Pretentious, or Not?

[archie001]

I had been using Bic ballpens from elementary through highscool and college. Now that I earn a substantial amount of money after those years in school, now as an architect, I reward myself of some good things I can buy. I no longer want to write with those Bic ballpens. I want better and elegant ballpens which have good feels in my hand when I write, and those which have good mechanics which I find in Montblanc. Of course I admire my Montblanc pens which I bought in sets: fountain pens, rollerballs, ballpoint pens and mechanical pencils. If I am getting pretentious out of this...then I don't care what other think, after all it's my life and my money which I spend. If I could afford a ballpen made of solid gold and I like it to please myself, I'd still buy it. It's good to think, I don't take my taste from other's mouth!

[Rapt]

Its been an interesting read... and entertaining.

 

The thing I enjoy most is thinking about how FP are viewed by the non pen public. I live in a small town without a lot of sophistication. I have had people think I was weird or old fashioned to use FP, but refused to take the BP I offered them as a loaner because it was "too nice"...

 

Of course I have converted one friend, he bought a Lamy as his first pen. Another friend borrowed a pen while I was talking to someone and then had a heart attack when she found out she'd grabbed the most expensive (and plainest looking) pen in my bag. Luckily she treated it well and there was no injury (to the pen.)

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

Pretentious for me.

MB, I call you with my bought new, 35 year old Parker silver 75 ballpoint and fountain pen set and raise, my heaviest gold chain on one three of my mechanical gold pocket watches, or even a silver Omaga. You do wear a three piece suits of course.

 

Or some no name discreet gold wristwatches( that any with an eye can see they are gold), or one with 25 jewels, fake gold; a good movement.

Yep, your quartz watches do keep better time than my mechanical watches...even got some my self.

 

Angaben...is the German word for putting on the dog. Everyone does it their own way, in their own social structure. The tailor made suit, the Italian silk tie, the watch, the pen, and the hand made shoes (worth every penny).

Others put their money into fast cars or slow horses.

 

No one wore a suit where I worked for the last twenty years.. Company policy was first name only. Only one ass hole wore a tie … my last boss, not the big boss or any upper level wore a tie or a suit.

 

The company was ballpoint pen to the man, and everyone but him, including the big boss used the company's cheap plastic pens...If you lost one of them, you bummed one, no big deal, the supply clerk kept boxes of them in the supply room.

 

Up until three weeks ago I was a ballpoint pen man. I was going to flea market some inherited pens that sat in a draw for 15 years. Two Artus-bakelite or pre-Lamy's, an Osmia, an Osmia-Farber-Castell, a German late 1930’s non-marked Parker with a smooth fletch Parker Arrow, or a dammed good counterfeit, a 14 K nib Sport, a couple of real no names, and a Double J Esterbrook. A couple could be 30's, the rest must be 50's.

 

And no I will not buy a Pelikan, nor a MB.

 

My wife’s dead uncle had solid taste in good solid working pens.

The German pens I found, all fill the same way, and some look like various models of either. I will re-nib two, and get the no name's 14 K nib fixed. The rest write well.

 

What I am going to do is get, the remaining 9-10 colors of the Double J Esterbrook’s, and learn how to write. I expect to have every type of nib, just for the sheer hell of it.

 

Besides which I got better beer; German, and being retired have more time to enjoy it, out of my collection of 60 pewter toped beer steins.

Some are on best Waterman level (drank out of once a year, one beer only), some of them are the top MB’s level, some only 800 Pelikan or Parker 51’s, unfortunately some are only Lamy level. Oh, well one cannot have everything.

 

I did not “know” about fountain pens until three weeks ago. Now I have to learn how to do Copperplate at least, and get 20 inks.

 

I think I’ve become addicted. I just today turned down buying a 35 year old single malt for my birthday to buy pens.

Edited April 29, 2009 by Bo Bo Olson

[dinny]

Just one Question, does he handle the pens with white gloves, like at the "pretentious" pen and fine gun stores I've frequented?

 

Earlier person is right, object aren't pretentious. Behavior is.

 

I always try to keep my objectivity about objects!

[Deirdre]

The pens I find pretentious are these 2000$ limited editions regardless opf the brand that need more than a lot of tlc and that can't write perfectly just like a standard pelikan 1000, mb 149 or omas arte italiana paragon.

What about the ones that do write well?

[oceansportrait]

Maybe it's just me, but until I started becoming interested in FP, I didn't even know what Mont Blanc was. No one in high school used one, nor anyone I've come across in university. I don't have a Mont Blanc (and quite frankly, not interested in having one either), but even if I did and brought it to class, I don't think anyone would think I'm pretentious, because they wouldn't recognize it!

[Deirdre]

Maybe it's just me, but until I started becoming interested in FP, I didn't even know what Mont Blanc was.

It's a mountain.

 

Montblanc (no space or intercaps) is a pen.

[wspohn]

Maybe it's just me, but until I started becoming interested in FP, I didn't even know what Mont Blanc was.

 

Mont Blanc is a mountain in the Alps.

 

Montblanc is a pen manufacturer.

[Deirdre]

Maybe it's just me, but until I started becoming interested in FP, I didn't even know what Mont Blanc was.

 

Mont Blanc is a mountain in the Alps.

 

Montblanc is a pen manufacturer.

Jinx!

[oceansportrait]

Maybe it's just me, but until I started becoming interested in FP, I didn't even know what Mont Blanc was.

 

Mont Blanc is a mountain in the Alps.

 

Montblanc is a pen manufacturer.

Jinx!

 

:roflmho: Sorry! Since everyone kept abbreviating it as MB I assumed it was two words Just goes to show I STILL don't know much about that brand!

[montblancdude]

Some pens are just out and out pretentious. I won't mention any for fear of causing offence. You know the sort of thing I mean.

 

But can a pen of identical design be pretentious and another one not?

 

Take Montblanc, if only because it is a good example of a pen that has a high portion of pretentious ownership.

 

When I see someone using a MB fountain pen, I assume they enjoy writing with it and the issue of pretension really doesn't cross my mind. Who else but a fan would carry and use a FP?

 

But when I see people carrying MB BPs, which write exactly as well and no better than any other BP with the same sort of refill, I think that the only possible reason the person could have that pen is pretension, because there is no functional difference between it and a Bic.

 

Now I realize that the same could be said of an expensive FP and a $15 steel nib FP that happens to be a good writer, so this isn't a situation with hard rules. I just wondered if anyone else saw these thinsg in a similar way - give the guy with the FP an automatic pass and tend to wonder about the MB BP guy's motives, and put him on mental probation as a possible twit.

 

I expect that this is the point of view of the hardened FP user. I am sure there are many other examples, and don't mean to single out all you MB owners who love writing with their pens. I remember this being my reaction from very early on in the hobby - see a FP - ah, another FP lover. See a BP - aha - the guy must be trying to impress someone.

 

Personal disclaimer - I do indeed own one MB BP, a Bordeaux 144 to go with a matching FP as an ensemble, as well as a MB 146 size document marker I just couldn't resist at the price if fell into my lap at. So I am not speaking from the stance of a righteous FP only owner, as I have collected a few FP BP pairs over the years. I was just wondering if anyone shared my impression/reaction.

 

 

 

QM2 could very well be right, but I agree with you. I believe that only a true fan would use an MB fountain pen, or a Dupont fountain pen, or anything really expensive. To pay that much for a pen, they have to like it, like using a fountain pen, like the brand and the feel!

 

A Montblanc ballpoint is really no different than a Bic, you are right. Trust me, I have tried several and I CANNOT justify paying $300 for a ballpoint pen, no matter how shiny and gold-and-platinum plated it is.

 

I feel exactly the same way, see a person using an expensive fountain pen and I feel kinship and respect (most of the time). See a person with a $300 ballpoint pen and it turns me off because I feel that he's trying to show off for someone.

 

LIABILITY ISSUES: These are just MY opinions. I do not mean to offend anyone else, or disagree strongly with anyone else, or pick at what anyone else was saying. This is just how I feel about the topic. I understand that others may feel very different, and I respect that.

[montblancdude]

There have been occasions when I have used a FP in public and been considered by some observers as being an old fashioned dimwit. Imagine someone not using a modern mode of writing. Those people did not consider me pretentious. They thought of me as blitheringly eccentric. I know because a couple of them felt compelled to say so. Hence, I do not make judgements about the writing instruments others use.

 

To address your question, I do think some people would use a writing instrument as a tool of pretention. I tend to blow off pretentious people, so I don't dwell on the issue. I think there are many more people who just want something of quality and they choose a known brand name. Like anyone else, they become accustomed to that brand and tend to stay with it.

 

Another thing I have noticed about MB writing instruments in particular. For as much as we bash MB's precious resin it does actually feel good in the hand (for many people including me). I have actually had MB users comment on several occasions that they like the feel of their pen. So, even though those BP's write no better than any other brand, their owners consider that MB's have a special character. I am not being an apologist for the brand. I am reporting what I have seen and heard.

 

I never looked at it that way... thanks for opening my eyes, Frank.

[montblancdude]

If someone looks at me as if I'm being pretentious, I have my manservant give them a good thrashing.

:roflmho:

 

One of the funniest things I've seen in a while.

 

[montblancdude]

I had been using Bic ballpens from elementary through highscool and college. Now that I earn a substantial amount of money after those years in school, now as an architect, I reward myself of some good things I can buy. I no longer want to write with those Bic ballpens. I want better and elegant ballpens which have good feels in my hand when I write, and those which have good mechanics which I find in Montblanc. Of course I admire my Montblanc pens which I bought in sets: fountain pens, rollerballs, ballpoint pens and mechanical pencils. If I am getting pretentious out of this...then I don't care what other think, after all it's my life and my money which I spend. If I could afford a ballpen made of solid gold and I like it to please myself, I'd still buy it. It's good to think, I don't take my taste from other's mouth!

 

Frank made me think one way, but I can totally understand your view as well!

[camidumas]

A Montblanc ballpoint is really no different than a Bic, you are right. Trust me, I have tried several and I CANNOT justify paying $300 for a ballpoint pen, no matter how shiny and gold-and-platinum plated it is.

 

I had a MB LeGrand rollerball, and have two Waterman Hemisphere rollerballs, all gifts. They all take the same refills. I find the Waterman pens very uncomfortable to use but that the shape and weight of the MB was so much easier on my hands (since age 5 or so I have had a joint problem that, by causing pain, dramatically inhibits my ability to write longhand) that my productivity went up so much, that I was able to draft a novel where previously I had only been able to write poems, typically 14-30 lines. I have been deprived of the LeGrand and replaced it with fountain pens (the best of which was also a gift and which is a seriously terrific pen), which do work as well from my perspective, but, I am still saving up my disability pennies to get another MB because I know I can trust it. There may well be other cheaper/etc pens out there but if spending $300 on a rollerball means I write even one more novel or poetry collection overall in my lifetime, it's well spent!

 

As for Bic pens, when I was a kid I got the best use out of these oversize schoolbus yellow Bics that sort of resembled large fountain pens; they had a dot on the end of the flat cap indicating the color, a silver clip, and a rather curvy nib dispensing rather wet, feathery ink. Smooth writers. Can't for the life of me remember what they're called; wrong forum though I guess. My point is that that Bic was vastly better than yr typical dry ballpoint Bic that is very hard to push over the page. Even Bics have a hierarchy, sir!