pencils: japantown, san francisco
I have too many pencils. So many, that they’re not tools anymore. They’re little writing fetishes. I googled “fetish” by the way, just be sure I’m using that word right. Indeed: ”A fetish (from the French fétiche; which comes from the Portuguese feitiço; and this in turn from Latin facticius, “artificial” and facere, “to make”) is an object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular, a man-made object that has power over others. Essentially, fetishism is the attribution of inherent value or powers to an object.”
I’ve never understood why wikipedia links to words like “French.” Do we really need a definition of “French”? Not any more than I need a dozen beautiful black Japanese pencils sitting around in a glass vase, looking like good writing, and not being used to produce it.
I was going to call you a geek, but none of these definitions fit~
Slang.
n.
1. A person regarded as foolish, inept, or clumsy.
2. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.
3. A carnival performer whose show consists of bizarre acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken.
I admire all those very very sharp pencil points.
I maintain one (1) freshly sharpened pointy pencil at a time, and I hide it between use: last time I didn’t, I discovered Vincent about to stab Aidan with it.
Beautiful pencils. Mine always get nicked by my kids!
Margaret Atwood’s Ten Rules for Writing, Rule #1:
“Take a pencil to write with on aeroplanes. Pens leak. But if the pencil breaks, you can’t sharpen it on the plane, because you can’t take knives with you. Therefore: take two pencils.”
Orpheus — I’m taking a dozen. (Well, actually, there are eleven in that picture.)
Lilian, You & Marie are quite right: the good sharp pencils must be kept for the adults.
C — weapon of some mass activity as yet undecided.
Debby: what about the carnival performer? But not your chickens.