Recent Writing
I seem to need special writing machines. Once upon a time it was an Olivetti Valentine typewriter, then a Brother electronic typewriter that could store, via a 32 character display, about one page of A4 text. Now it is moleskine’s and a plastic Lamy fountain pen. I’m not sure why I have to bracket off writing as a special activity when I want or need to do ‘real’ writing. Well, I probably do, but the way I make it special is by having specific equipment for it.
Why have I returned to a notebook of fine paper and a fountain pen? Now that the keyboard has become ubiquitous to all forms of formal and informal writing, and most other things I do (video production, banking, teaching, and so on), I enjoy moving to something distinct to write as a professional activity. This distinction is now being realised by a return to an earlier practice, just as back then the typewriter was only ever used to type up a final (and single) copy of an essay.