A Better Pencil 1,3,5

After reading chapters One, Three, and Five in "A Better Pencil" I find myself appreciating my computer even more. I feel, like Baron says, that the closest my brain comes to direct thought output is when I am sitting in front of a computer. I do not understand how someone could prefer to write with a device as distracting as a pencil. To me a pencil is much like the clay tablets was to many of Barons students. It is intricately linked to art. A pencil wants to draw pretty, free flowing lines, and it seems like a travesty to try to confine these line to something as plain as writing. When I try to take notes with pencils all I end up doing is doodling in the margins.

On the flip side of the same coin I feel like when it comes to the business of imparting information that text, with its identical letters, does a much better job. When I take notes with a computer I end up with notes that are much more complete and have no doodles cluttering them up.

This whole idea, supports of old mediums holding contempt for new mediums, reminds me of a section of "The Stand" by Steven King. In the particular section I am thinking of one of the main characters was involved in a nasty motorcycle crash. As he lay dieing (a slow process that takes several days)King takes you back to his child hood. You learn of his ambitions to be a writer and how he spent years perfecting his handwriting because he knew that the closest his thoughts could come directly to paper was a pencil. Eventually he is forced to recognize the convenience of the type writer and starts to use one. As the character lays dieing he begins to write about this childhood in a notebook. The further he writes back about his childhood the closer he comes to death, and his once perfect handwriting becomes childish once more as his strangth flees.

While I don't feel that the pencil is the closest my brain comes to writing. I do understand the character reluctance to change and the the frustration he must have felt about his deteriorating handwriting.

Whats new and better is never as comforting as what is known and acceptable. I made my myspace account when I was 17 and for a long times hated the thought of switching to facebook. Now after using facebook I really have come to realize that I just don't like publishing facts about my life quite so openly as these sites encourage.

I guess what I am getting at is that the smart person does eventually adapt to new mediums, but he or she also does not forget that first medium that he or she loved so much. Occasionally, when time permits, you will slip back to that old medium and use it for something unimportant. Even once someone is certain a new medium is better than the old one they wills still have place in their heart for that old medium. If I was given all the Cherries in the world I think I would really want a banana.