An Accidental Membership

[Man-in-Need]

Hello from Reading, Pennsylvania--a city so dangerous that they give out free gurneys with every purchase of a new home. I am a college student, philosophy major, who's something of a recent devotee/initiate to high-end fountain pens. I only really became interested in FP's because I was (and am still) learning Pittman shorthand and needed something to adjust line thickness. I had to overcome those old images of fountain pens being used by Morgans, Floods, and Vanderbilts to clench big money mergers. But in the end I was and am still being rewarded with pens that are easy to handle and more aesthetic than sledgehammers like Bics and Zebras. I apologize for my wordiness and the jaunty nature of this post, but I do better in response than in initial greetings.

[Slush99]

Welcome!

[Gatorade]

Just remeber fountain pens were once not what the elite used to write with but what all used to write with. Think about it as keeping the regular users alive by using them daily.

[Dillo]

Hi,

 

I hope you have fun here.

 

One of us might be able to source a Pelikan Steno for Stenographers for you from Germany.

 

Dillon

[Man-in-Need]

That does sound interesting. Right now, however, I am holding out with baited breath for Monteverde's "Mega Ink Ball" It should go along well with my Waterman Phileas and Namiki Vanishing Point. But as to your first point, I don't know how these items like fountain pens acquire such an aire of elitism and mystique. Frankly, I can't write with ballpoint pens anymore because it feels as if I'm writing with a carrot or a cigar, in the case of thick ones. Even more, I find FP's more aesthetic and thoughtful than BP's could ever be.

When I talk to people about FP's, their eyes almost glaze over. I end up looking like a museum piece or a fustillarian. It seems to be impossible for them to overcome initial prejudices about these older pens. I now know how Morpheus felt in the Matrix. People have to empirically prove to themselves the power of FP's before they will believe them. Still, I am afraid to let people touch my FP's. One woman I know wanted to write with my VP, and upon receiving it, wrote against the grain with the nib turned over. Needless to say, I nearly had a heart attack. This is the kind of thing we must be on guard against. And this is why I blame the cheap ballpoint and current educational practices for the bad handwriting and the general disinterest that plagues writing among the people I know. I better say more about myself rather than sustain this Dennis Miller-style rant.

I am a philosophy major in Reading Pennsylvania who is interested in fountain pens. My sister is an art major at Tyler, a Temple feeder. I am originally from the South, namely Texas, but moved around too much and frequently because I was an oil brat. Also, I am a classicist who shuns much of modern philosophy, even though it's my area of study. Generally, one will find that I am someone who is thoroughly disenchanted by college and all its pre/promises. I use fountain pens, quills, and other exotic writing instruments because it is the one way that writing has again become real for me. I will end here because otherwise I am going to become like James Joyce, only less educational and half as fun.

[Velma]

This is why I often keep a cheap pen around for people to try -- although I've had great luck with my coworkers and my fountain pens. Perhaps because some of them are so intimidated by the very concept that they hold them gingerly.

 

On the other hand, I lent -- did I tell this before? if so, my apologies -- my Sheaffer Craftsman with the Dillonized stub nib to a coworker to address her wedding invitations, and she liked it enough that her fiance bought her a fountain pen for a Valentine's Day gift. So the joy spreads....

[JimStrutton]

On the other hand, I lent -- did I tell this before? if so, my apologies -- my Sheaffer Craftsman with the Dillonized stub nib to a coworker to address her wedding invitations, and she liked it enough that her fiance bought her a fountain pen for a Valentine's Day gift. So the joy spreads....

WOW Velma,

 

That was generous to a fault!

 

I bought a few of those pens that Ray brought back from Pakistan and they have been great pens to get people into writing with a nib and ink!

 

I also have a couple of "51"'s that I have built or restored, mainly from eBay that are great pens for people to try. I choose the ones that have a nib more nail like as they are difficult to damage.

 

Well done

 

Jim

[BMWRT]

Welcome,

What college do you attend in Reading? I am somewhat familiar with that area.

[DRP]

Let me endorse the idea of carrying one of the Pakistani pens which Ray Blake bought. Cheap; about $7.85 including shipping based upon current exchange rates. I've given away a couple of them and people quickly learn the joy of a fountain pen -- then step up to something better. However, I really like mine because it does a good job and is surprisingly durable. The pen is a Dux 612. I recommend it.

[Man-in-Need]

I attend Albright College right in the heart of Reading (a.k.a. Gary-on-the-Schuykill) This little college is known as Pennsylvania's Harvard, but I don't think it merits such praise. Our buildings are quaint, but our faculty is dilapidated. Let me describe it for you: My chief philosophy professor is an avowed anarchist who once told me that the faculty used to be avowedly hard-core Communist, but have recently swung more to the right and turned fascist. We have a bunch of extremists who teach at this college and indoctrinate the students who come their way. I say of myself and what in truth should happen to all students, that education, especially mine, has occurred and will only occur in spite of the poisonous atmosphere of colleges and schools. Boy if we could only let go of our English, Religion, and and Poli-Sci departments, the campus would be so much happier. There is something truly tiresome about talking with one of our professors. It always seems as if every month and year are October of 1917. G.K. Chesterton was right "The high life is in fact quite low"

 

As to the point about pens: I specifically keep a cheapy ballpoint in my pocket for when someone seems to ask if I have a spare pen. They can lose the pen and I won't care. I learned a lot working behind the scenes at college. Where I work, we adopted a new policy: if you want a pen, you give us your name and phone no. or driver's license. Suddenly we've gotten a lot more pens back. I may generalize upon what I have seen and say that pens don't command the respect they used to. (I think this is part of the general trend that seems to be overtaking society, wherein it says that all things real are passe')

 

What then is the ideal cheapo fountain pen to carry in case someone asks for a pen?

[Roger]

Good grief, Man, why do you stay if it's so repugnant to you?

 

PA has many good small colleges/universities that might better suit your tastes, e.g. Dickinson, Gettysburg, Haverford, Swarthmore and Muhlenberg to name a few.

 

I assume that you are aiming for a career in academia as I don't know how one earns a living as a philosophy major, otherwise.

[southpaw]

Hello and welcome to FPN!

 

On the loaner issue, I would be more willing to lend out my VP than many of my other pens for two reasons: 1) it's built like a tank and would be tough to damage with anything resembling "normal" use; and 2) the nib/converter units are easily and cheaply replaceable, especially compared to other pens.

 

See you around!

[Man-in-Need]

I am staying because I have very little time left anyhow. And what I shall do after college is what I am working on when not posting on this forum. The thing that inspires such trenchant cynicism among the college crowd is the repetitious nature of the things that professors say. It is like a perpetual litany of trite problems: the world is going to pot (which many smoke), Western society is the mark of the beast and the augur of Armageddon, women are oppressed, and the only way for anyone to achieve salvation is incidentally to listen to and implement the program that the professor or professors are preaching. These people are the intellectual equivalent of a Lionel model train set where they have a one track mind with two basic functions: on and off. But rather than blather, read an interesting little book called "The Fall of the Ivory Tower"

I undestand your frustration with my attitude. I hear this complaint from many other people. It reminds me of a joke Bill Maher told: My father once took me aside and said," Son, life is just one big, long whirlpool of despair that sucks you down to the bottom from the day your born until you die; and as your struggling for breath you cling to little pieces of driftwood called memories and suck up little air bubbles of hope, but none of it helps." Then I said, "Dad, just tell me if I can get a new bike or not"

[Roger]

Oh no, Man, I'm not frustrated with your attitude, I'm only concerned at your frustration.

 

But, I see what you mean. You are nearly fully vested in your work at Albright, so a change at this point would not be advisable.

 

If it were me, I assure you that I would be as frustrated at the agendizing [sic] going on at the university level as you...maybe more so!

It shouldn't be going on, but in this wonderful world of tenure anything's possible. Just hold your nose and get that sheepskin.

 

Welcome to FPN!

[KendallJ]

I had to overcome those old images of fountain pens being used by Morgans, Floods, and Vanderbilts to clench big money mergers.

Now, why would one need to overcome an image like that? Probably some of the best uses of fountain pens devised.

[Man-in-Need]

The reason that those images were so hard to overcome was that I had seen old Tex Avery and Tom and Jerry cartoons that satirized the old rubber vaccuum filler FP's as well as the aristocratic lifestyle thoroughly. Those shorts left impressions that while funny were hard to overocome. I always connected FP's with all things ostentatious. It wasn't until I took up shorthand that I was required to use an FP. But now I fear that I have reached the opposite end. When I use ballpoints, I feel like a man in a silk suit walking through a sewer. I try to get people to use FP's, but they always either look at me the way one would look at a pirate or handle the FP's badly as I mentioned in the first post.

And to the person who complained about the agendizing/proselytizing, you should come to the campus. It is so viciously political that when a history professor was named the college's Teacher of the Year, instead of giving an acceptance speech, he ranted for 10 minutes on the evils of Bush and the Iraqi invasion. I can count on both hands how many times my classes have deviated from the curriculum to talk about the other Great Satan.

After all these years of politicking in the class room, I have come to the same conclusion as Ivan Illich: the schools and colleges of the Western world cannot be reformed, they are too political,bureaucratized, and standardized to be effective places of education. What needs to take their place are smaller, unscheduled colleges, devoid of public funding and PC culture, or even private tutelage programs. Modern colleges are a sinking ship no one can save. To change course though...

I believe that right now we might be seeing a miniature revival of the FP and all things hand made in writing instruments. I find an increasing frustration with technology and what one pithy book has called "the cult of speed" I see now that even Moleskine has a cult following and a website. I only used initially Moleskine, FP's out of necessity. But combined with the fact that I carry those, a wind up watchfob and a handkerchief on me, I look strange, perhaps antique. However, my attitude remains the same: "I have seen the future, and it doesn't work" In the coming years it may be cool, not just elite, to use writing implements and other equipment that are actually slow to use, and hand made. I don't know. What do others think?

[saturation]

I attend Albright College right in the heart of Reading (a.k.a. Gary-on-the-Schuykill) This little college is known as Pennsylvania's Harvard, but I don't think it merits such praise. Our buildings are quaint, but our faculty is dilapidated. Let me describe it for you: My chief philosophy professor is an avowed anarchist who once told me that the faculty used to be avowedly hard-core Communist, but have recently swung more to the right and turned fascist.  We have a bunch of extremists who teach at this college and indoctrinate the students who come their way. I say of myself and what in truth should happen to all students, that education, especially mine, has occurred and will only occur in spite of the poisonous atmosphere of colleges and schools. Boy if we could only let go of our English, Religion, and and Poli-Sci departments, the campus would be so much happier. There is something truly tiresome about talking with one of our professors. It always seems as if every month and year are October of 1917. G.K. Chesterton was right "The high life is in fact quite low"

 

  As to the point about pens: I specifically keep a cheapy ballpoint in my pocket for when someone seems to ask if I have a spare pen. They can lose the pen and I won't care. I learned a lot working behind the scenes at college. Where I work, we adopted a new policy: if you want a pen, you give us your name and phone no. or driver's license. Suddenly we've gotten a lot more pens back.  I may generalize upon what I have seen and say that pens don't command the respect they used to. (I think this is part of the general trend that seems to be overtaking society, wherein it says that all things real are passe')

 

What then is the ideal cheapo fountain pen to carry in case someone asks for a pen?

 

I'm impressed. Welcome to FPN. You joined the group with such a flare for words that does justice to your philosophy major. I didn't know such Bohemians existed in Reading, PA, of all places. In the 20 years I've lived in Pennsylvania, I haven't heard the quality of your rhetoric online.

 

However, word of advice. You sound like a contrarian in a sea of leftism. At least you will find your dialectic skills at its sharpest, given that nearly everything taught to you is a source of irk and argument.

 

As Sun Tzu said: "Know thy enemy and know thyself, find naught in fear for 100 battles. Know thyself but not thy enemy, find level of loss and victory. Know thy enemy but not thyself, wallow in defeat every time."

 

Now, the big question is what jobs do graduated Philosophers nouveau take this days?

 

As for the fountain pen to lend, consider a disoposable fountain pen that you could potentially refill when the time comes, the Pilot Varsity.

 

If you check on my name you'll find links to discussion of the same.

[Man-in-Need]

I am a disenchanted (with the Republicans) --if you want to know why read Bruce Bartlett's "Impostor" or James Bovard's recent book--small-government conservative who is stuck in with a group of people who lean so far left as to nearly fall over all the time. The thing that is most tiresome is that they only have two tracks of thought: communize everything and throw money at it, via the government. I swear when Albright burns down, they won't call the fire dept. but throw nickels at the fire to put it out. For once I had to agree with Rush "El Narco" Limbaugh when he said "It's never socialism's fault. It's always capitalism or conservatives or religious people. If we just try it some new way, it'll finally work right"

This is the garbage that permeates this campus and it is discouraging to the philosophy majors. We really don't know what to do with our majors because philosophy has cut its own throat. Page through the "masters" of pomo (postmodernism--which "THE SIMPSONS" defined as weirdness for weirdness' sake) and the tone is this cynical Nietzschean nonsense or the pseudo-scholarship of people like Michel Foucault and E.O. Wilson. All this philosophy is committed to a program of reductionistic materialism that combines Freud's and Nietzsche's cynicism with the overblown language of a Derrida. Even more, everything is explicable in terms of evolution, which is nothing more than a tautology masquerading as a definition. On this campus and the other campuses (campa, technically) the philosophy depts. are perpetual streams of lies and moonshine and bald-faced self-contradiction.

I cannot express enough my weariness at how the professors champion ideas like global warming, the AIDS plague, or Darwinian evolution, when day by day we read headlines or columns that obsolesce these theories. This is what Daniel Flynn meant by the term "INTELLECTUAL MORONS" I swear that our world would be much easier without all these calamity howlers shouting at us on the street corners. My man Chesterton was right once again when he declared that "[t]he elites and cranks do not want" to trust people and "democracy, because democracy will cure us of the elites and cranks".

Still, are there any cheap Chinese pens that would work for a satisfying disposable?

[Melnicki]

Dear Man-in-Need:

 

I, too, am new here, and flourishing by procrastination for studying for a big qualifying exam next week. I'm in graduate school at Berkeley. While I am a biologist (I will leave my greater views aside for the time being), I cherish the intellectual rigor you express and would deem it safe to identify you as a "Dandy". This is a category of behavior and interest that I have recently come to appreciate, as I last year started wearing suspenders and a few months ago came to adore FPs. (These, of course, are only stigmata of becoming a dandy... the true spirit, I believe, is not one of fashion and implements but rather of the perspective that intellectual sophistication is not uncool).

 

The question I want to pose to you is: how do you cope, being a weirdo-dandy? In many of my other personal interests & behaviors (idiosyncrasy is a word that lately has been satisfying to use), the particularities of which I agreed to leave aside for the time being (no sense in converting your welcoming here into a debate), I have often found myself contrary to mainstream. This is quite beyond the "dandy" sophistication. But, nevertheless, it is this conundrum of "coolness" vs "peculiarity" in our society. I do spend time among the Berkeley counterculturals and even there it is quite difficult to find comraderie. Everything has been piecemeal for me, a new friend here, someone interested in esoterica there... But nowhere have I found a (progressive) community of folks that are attempting to objectively leave no stone unturned, to embark upon the joy of knowledge and reason that (supposedly) flourished during the Enlightenment. Even in Berkeley, a place where people joke that the wait-staff at restaurants have Ph.D.'s, I find it near impossible to locate and interact and learn mutually with other people of this sort of disposition. I would boil it down to the fact that it is still "uncool" to be smart. All the most intelligent people I meet also moonlight as alcoholics (dare I synonymize that with "drug addict"? After all, look at the serious coffee-addiction that proliferates the workplace).

 

I apologize that I am not taking the time to say this more succinctly (something incredibly crucial for communications of this sort).

 

One thing that worries me, MIN, is that you seem to purport that you have considered a great deal of intellectualism and that you have formed a perspective already. On the contrary, our thoughts continually develop on account of the fact that no single academic (or other human) knows everything. I think it is incredibly valuable for intellectuals to display humility in admitting the things that are unknown, poorly understood, mysterious... In the natural sciences, it is crucial in order to differentiate one's thinking from that of charlatans that would be better suited in the field of marketing or trial law.

 

And a final note: I do not think the question for MIN is "what kind of job will you get with a degree in philosophy?" Why is success measured by paid profession? MIN has alluded to a project that is being pursued in parallel with the academic degree, and that, by itself (a personal project), is sufficient. It shows you have ideas and dreams and direction and momentum. Profession will work itself out once you gain expertise and thus authority. Heed not the worries of income; if it is truly passion off which you operate, then ends can always be met financially.

 

Okay, I lied. That wasn't my final note; let me try again:

I'm quite fond of the concept of digging throug the Cheapie FP's to uncover which are the underdogs, much as I do with other facets of my life (digging through obscurity and esoterica). Here's what I've gathered so far from reading these forums (I'm compiling a wishlist)... People have ranked highly the Reform Skywalker (7.99), Wality's (69L eyedropper with high capacity for 9.99), some Hero's (still unsure what makes a good Hero and what makes a poor one), Dux 612, as mentioned above, the ugly Rotring Core (obtainable under $10 on ebay), Charles Hubert. I haven't yet tried out the Kaweco Sport that Elizabeth has sent me, but that's another candidate. Slightly higher price-point ($15-20 range) would include some Hero's, Phileas off ebay, the Duke pens (these have my eyes googling), Giovanni's Tryphon Liu...

 

That list should probably go onto a different thread... but I'll be adding, adapting, etc. What I'm really curious about is that problem with the Hero's -- some are great, some are (Potty Mouth). Yi Cheng has a page of under-$12-shipped ("dream of a better pen" or something like that), some of which are just $5 shipped, and I imagine some of these are incredible deals...

 

For me, I think the way to get people hooked is through ink. Prove to them that you can write in ANY color imaginable. Pick something really weird (like a dark orange) and people will realize that NO BP/RB/gel can give you that kind of unique writing.

 

Cheers,

MM.

Edited March 10, 2006 by Melnicki

[Michael Wright]

Two thoughts.

 

1. If you're going to lend fountain pens, a Parker "51" ain't a bad pen to hand someone -- they're tough, and will take a fair bit of abuse (I know, I've lent one to students and winced at the way they've written with it, but it's still come up smiling). I think everyone should have at least one user-grade "51."

 

2. I know what you mean about the Marxist establishment in what is still, laughingly, called the Humanities. OTOH, they aren't really Communists because there is, for many, a huge disconnect between what is taken as the discourse of the profession and what their real life beliefs and practices are. For a good example, the Sokal Social Text hoax: these are people for whom "subversive" is a term of praise, yet when someone pulls off a good bluff, it's all about professional decency and stuff. But it seems to me that this is much worse in English and "Cultural Studies" than in Philosophy and History, and it happens because the American academy has always been very factionalized: so well organized about getting PhD graduates jobs, but does this by influence, which leads to parties and party lines. At the moment it's a tedious nostalgia for the Spirit of '68 (yes, because it all comes from Paris), but it used to be other things. And it all means essentially nothing in terms of life as it is lived.

 

But don't dismiss evolution. It's the best account we have so far of how we got to be this way, and as a matter of fact the Left Establishment really hates hearing about it, because it means that not all human behaviour is socially conditioned, which is a primary tenet of the current orthodoxy. To be a knee-jerk contrarian is to be a slave to fashionable ideas, too.

 

It's a pity your philosophers are in the same boat. I used to work at the University of Auckland, where the Philosophy Department is rather distinguished. They take Continental Philosophy more seriously than most Anglophone departments, but they're not soppy. I'm especially impressed by a book by an acquaintance: Julian Young's _The Death of God and the Meaning of Life_. I read it because he thought he was dying when he wrote it (actually, he was dying, but they tried highly experimental stem-cell therapy, and he's cured), and came away hugely moved by the way in Philosophy they can still talk about important things in ordinary language. He might make you think differently about Nietzsche.

 

Stick with it -- it's only the University

 

Best

 

Michael

 

once in an English Dept, now happily retired and playing with medieval Latin