The New York Times Magazine has a terrific feature on Jersey City’s General Pencil Company. With photographs by Christopher Payne, text by Sam Anderson:
In an era of infinite screens, the humble pencil feels revolutionarily direct: It does exactly what it does, when it does it, right in front of you. Pencils eschew digital jujitsu. They are pure analog, absolute presence.They are also nice to write with. I so wanted to make this post with a pencil, a General Kimberly (2B).
Related reading
All OCA pencil posts (Pinboard)
comments: 4
I have a Wednesday afternoon class which is in a computer lab, so computers are on the desks, and there is a large screen for an overhead projector, which I have to raise to write on the board. I regularly use electronic media in my teaching (I'm saying so I don't sound completely antiquated). But while I was speaking, a young man got up and went to the wall where he crunchingly ground his pencil in the sharpener. It seemed so timeless a student gesture, albeit increasingly rare.
I wonder how often those sharpeners need to be emptied. :)
Might you write a blog post in pencil and post a scan of it?
Not the same I know... but it would be fun for us to see.
"Digital jujitsu"--that made me smile.
Hmm — National Handwriting Day is coming up (the 23d). There’s handwriting in some posts here, but I think it’s all in pen (fountain).
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