I took the evening off from blogging yesterday so I could finish Letter Writing Month. The goal was to send out 23 pieces of mail, one for every postal delivery day of the month. I didn’t think I would manage it but yesterday I realized I only had three left to go. So I did it! It was fun too.
Everything I sent out was handwritten so it was a fun conjunction of events that also made it my turn at the library to read Philip Hensher’s The Missing Ink. Since the subtitle of the book is “The Lost Art of Handwriting” and since in interviews he talked about why handwriting is important, I thought the book might be different than it was. In the introduction he suggests the book is going to be about what might be lost if the habit of writing by hand disappears. But the book turned out not to address that except briefly in the first and last chapters. As a whole, it is not much different than Kitty Burns Florey’s book Script and Scribble which I read in 2009. Hensher’s book had a lot of padding in it, snips of interviews with people talking about their handwriting, two and a half chapters on graphology, one about Hitler’s handwriting, and a few others. He does provide a bit more detail on the history of teaching handwriting in schools than Florey did. In Hensher, each of the “great” reformers gets a chapter.
Hensher is also British so his perspective was especially interesting when he was talking about American handwriting. He claims Europeans can always pick out the handwriting of Americans because we are the only ones who have loops in our letters. Is this true? He spends a chapter admiring the way the French teach handwriting and thinks theirs is the nicest writing of any western country.
I enjoyed the social history aspects of the book especially all those reformers who believed that moral improvement could be had through learning to write a beautiful script. The chapter on a brief history of ink was interesting as was the history of pens. Did you know that fountain pens were available in 1710? They weren’t very popular though. Manufacturing had also not yet figured out how to make a flexible metal nib which meant it was somewhat akin to trying to write with a knitting needle. Quill pens wore out fast but they had the advantage of flexibility. Now, of course, there are ball point pens and Hensher has a fun chapter on the history of the Biro.
I expected the book to be rather light and it was. And while I did enjoy the parts I mention above, I almost didn’t make it past page 25. Hensher’s sense of humor is often rather crude and insensitive and not funny at all. In the introduction he takes a swipe at “fat Denise” whose “obese writing” also “contains the atrocity of a little circle on top of every i.” A few pages later he creates a scenario of a fender-bender in the farmlands of Indiana between a Subaru and a tractor, neither have anything to write with, the cell phone of the Subaru driver has a dead battery, and “the farmhand don’t be holding with them thar smart phones nor with that new-fangled Internet.” Still later in the book he makes a bad joke about lesbian hairstyles.
A mixed bag overall. If you are going to read this book, be prepared to take the good with the bad.
i wonder if Philip Hensher is trying to be a sort of literary Jeremy Clarkson in this book. Clarkson is the all too ubiquitous presenter of the BBC car programme who prides himself on his , often crassly offensive, “non PC” humour. A shame to see a novelist take this road.
BBC car programme is Top Gear. I hate it.
Ian, I can’t speak to that but it is unfortunate if he is. One can be funny without being offensive. While Natalie Angier in The Canon sometimes made me roll my eyes with her jokes, she was frequently funny and never offensive. There is no call for some of the jokes Hensher made. We’ve got a radio car show here too on National Public Radio called Car Talk. It is often hilarious and never in bad taste.
I think it is sometimes very good to be offensive and to display bad taste – think of a writer like Mencken and you would not want toothless comedy but that sort of humour is a bit unforgiveable if it is merely craas. Clarkson, that Oscars presenter the other week and,sadly, Hensher were merely that.
Ian, true. But there is offensive like Mencken to make a point and offensive like Hensher and the Oscar host that is just plain mean.
I was really looking forward to reading this one…now I’ll know not to expect too much out of it. Good thing I didn’t buy the hardcover when I saw it recently! A library read, I am thinking. I’d love to read more about the handwriting reformers, though, that always interests me.
Melwyk, yeah, if you don’t expect too much you will enjoy it. The stuff about the handwriting reformers is really interesting and says a lot about educational philosophy in general.
Interesting point Hensher makes… whether Americans are the only one with ‘loops’ in their writing I suppose he can’t say, can he, unless he has researched and observed all the countries in the world. I used to be an adult ESL teacher, and I have clear memory of a young man from India who wrote English as if he was writing the Indian language… talking about loops. I can attest to the the fact that people from different cultures have different styles of (English) handwriting. I myself (having learned English in Hong Kong) write in a disjointed way in that I don’t connect all the letters cursively like most Canadians. And generally, my handwriting is ‘skinnier’ than the rounder North American style of writing. But then again, i don’t represent all who are from that former British Colony. Conclusion is, handwriting is a very personal matter wherein many factors come into play, culture, educ. background, personality, temperament… No doubt this is a most interesting topic of study.
Arti, what an interesting handwriting experience you have had. Yes indeed, handwriting is very much a personal expression these days which is probably why graphology was so popular for such a long time. I’m sure it makes a huge difference though where you were taught, what script you were taught, and what cultural aesthetics a prevalent.
How disappointing! At first I was thinking that despite your initial reservations this might be good as I have not read about the subject at all–so have nothing to compare it against, but must say the things you note in your last paragraph have put me off completely. Better to try the Florey book instead I think!
And by the way–I didn’t count–as I was trying to just send at least one card or postcard daily, but I think I managed one for each day of the month, too. Of course, I plan on continuing on…but it was fun to make an extra effort and send cards to a few new friends along the way!
Danielle, I like the Florey book much better, though Hensher does provide more detail on the handwriting reformers so if you are interested them, maybe just read those chapters in Hensher and forget the rest. Congrats on completely the letter month challenge! It was fun but I am glad I can now return to a more leisurely pace!
I confess I never like Hensher in his journalism – too aggressive by half for me. And I’m not sure I could identify American handwriting. French, yes, as they still teach children to write the same way in schools, and I’ve seen a fair amount of French handwriting. I can see this is a very intriguing topic, but it must be hard to find a great deal to say about it! Oh and congratulations on finishing Letter Writing Month – I would never for a second have doubted you making it!
Litlove, I had not heard of Hensher until this book. I am not surprised that his journalism is aggressive. I am relieved that American handwriting isn’t so very atrocious loopy and identifiable as he makes it out to be. Handwriting is an intriguing topic but, yeah, it doesn’t seem like there is a lot to say about it. And thanks! I enjoyed letter writing month but I am glad to return to a more leisurely pace of correspondence again.