Just read that a whole treasure trove of Patrick White‘s drafts, manuscripts and notes, some 24 boxes worth, have been bought by the National Library (Update: See press release). I love David Marr‘s description of the collection: “literary treasure”, and “the El Dorado of Australian libraries since the 1960s. Many had asked for them. All had been rebuffed.”
I’d love to see these papers. There is something compelling (to me) about looking at the handwritten ruminations, the notes, the doodles of someone famous. (Left: Abraham Lincoln’s handwriting. The pen geek in me ponders the ink Lincoln would have used, what sort of nib, how often did he use a blotter?)
And then there’s handwriting in Chinese which is even more intriguing to me. Mainly because I find so much of it impossible to decipher! (Right: Mao Zedong’s handwriting.)
I can’t help but wonder, now that so much stuff is done online, how much of anything will remain for biographers, historians and researchers to find of people writing today.
Assuming we even retain the capacity to read material held on all sorts of disks and drives, what will we see?
This makes me a little sad.
I’ve said before, haven’t I, that I wish I could handwrite this blog and publish it in my handwriting? (Yes, I did, on 28 June 2005: “What would make blogging perfect for me would be if I could actually write, and post, my entries in fountain pen. Yeh, I know it’s completely illogical! “)
9 Comments
Totally off the topic, but do you have problems viewing the pics that accompany your posts? I don’t know if it’s Blogger Beta or me but since you swapped over more often than not i’m not able to see pics.
Hmm… are you reading on Bloglines (or an RSS reader of any sort)? I’ve noticed that on Bloglines the pictures often don’t appear immediately :/
The term “Things of the past” seems to be eagerly waving over it’s own shoulder all the time – and doesn’t really appear to be remorseful of this sad fact – one little bit.
Some things are gone… my own mob’s language CQ is a spoken one – yet many have spent much time recording it and developing it in a written form. I regret never having the opportuntiy to learn it properly as a young bloke… wasn’t allowed to see (sad left-overs of ‘by-gone’ laws) , but learning it from a written Bardi ‘Alphabet’ does nothing for the actual learning process required to do the Bardi language justice. The Bardi language is a hands-on language… and whilst it IS being preserved and recoded now (by some brilliant people I might add) I wish it could remain that which it was…
… and sadly – will probably never be.
That’s progress for you (what irony?) 😉
Oh, Belongum, as a language fan (or should that be “lover”) I am very sad that so many of the indigenous languages of this country no longer exist, and are no longer spoken. Wouldn’t it be good, if along with all the other languages that are available for school children to learn, we also had the option to learn Nyoongar, or Bardi, or Pitjantjatjara, or whatever regional language?? (Bardi is from the Kimberley, isn’t it?)
I have heard so many Aboriginal people talk about how important language is for understanding one’s own culture… And for us newcomers learning an Aboriginal language would work wonders in terms of helping us understand Aboriginal culture a bit better I reckon!
And speaking of learning an indigenous language, I have been looking at the Ngapartji Ngapartji site: what a great idea!
Hi CW! My cousin uses tablets (eg wacom) to do his fine-art work. He says that it really mimics the use of pen/pencil/brush even down to the pressure applied. I think you may use this even for writing purposes… save it in .jpg form and then upload.
Rather expensive though.. cheapest is around 200 USD.
Well Im sure in the near future they’ll come up with something.
I also like Abraham Lincoln’s handwriting!
Thanks, Israd. I live in hope…
Abe Lincoln had very nice handwriting! Do they still teach kids handwriting in school these days??
So far Ive noticed that my kids aren’t thought cursive. But the eldest is still in Grade 1. I was taught cursive when I entered Grade 3 or was it 4. I forgot.. Do they teach cursive in Australia?
Unfortunately, it does seem like we’re headed for a paperless future.
No… am reading it from Blogspot, directly from your URL.
Hmmm… not sure why, jl. I’ve tested this blog on a few different computers and using both IE and FF and the images come through fine. You haven’t set your browser to block images?
Israd, I have no idea what style of handwriting is taught here, although looking at many younger people’s handwriting I would guess they don’t do cursive in school…