What Makes A Pen "boring" Or "boring Looking?"

[pajaro]

I have read a number of posts where a pen is described as "boring" or "boring looking." Why do people think this, and what are their expectations? Does this mean that pens with a simple, streamlined style are to be deemed "boring," and must the design be complex and highly stylized to not be "boring looking?" I am baffled by this.

 

Some things can make a pen tedious to use. Cap won't post, pen needs too frequent filling, dries up quickly, leaks, is too heavy, hard to fill. I guess you could become bored by things like these.

[Greenie]

Pens that I like are, by definition, interesting. Pens I don't like are, by definition, "boring". When I am appointed benevolent overlord of all things, I shall make all final determinations. Until then, all other aspiring benevolent overlords of all things shall maintain their own definitions to keep in wait for their impending coronations.

 

Reminds me of the most famous line from George Carlin "A Place for My Stuff" routine. If you aren't familiar, here is a link. Hold on until he gets to your stuff vs other people's stuff.

[nibfiend]

To me, a boring pen is one without the possibility of line variation. That's why I use dip pens and prefer old flexible nibs. As much as I love a beautiful pen, it's the line quality I'm most attached to and enthralled by.

Edited February 6, 2016 by Nibfiend

[max dog]

A pen would be boring for me not because of it's look, but by the way it writes. I generally find very dry writers quite boring. I like a nice wet writer that leaves a wet ink trail or where you can see the ink pool on the paper and dry.

[jar]

There can be as many answers as there are objects. For example, I find Pelikan pens boring, they simply do their job most of the time and about the only bad feature is that several have come uncapped while secured in my shirt pocket. I consider my Montblanc 149s boring. Again, they do what they should do but there is nothing about the design to get me excited. My other Montblancs are almost as boring until I get to one of the older models; the 40s and 50s MBs feel great in hand and are really giggle worthy.

[pajaro]

So, the consensus seems to be that boring is subjective and not absolute. Pens are not intrinsically boring, but we might find them to be boring to us. Good enough.

[Calamus plasticus]

Everything is in the eye of the beholder...

[The Blue Knight]

Pens I consider boring aren't bad pens, they just don't have anything particularly interesting about they write reasonably but lack notable features. Just another "good" pen.

Edited February 6, 2016 by The Blue Knight

[Orpilorp]

Everything is in the eye of the beholder...

 

 

Oh this is weird. When I opened this thread I immediately scrolled to the top in order to begin at the beginning, and as I was flying past your entry I quickly skim-read it as, "Everything is in the eye of the deceiver." That seemed proverbial, and I was curious why that would be written.

 

It might make for a nice bumper sticker or t shirt.

 

Then when I read down to your post I realised I had been stoopid. Seems like a good thing I'm getting new glasses this Monday.

[Arkanabar]

De gustibus non disputandum. ("In matters of taste, there are no arguments.")

The very earliest pens were made of black hard rubber with gold or perhaps gold-filled furniture, because that was the only suitable material available. Nearly everybody makes at least one pen that echoes this styling. It's rather like the charcoal-gray wool flannel suit; it's a style that, with minimal variations, is suitable for nigh unto every occasion.

But some people do find this uninteresting. They want more and brighter colors. They want the clip to have a cool shape. And Lord knows, there has been tremendous backlash against business semi-formal. So too against black and gold fountain pens.

I own some wildly colored pens -- Ahabs in Medieval Lapis, Mandarin Yellow, and Jade. I would be tickled pink to have a Konrad in Black Python in Pearls or Rattlesnake and Adrenaline (the two with pearlescent white acrylic and black veins), presuming they didn't dry out as fast and hard as the one I have in Pequod's Smoke. Those are really some eye-catching pens.

[sirgilbert357]

To me, a boring pen is one without the possibility of line variation. That's why I use dip pens and prefer old flexible nibs. As much as I love a beautiful pen, it's the line quality I'm most attached to and enthralled by.

This is why I love stubs...

 

It's all a matter of opinion. I like some of the so-called "boring" designs (Sailor comes to mind).

[penrivers]

If you have nothing to write then the pen is boring.

[pajaro]

If you have nothing to write then the pen is boring.

 

I like this. Thinking about it, times when I have been at a loss I was boring myself, but, then, the flash of an idea, and the pen has dried out. An old boring story.

[inkstainedruth]

I think black is boring. That being said, I have a number of black pens, because most of my pens are vintage ones and that's what I could find.

At this point, I'm also looking for variety in both color and nib. I passed on a green Snorkel in November, in favor of (yet) another black pen -- AND another black Snorkel at that, because of the nib....

Oh, and most very expensive pens (no matter the color) which are only in existence to be status symbols are super boring, IMO. If you can't write with a pen because it's large, heavy, and bling-y, that's about as boring as it gets (maki-e pens are NOT in this category, even though I can't afford or use them, because, for the most part they're also really beautiful).

So, yeah, what Calamus plasticus said. Eye of the beholder.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: Many modern acrylic pens are also boring to me, because they all sort of look the same. It's pretty easy to tell a vintage Sheaffer or Esterbrook from each other, and either of them from a Parker Vacumatic. But I'd be hard pressed to tell a Bexley from a Edison from a Rosetta from a Monteverde from even some of the acrylic Noodler's pens at first glance.

But unlike jar, I don't find most Pelikan pens boring at all. Except maybe the black and striated green ones (and I even have one of those -- a 50s era 400).

Edited February 7, 2016 by inkstainedruth

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I've wondered about this myself, and don't think that boring is a description I'd use (although I won't swear that I never have). It usually seems to describe a pen that simply does its job without requiring much thought from the user. That's exactly what I want most of the time. Or it may describe a design that has no visual appeal without being actually ugly. That's definitely a secondary consideration for me, although I do like the looks of some pens better than others. They aren't necessarily my favorite writing pens, though.

 

With vintage pens, I look for features that interest me, materials like vintage celluloids and BCHR, old filling systems, wonderful vintage nibs. I've enjoyed experimenting with dip pens. But just because I like these things doesn't mean that I'm bored by the more modern pens with which I do most of my writing.

 

By the way, I tend to prefer sober colors for inks, blue black and blue, dark purples and browns that might be mistaken for black if the light isn't bright enough. Some people talk about boring inks, as well.

[Arkanabar]

I've wondered about this myself, and don't think that boring is a description I'd use (although I won't swear that I never have). It usually seems to describe a pen that simply does its job without requiring much thought from the user. That's exactly what I want most of the time. (snip)

 

By the way, I tend to prefer sober colors for inks, blue black and blue, dark purples and browns that might be mistaken for black if the light isn't bright enough. Some people talk about boring inks, as well.

This, absolutely. The "solid color pen with a stainless cap" aesthetic that the Parker "51" ushered in doesn't really appeal to me, but its writing performance sure does. And my six essential inks are all relatively sober variations on black, blue-black, purple, blue, green, and brown.

 

And that's also the way I like my car and operating system -- reliable and without the excitement of malfunctions and breakdowns. A Jaguar Lightweight E-type might well be one of the most beautiful automobiles on the planet, but you wouldn't catch me owning one, unless I already had a Lexus and a Subaru that I knew I absolutely could count on when the Jaguar broke down. And Windows 7 doesn't get booted anywhere near as often as PCLinuxOS or even Bunsen Labs Linux, unless I don't have any work to get done.

Edited February 7, 2016 by Arkanabar

[nibfiend]

 

This is why I love stubs...

 

I'm not familiar with this term but I do have calligraphy pens and nibs. Not quite the same but still very satisfying.

 

As for not having something to write, that can be frustrating but I find that reading primes the pump -- deadlines too.

Edited February 7, 2016 by Nibfiend

[ANM]

In 1987 when Parker came out with the Duofold Centennial in Blue Marble, I thought it was the prettiest pen I'd ever seen so I got one with a fine nib. Well the nib was stiff as a railroad spike and about as wide as well. It was pretty but was a boring writer because of the nib. I still have it put away somewhere but I have used it less than half a dozen times. New Pelican pens are pretty much the same to me: quite often nice looking but boring writers.

Edited February 7, 2016 by ANM

[nibfiend]

I have a Montblanc somewhere I feel the same way about.

 

I thought about replacing the nib with a vintage Waterman of similar size.

[ENewton]

Pens with bodies made of brightly-colored plastic in solid colors remind me of how many objects in a modern urban environment are also made of brightly-colored plastic in solid colors..