Why are we so alone?

[antoniosz]

REMOVED BY AUTHOR

but not from google cache.

 

check this link

[Elaine]

LOL! Thank you Antonios!

[Michael Wright]

I'm echoing antoniosz's question about why we want pen collecting to become mainstream. I see on PT expressions about "the development of the hobby" and so on. It reminds me of people talking about "growing the sport" when what they are actually doing is turning a sport into part of the entertainment industry.

 

I can see KCat's point, but I don't feel any particular personal responsibility to ensure that pen-collecting continues. If I meet someone who seems interested in what they write with, then I'll certainly suggest they try a fountain pen -- and I might even give them a Parker 45, if I like them. But, well, I just don't think FP collecting is that important that I want to institutionalize it.

 

I can also understand the constant itch for agreed standards, but I wonder if this isn't the fallacy of the single figure of merit. Pens are simple objects, but they can depart from perfection in a variety of ways. For many people, a 1920s celluloid jade pen that is perfect in colour is unimprovable, and it doesn't matter how it writes -- in fact, people will probably remove the sac. But for other people a Waterman 52 that is just slightly oxidized, but has a superb flex nib, will be the star of their collection. That's the way it is, but I'm not sure that a single grading scale could do justice to both kinds of interest.

 

Makes more sense if we're talking about museum quality, because there appearance and structural integrity is everything. So maybe we're back to talking about the old distinction between serious collectors and accumulators.

 

Best

 

Michael

 

an eirenic accumulator

[antoniosz]

I agree Micheal 100%.

 

For the unsuspected readers of this revived discussion: In my earlier posting of 10/25, I just wanted to point the irony of a paradoxic situation created by the "self"-removal of the posting by prior "member". Google has maintained his postings in the cache How Google dared? :ph34r: Just an internal FPN joke of the early 2005 Ignore it and on with the dicussion..

Edited October 26, 2005 by antoniosz

[Stylo]

Google has maintained his postings in the cache How Google dared? :ph34r: Just an internal FPN joke of the early 2005 Ignore it and on with the dicussion..

Google is like a black hole. It tries to suck in and and store every bite that ever makes it to the internet.