treasure trove of information regarding the early Roman era, and, for the readers’ possible curiosity, the eponymous title of this blogspace.
In the advent of the digital age, handheld writing implements and their facility for transcribing and communicating thoughtful and personally nuanced communications were irresponsibly and ubiquitously surrendered for less tiresome, albeit, more humanistic and expressive interaction. Electronically transmitted messages bearing informational or timely advice have, in the desire for enticing interest of speed and convenience, foolishly sacrificed the intimacy of healthy personal inter-communication, Individuals are instantly and conveniently in touch with each other, but are thereby, inadequately articulate. The desire for speed and facility of individual contact has sadly overridden its foundational purpose.
It is our earnest suggestion that, in addition to the facility of computer utilization, the thoughtful individual supplementally maintains the salubrious use of the written and spoken word as existentially vital insurance of the continued endurance of our healthy and humanistic identity as individuals and discreet, identifiable constituents of the planet’s human society.
- Title temporarily borrowed from Omar Khayyam
-p.
plinyblogdotcom 