It’s amazing to me how long some things have been a part of human life and remained virtually the same for hundreds of years. And people writing on paper with pens of one sort or another is one of them. How long HAVE we written words on paper? I don’t know the answer. I suppose if I was honest, what I am doing IS different because I bought this pen and this paper and the ink. Just think how many humans had to make their own ink if they wanted to write something down. I DO know how to make paper, but the pen and ink skills are not among my accomplishments.
I remember trying to make a quill pen once. My father had brought home a large hawk feather that he had found. I tried cutting the tip and writing with it. It was VERY frustrating ! And I wondered how in the world anyone had gotten anything down on paper this way.
If I had to make the paper, find an object to use for a pen and make my own ink, do you think I might choose my words more carefully, refrain from writing drivel ? Maybe this is why so much of what we find written from the past is of such high caliber. They didn’t want to waste their precious ink.
Now a days our words can be carried as electronic . . . hmmmm. . .
What ARE they? The words that appear on our screens , vibrations ?
electrical impulses? So vulnerable, so fragile. One lightning storm and one power bump and they disappear into oblivion. Perhaps since they are so insubstantial in the cyber medium we are too casual with them. We throw them around without enough thought.
I’m rather astonished by my conflicted feelings about computers. It’s a condition that lingers. ( yeah, we noticed ) On the one hand I value highly the opportunity to share with other people. It’s kind of miraculous really, a medium of expression like no other in human history. I have found like minded friends in countries far from me and delight in exchanging ideas. BUT we have created this need for human contact by nurturing societies that focus on privacy…no, not privacy… isolation. Privacy is a good thing.
Isolation is different isn’t it ?
Before television, people used to get together and entertain each other.
They played the piano and sang, they might have a little band and they danced. There were many more clubs and organizations. But now we sit at home so much and watch other people doing things on TV, or read about it on the internet. So where I am going with all of this is, that even though the computer is great, it’s filling a void that we created ourselves.
What got me to thinking about this, is yesterday I was reading about JRR Tolkien and the writing group that he belonged to that used to meet in some pub. They met there for YEARS. And look what came out of that association. Those people influenced each other’s writing. They encouraged excellence in each other. But they were PRESENT, face to face. Can the same quality of writing come out of a cyber group ? Maybe the answer is yes. I’m not sure.
There is always this wall of anonymity on line. One can hide behind the monitor. And that lack of vulnerability may mute the deep wells of creativity. I don’t know, I only ask.
Sometimes I feel like I am moving at a different pace than the world around me. I’m slightly “out of phase” to use a Star Trek like analogy. And this creates in me a feeling of disconnect, an uncertainty that what I am seeing is reliable.
I come to no conclusions today. I’m only full of questions. And it must say something that finally these words that started out in my low tech journal have ended up in the high tech one too. Maybe I just need to learn to stand firmly with one foot in each world. . . and stop whining about it.
Or not. :-)