Calendars

I love having lots of calendars and planners. Some paper, some computerized. The ability to visualize time in such a graphic way is a wonderful tool to have at your disposal. I'm going to be in the market for a very nice 2010-2011 academic planner, then a few wall calendars for the 2011 calendar year.

Gear

We don't have a lot of fancy gear as scholars. Some pens and pads, a laptop, books. When a lot of energy goes into the gear itself it probably means either an evasion or displacement of work or a focus on work in particular way.

Pads and Notebooks

I often have one notebook that is devoted entirely to a project or part of a project. The project develops there in pen and ink; bibliography takes shape there. Right now I have one notebook that is devoted only to planning the summer's work and another devoted to planning the "year of reading Latin American poetry."

I wish that I could redevelop the ability to write actual prose by longhand rather than typing. I cannot shape whole paragraphs in handwriting any longer. I'm sure my writing would improve if I had that extra method.

Paper

We call a "paper" a "paper" because it is written on paper. In this blog we've been examining some metaphors for writing, but this is a classic metonymy, like a "glass" of water. Container for the thing contained? Not quite, more like "writing surface for the thing written on it." The same way we might call a painting a "canvas" when what is important is not the canvas but the paint.

If you use better pens and inks, then you will find the need to use better paper as well, because fountain pen ink doesn't tend to do well with the cheap stuff. I just got a nice Clairefontaine notebook when I was in New York. I like Rhodia pads for the paper, but don't like their vertical orientation very much. Some go for Moleskin, but I don't find it great for fountain pens because it doesn't want to absorb any ink.

Much like fountain pens, even if they cost 75 bucks, get to be cheaper than bics that are rapidly thrown out or lost, good paper will tend to last longer: you will use it more economically in the long run, find more specialized and creative uses for them. I use cheap pads too, mind you. In fact, if is not a Rhodia pad or Clairefontaine, it should be as cheap as possible. With so much information exchanged electronically, we will have "papers" published on line that will have never been "papers" in the literal (or metonymic) sense at any stage of their production. At some point paper itself will only have a raison d'être as a craft or luxury item. The fountain pen may well outlast the bic.

Books

As people were asking about the value of my books after my recent apartment fire, I decided that value could be determined 3 ways.

(1) Economic. How much would it cost to replace the book? How much did I pay for it originally? Some were gifts, some would be expensive to replicate in that I would have to order them from Spain.

(2) Sentimental. The book is not only a gift, but bears the signature of the author, or a water-color drawing. Or it's a book I've had many years and one that has formed a part of my identity.

(3) Use value. A book I need right now or in the immediate future to do my research.

Obviously these categories overlap but don't coincide completely. The scholarly library is a main part of one's usable scholarly base: it is amassed over years, at considerable expense, cumulatively speaking. A few hundred dollars here, fifty there, ten or twenty there, over a virtual lifetime. There were books ruined that I've had since high school. And one forms sentimental attachments. I felt sick to my stomach when I saw a copy of some particularly prized volumes covered with ash and soaked in water.

The Personal Library

The personal library is an essential part of one's scholarly base. It shows the relics of scholarly projects past, side issues that have occupied one's attention, theoretical trends. For me, the core of the personal library is primary texts, many of them purchased in Spain on numerous trips since 1979. I have many review copies, books I've taught from, personal gifts with the poets' dedications.

What I have to do now is organize my books better, make sure they are all in a few select places and more or less ordered.

Fountain Pens and Calfskin Drumheads

Roland Barthes gave an interview about writing instruments once. He referred to his use of fountain pens and the newer (at the time) felt pens. Like Barthes, I have an "obsessive relation to writing instruments," and hate what he refers to as the "bic style." In other words, if you write with a bic (cheap ballpoint pen) you aren't respecting your craft. Haven't you ever seen an old postcard written in a fountain pen? You can tell the difference right away, because the bic just has one thickness of line.

Ironically, I tend to do most of my writing directly on the computer, since I have horrible handwriting, but I do like to maintain that connection with the "craft" of writing.

One thing that makes jazz after the mid 60s sound different is the use of plastic drumheads which don't have the same resonance as the old, temperamental calfskin heads. Those skins are especially effective with wire brushes. There's just a different sound there, thicker and tastier. But hey, who wants to mess with fountain pen ink and humidity-sensitive skins?

I'm not against technology. The fountain pen itself was at one time a modern gadget, after all. I'm just saying there is a difference.