Legendary notebooks in not-so-legendary hands

Posted on December 12th, 2006 by ephemere.
Categories: ink & paper, art & music.

The one bright spot* in my life right now: I have new Moleskines! They arrived yesterday afternoon.

*Okay, maybe it’s not the only one– fine, it’s not the only one. But allow me a little exaggeration. For artistic effect, you understand.

Though I do most of my writing on my laptop (I call her Fel, short for Felinity) I still do quite a bit of creative scribbling on paper. My reasons have less to do with the quality of writing and more to do with my vanity: I like looking at sheets of paper covered with my handwriting. It’s influenced by calligraphy, so it looks very scripty and romantic on the page; I have been told several times by fellow students and professors alike that my handwriting is better suited for declarations of undying love than for equations and lab recordings.

Because I like writing by hand so much, I have a lot of notebooks. Ideally each notebook has its own purpose: the hardbound ones are for writing, the spiral-bound ones for physics and note-taking, the logbooks for problem-solving. That doesn’t work in real life, though, since I end up using my “creative” notebooks for scratch and random equations and I don’t use my “in-class lecture” notebooks at all. The sole exception to this haphazard notebook abuse is my Moleskine, because I respect it so much I don’t let the slightest hint of crazy science touch it. After all, who wouldn’t be impressed by this:

Moleskine is the legendary notebook, used by European artists and thinkers for the past two centuries, from Van Gogh to Picasso, from Ernest Hemingway to Bruce Chatwin. (from the Moleskine history)

The paper is beautiful, too. Truth be told G has been talking about her Moleskine for as long as I’ve known her, six years or more. I didn’t exactly pay attention — a notebook is a notebook is a notebook — until my cousin brought me a Moleskine from Singapore a few months ago. It was love at first sight.

And now! My little Moleskine Cahier (hereafter known as Xai, pronounced “kai” and alternatively spelled as “chai”) has been joined by two large notebooks**: a Classic Plain notebook (Xhel) and a Classic Sketch notebook (Sai). Xhel will be the repository of my scribbles and draft sketches, while I’ll be doing a lot of experimentation with Sai, ink, watercolor pencils, and pastels. So happy.

**I was actually hoping a freebie 2007 organizer would be included in the package. Sssshhh. I’m going to try ordering again in a week or so.

moleskine1

moleskine-004.jpg

Xhel is the one bound by green and Sai the periwinkle one. Both were ordered from Moleskine PH and were delivered promptly (as in “next business day” promptly) in a lot of protective packaging — it was evident that Moleskine PH wanted the notebooks to be in perfect condition when they arrived. I’ll post writing and art from my Moleskines in ephy from time to time. If I’m not mistaken, several of us have Moleskines too, so it might be interesting to post excerpts from our Moleskines every so often.

Ah, and I have a question for the writer-types: how do you do your writing? Do you write by hand and then type the completed chunks? Is everything completely computer-based? What about your outlines — do you write them on paper (or type them in your text editor of choice) or just keep them in your head? I’d love to read about your approaches to the process of writing.


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12 comments.

Blood, bonds, and bartered sisters

Posted on November 24th, 2006 by Zarathustra.
Categories: philosophy, opinions, art & music, ideas.

Where to begin?

I’ve never fancied myself a very good writer - maybe a halfway-decent one at most. Yet I can’t figure out why I get so livid when given advice on how to write (usually by those who are far more experienced than I am at writing).
“Just write down whatever pops in your head first.”
“Think about the interesting things that happened during the day.”
“Write about what you feel most passionate about.”

As much as the above helps a writer, I can’t help but believe that it represses the need of every writer to first struggle with him/herself. I’ve always thought the path to good writing, whether it be intended to sell books, to establish a solid career, or even to revolutionize a genre is always a path that cannot, should not be seen in its entirety right away - or even at all. Writing is an art, yes, and at times it can be a business… but it it also a way of seeing the world, of looking at it and applying our unique understanding into all its aspects. This is not to say that a writer must be an intellectual, but that a writer must have an intelligible grasp of how words, ideas, concepts, and language can effectively change the world.

Some of my philosophy teachers would probably wring my neck if they read this, but I cannot see how there can be “purity” in knowing with a knower that is defined, redefined, and created in some way every single second by the world around. Existence and experience are inherently linked, and however we understand either of these terms depends on how either of these terms affect our understanding - a true circle, but one we cannot go beyond.

In theory it seems sound.
But it fails to take into account one aspect of human living - and there have been so many discussions of this kind before - that I don’t think falls into the existence we believe to be all-encompassing: imagination. Imagination is what allows us to “transcend” our own existence. Imagination is what allows us to dream of impossibilities. Imagination is what brings forth that indefinable aspect of the human being that pushes and nudges and breaks free of all accepted truths. If Magellan had no imagination, would he have gone on that remarkable journey to the “edge of the world”? If scientists had no imagination, would they really accomplish anything more than what is already established? And in the context of this blog, would we be free to write down whatever we wanted, whatever “pops in our head first” or whatever “interesting thing happened during the day” or whatever we “feel most passionate about”?

NO. And in that emphatic negative is a strength that is built upon this conviction: writing is a struggle against, to. Whether you write to struggle against yourself, an institution, and idea, or struggle to be heard, to go beyond norms, to feel good, to inform… the essence of writing is this effort to unleash your imagination upon all creation. Writing is a will to struggle internally and to the external.
So the next time some one sees me spending three agonizing hours to simply write the first sentence of a story/essay/case/file/article, realize that I’m going through the best part of writing and do not wished to be interrupted. Life is not life without its joyful agonies.

And that is where I will begin. Man, that took some effort to type out, coherent or not. Such a chore, such a chore…
Random thoughts (hence the title): Admittedly I was only convinced to blog by my sister (yes, she is up for bartering if anyone’s interested) who believes that by giving me an outlet to vent my thoughts, she is saving herself the trouble of having to listen to my strangeness day by day. Unfortunately for her there is more than enough “junk” in this “trunk” to satisfy the younger sibling’s daily urge to pester, irritate, annoy, and exasperate the elder. No bond is stronger than that which has been built upon a lifetime of suffering. Glad to see you’re still around after 20 sis, here’s to hoping you never decide to apply for a gun license. I don’t know who you’d shoot first: you or me.

EDIT1: Agh forgot the stupid tags.


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9 comments.