Peter MacKinnon Yucks My Yum

In last Sunday's Guild Hearth meeting, fellow Papermancer Gretchen Shepherd mentioned a YouTuber/Photographer/Philosopher (I added that last title) named Peter MacKinnon, specifically because of his recent video about keeping a "handwriting-free journal."

If you're thinking well, that's just Day One or Journal on my phone nope, when he says handwriting-free he's talking about typing. Specifically, typing on paper and then taping it into a journal.

Because, as he says, holding up his Leuchturmm 1715 journal:

The goal is to fill this entire book without writing single word with a pen. These are my favorite books to fill, but they take a while...[Field Notes] are easy. These are a commitment.

Peter MacKinnon is a gearhead, much like the rest of us; we do it for notebooks and paper and ink and pencil in the way he does it for camera gear and typewriters. And there's nothing wrong with that! When he shows the folding typewriter he has I could feel my bank account clench:

Why do we have to dis others to justify our own obsessions?

Where I don't like the video is in the way he talks about the journaling method as being better than handwriting.

"I find flipping through this [his visual/typewritten journal] when the effort was put in to make it more visually appealing...actually inspires more ideas than when I just mindlessly write and scribble things wherever I am at the time." (emphasis added)

I confess, part of why I felt the need to write this quick blog post was because I heard him say "you" instead of "I" when he talked about "mindlessly" scribbling. That's why I added the emphasis there.

His whole point about the typewriter and the stamps and printed pictures and vellum sheets (yeah, the video has a lot, worth a watch!) is that it creates a lot of friction that isn't there when you "mindlessly scribble". It's much like weaving a left-handed rope – making it harder makes it more sacred, in a way.

And my response is, yeah, but sometimes a brain's gotta babble, y'know? Sometimes you have to skim off the curd to get to the good stuff – ok, that metaphor isn't going anywhere.

But he's right, if you only mindlessly scribble, and never put in the care to write slowly and thoughtfully, it's not very useful to you to have that notebook (until years later when you read through them, shake your head, and say "What was I thinking?!?" Ask me how I know.)

Papermancy is another kind of friction designed to help you be more mindful.

I mean, I could link to the many studies that show that the act of holding a pen and making marks on paper has a larger effect on the brain than pressing a key, whether typewriter or computer...but that turns into a stylus-waving sizefest, and frankly, I think typewriters are pretty damn cool, too.

But may I point out that making a notebook out of scrap paper and using rituals to fill them with whatever writing instrument you have handy is a lot more accessible than a $399 "entry level" typewriter, a $100+ photo printer, and a pack of vellum from Amazon.

Don't get me wrong – I have a pack of vellum (sourced from a local goodwill) and I've had my eye on a typewriter at a local thrift store for a while. I even have a date stamp because I want to be Austin Kleon when I grow up.

But we need to start where we are, do what we can, use what we have (thank you, Arthur Ashe).

So I'll be inkin' and thinkin'...and still watching Peter MacKinnon!