Wednesday 10 October 2012

On Handwriting

I spent Sunday morning curled up on a sofa in Brixton. It was a delightful morning, not least because my companion and I watched Sunday Kitchen on the telly. We watched as baffled hosts Tim and Simon were guided through this year's Turner Prize entries, which include these gems:



Infinite building blocks and Henry Moore-esque sculptures of giant faeces create a conversation between order and the absurd and the recurrence of abandoned, fenced spaces gives a sense of confinement and dissolution. The delicacy implied by the graphite pencil on paper and the magnitude of the works, however, is pleasing and provides friendly respite from the puzzling ambiguity of the project.
Text from here.


What made the morning more delightful still was Philip Hensher's wonderful piece on handwriting, in the Observer.  In this article, PH assesses the cultural and emotional significance of handwriting. He also includes some examples of famous people's writing. Can you guess who the writing below belongs to? [Answer at bottom of this entry.] 



The article is a wonderful, beautiful piece of writing, but sadly confirmed my suspicion that PH has a book coming out soon. Of course, it'll probably be a lovely book, if the article is anything to go by, but it's sad that so often content in national newspapers is just rehashed press releases/edited extracts from books. Sad. But a rant for another time.

I've long been interested in what handwriting can, supposedly, suggest about you: this became a particular interest of mine after studying Victorian fiction, and detective fiction especially, where handwriting is really important to the development of the plot, and the likelihood of finding the criminal. 

For many years I had large, swirly, childish handwriting. Then, at university, sitting in lectures for hours a week, it became smaller - I'm sure the speed at which you write affects size of the characters. Then I got an office job, and pretty much gave up handwriting. My handwriting is affected by how frequently I write (if I don't write for a few days, I do notice the initial messiness) and what materials I use. I write for more beautifully in a fountain pen. That might sound arrogant, but I have been complimented on it, and I think it's nice to read. I keep a diary and love to see how my writing changes depending on what pen I'm using, or whether I'm happy or sad, or rushed or relaxed. Seeing how handwriting changes over the years is also fascinating.

I don't really have anything to add to Hensher's piece: I thought it was just lovely. In particular, these final few paragraphs are brilliant.



ANSWER: Hitler. Apparently his writing style indicates his megalomaniacal psychopathy.

3 comments:

  1. You do have beautiful handwriting, it must be said.

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  2. Who is this anonymous lovely person....?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't know but I miss your writing. xx

    ReplyDelete