Monthly Literature Challenge

[inkstainedruth]

On 3/4/2023 at 11:26 PM, LizEF said:

I don't know how folks manage to survive without at least one 23" + computer screen.   (Some young pup out there is rolling their eyes at the old lady and thinking, "you can't fit a 23" screen in your pocket".  )

 

Agreed - Ines' script is beautiful.  I think the differences there plus the different language of the novel combined to make some words hard for me to figure out - even using other words as a "key".  Since I wasn't the only one, I thought the text might help...

Well, my laptop has a 14" screen, but I generally actually have it on my lap when I'm using it (plus, I'm somewhat nearsighted to begin with).  

As opposed to my husband, who has several monitors hooked up in his office to his work compute, and one of those monitors is about the same size as our flatscreen TV (which I think is about 40", because we didn't have the wall space for a larger one, and so got one that fit in the TV cabinet we bought and assembled (no, not from IKEA, but the same idea).  Of course he used to have a split keyboard, and wanted to mount the two sides of it on the arms of an office chair and pretend he's a Starfleet captain....  And he likes sitting way far away from the monitor screen, so it took some doing to get the eye doctor to understand that he didn't want "reading" glasses -- he wanted glasses where the focal point was about 3-4' away (as opposed to his driving glasses)....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth 

[LizEF]

3 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

several monitors

When I was working, 3 monitors was the minimum required for me to be fully functional.  Now I can generally get by with two, though if I can figure out how to arrange my space, I'm hooking up the third mini-monitor just for fun.  

[txomsy]

Don't you use virtual workspaces?

 

I normally use a laptop and a side screen, 6 workspaces, and when I connect to computer servers, virtual screens with 4 workspaces each. Coupled with non-maximized windows (a waste of screen space that most Windows users seem to cherish -or be the only way to use a computer they know) it allows for a helluva lot of things that can be done concurrently. I still get sometimes short, but it is trivial to add an extra workspace if needed.

 

 

On topic, I was tired of name lists so I have started copying Milton's Paradise Lost when practicing handwriting (I won't dare to call it calligraphy).

[InesF]

15 hours ago, knarflj said:

I can't believe I didn't recognize that quote.  I obviously need to read the book again.

 

But oh my goodness, Ines, what stunning work!  The colours, the handwriting, the sketches, the layout...just beautiful.

Thank you so much! You're welcome!

Reading this book is time well spent. 🙂

[knarflj]

18 hours ago, essayfaire said:

I always thought a book was easier- at least if it's not a big book!  

 

I suppose you're right.  I was lazy about choosing my words.  The book would be easier to pick up and walk off with than most of my knitting projects.  But I find stopping in the middle of a sentence or paragraph much more annoying than stopping between stitches.  Never, of course, is one's name called right at the end of a chapter.  

[essayfaire]

On 3/8/2023 at 9:07 AM, InesF said:

Reading this book is time well spent. 🙂

Reading it more than once is exponentially well spent.

[InesF]

Monthly Literature Challenge for April

 

The ink set for April consists of four inks in somehow fitting fountain pens:

Rohrer & Klingner Alt-Goldgrün in Waterman Exclusive F

Kaweco Sunrise Orange in Stipula Adagio x Santini F-flexi Frankenpen

Colorverse Extreme Deep Field in Pineider Arco Desert Beetle EF

Robert Oster Tempest Sky in Diplomat Aero

 

Besides the intentional connection between inks and pens with the April literature selection, Alt-Goldgrün, Sunrise Orange and Tempest Sky are colours of nature and sky during the early spring. The German word for Easter is Ostern – Robert Oster also fits well to April by his name!  

 

Here are writing samples of all four inks with their pens:

 

And here is the first Literature Challenge writing sample (with two pens for scale):

 

Oh, yeah. This is, by far, too easy! I decided to not give any hint nor provide the usual solution – both feel totally unnecessary. The connection to the novel is in the following words: Exclusive, Sunrise, Adagio, Deep Field, Desert, Tempest and Aero. Not bad, isn’t it?

 

 

If I would stop here, I still may have had done enough according to my own plan. Despite being fun, this first Challenge didn’t satisfy me. Today morning I grabbed another A3 paper sheet and wrote a second Literature Challenge for April (with the Pineider pen for scale):

 

OK, feels so much better! A full resolution image is, same as last time uploaded to Flickr.

 

 

The author is:

Spoiler

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly

The handwritten documents which I could find online look all more or less the same. In this one photo from pinterest her handwriting seems to look a bit blue – maybe because of the view at an angel?

With some goodwill, Colorverse Extreme Deep Field may fit as it is also mostly black with some blue at good light (and with mighty red sheen).

 

 

The book is:

Spoiler

Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus

It’s comparably easy to fit the following words deriving from ink and pen names: Exclusive, Sunrise, Frankenpen, Extreme, Tempest and Sky.

During recherché I learned about the importance of this book for the genesis of Science Fiction Literature. Mary Shellys Frankenstein is widely accepted as the first real SF story, written before 1818. According to Britannica, Mary Shelly was inspired for this story during a stay in Switzerland when she, Lord Byron and John Polidori told stories to each other for entertainment (remark: in absence of TV and internet ). John Polidori later brought one of his stories to paper: The Vampyr, Mary Shelly extended hers into Frankenstein. 

 

 

I hope you have fun while participating in the Monthly Challenge and I’m looking forward to your handwritten extension of the one or the other novel (or of both ). 

Good luck,

have a nice Easter time! 🐇

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, InesF said:

Oh, yeah. This is, by far, too easy! I decided to not give any hint nor provide the usual solution – both feel totally unnecessary. The connection to the novel is in the following words: Exclusive, Sunrise, Adagio, Deep Field, Desert, Tempest and Aero. Not bad, isn’t it?

I actually read this book for the first time last October!

[LizEF]

And, no cheating needed, your excellent drawing gave it away before I even read #2:

...and then there was the pen...

[essayfaire]

 

@InesFThe color choices were spot on!  I only wish I had a very particular pen that is too expensive for me but would have been perfect to use in response!  I would love to have that pen.

[txomsy]

TO be true, I didn't even red #1: I only had to see the drawing to know it.

 

And same for the second one.

 

Then I tried to read it... but a few words sufficed to confirm my suspicions. Those are two wonderful books, and the first is one I have long been planning on transcribing in its original French using calligraphy.

[essayfaire]

9 hours ago, txomsy said:

I have long been planning on transcribing in its original French using calligraphy.

But with which ink?

[txomsy]

That is why I haven't started yet. A clear blue, partly, inks to reproduce the drawings, but also some other colors, maybe a bright red, or... I still need to work it all out in my head.

[inkstainedruth]

Thought I recognized the first one (without looking at the artwork) just from the first line or two.  Turned out I was completely wrong  (I've read it, but so many years ago (as in DECADES) that I didn't remember it as well as I thought I did...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA:   Just realized the hidden hints were for the SECOND  book -- not the first (and that when I looked at the artwork for the first one I was right all along...).

In my defense I have had an incredibly busy, stressful week, and now on my "day of rest" I have laundry to do (plus EXTRA laundry which finally got unloaded from the minivan after a WEEK, plus cr@ploads of dishes from yesterday, and so far have gotten VERY little help with ANY of it (other than some guilting my husband into helping unload the (mostly his cr@p) from the minivan.  And have to go to something in about 40 minutes....  Then get to do MORE laundry (at least one more load) tonight after we get home so he has underwear and we have clean pillow covers....

[InesF]

On 4/1/2023 at 5:20 PM, LizEF said:

I actually read this book for the first time last October!

and

On 4/1/2023 at 5:32 PM, LizEF said:

...and then there was the pen...

 Indeed!

Well done, @LizEF and thank you for participating in both CRV's!

The small booklet of number one Challenge is among my all time favourites; its on my ebook reader since the first day and will never be erased intentionally.

I started reading the number two Challenge novel two weeks ago - and not finished yet. 🙄

[InesF]

On 4/1/2023 at 6:17 PM, essayfaire said:

@InesFThe color choices were spot on!  I only wish I had a very particular pen that is too expensive for me but would have been perfect to use in response!  I would love to have that pen.

Thank you, @essayfaire for participating in both Challenges! Your colour choices are as well spot on! And, I like so much that you wrote the one CRV in French! 

Indeed, the writers edition fountain pen, the one version still available in the .com shop, is a bit over the limit for a tool. ☺️

[InesF]

22 hours ago, txomsy said:

TO be true, I didn't even red #1: I only had to see the drawing to know it.

 

And same for the second one.

Thank you @txomsy for participating in the Challenge. I'm so sorry about my inability to make these riddles harder (except for making it unreadable ... 🤭). I love to give some hints, but I do not know when to stop.

 

I guess, if you had a second thought about your transcribing project and if your motivation has raised a bit, the Challenge is already a success. I would recommend either a red-brown (bordeaux) or a fox brown or a sand ochre with chapter initial letters in either a saturated blue or a green like Alt-Goldgrün. Good luck with your project! It would be great if you would post a handwritten page of it - looking forward!

[InesF]

11 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Thought I recognized the first one (without looking at the artwork) just from the first line or two.  Turned out I was completely wrong  (I've read it, but so many years ago (as in DECADES) that I didn't remember it as well as I thought I did...).

You are welcome, @inkstainedruth! Thank you for participating.

Don't worry about the the mismatch. I know so well how the overload with tasks feels like.

Maybe its a sign to take some time and transcribe the one or the other paragraph from a beloved book or one of the most remarkable phrases of it?

 

Besides the well known and most often cited phrase from April Challenge book number one, a beloved phrase of mine is:

"What you give away will be yours forever; what your keep will be lost for the world" by Eric Emmanuel Schmitt

Reading it several times over weeks and moth is a real life-changer. And there are so many others waiting to be discovered by us ...

[LizEF]

6 hours ago, InesF said:

and

 Indeed!

Well done, @LizEF and thank you for participating in both CRV's!

The small booklet of number one Challenge is among my all time favourites; its on my ebook reader since the first day and will never be erased intentionally.

 

6 hours ago, InesF said:

I started reading the number two Challenge novel two weeks ago - and not finished yet. 🙄

 

Some books are fast reads, some aren't...

 

6 hours ago, InesF said:

I love to give some hints, but I do not know when to stop.

Don't feel bad; this is a seriously difficult task.

[TSherbs]

This one has me stumped, too. Both of the entries.