Monthly Literature Challenge

[inkstainedruth]

14 hours ago, InesF said:

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 ...

I'll admit that I didn't like book number one when I read it.  Maybe if I hadn't read it as an adult, and read it as a kid, I'd have liked it better.  But I found myself being somewhat annoyed by it. For me, it's a book for grownups PRETENDING to be for children, and I suspect that REAL kids would have been bored out of their minds by it....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[essayfaire]

16 hours ago, InesF said:

the one version still available in the .com shop, is a bit over the limit for a tool. ☺️

Actually, I like spending money on beautiful things I can use!  Easier to justify on a cost-per-use basis.  

 

Your challenges make me look forward to the start of each month; thank you!

[InesF]

8 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

I'll admit that I didn't like book number one when I read it.  Maybe if I hadn't read it as an adult, and read it as a kid, I'd have liked it better.  But I found myself being somewhat annoyed by it. For me, it's a book for grownups PRETENDING to be for children, and I suspect that REAL kids would have been bored out of their minds by it....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Indeed! I read it first time in the age of 18 years and didn't like it!  

The obviously young main character behaves a bit unfriendly, almost like being a spoilt tyke. Later I could see why Exupéry decided to draw him that way, and stopped disliking it. And some more years later I started to love the story - but I can not tell why. I can only see it with the heart ...    

 

[InesF]

7 hours ago, essayfaire said:

Actually, I like spending money on beautiful things I can use!  Easier to justify on a cost-per-use basis.  

Yes, @essayfaire, that's true in a more general way. But if the money spent is on the 42nd of those tools, hmmm ... 🙄. It harms the cost-per-use basis quite a bit.

Disclaimer: this is not an ethical telling-off; I do exactly that by myself!   

 

7 hours ago, essayfaire said:

Your challenges make me look forward to the start of each month; thank you!

You are most welcome! The pleasure is all mine!

[InesF]

Robert Oster Tempest Sky turned out to be too pale for everyday handwriting - at least too pale for me.

Therefore, I cleaned the pen and filled the ink into a Pilot Parallel where it makes a beautifully two-colour shading calligraphy ink for letter initials.

Before cleaning the pen I made a small mandala (Waterman Exclusive for scale), inspired by Kelli Blouin.

Happy Easter!

[LizEF]

4 hours ago, InesF said:

Robert Oster Tempest Sky turned out to be too pale for everyday handwriting - at least too pale for me.

Therefore, I cleaned the pen and filled the ink into a Pilot Parallel where it makes a beautifully two-colour shading calligraphy ink for letter initials.

Before cleaning the pen I made a small mandala (Waterman Exclusive for scale), inspired by Kelli Blouin.

Happy Easter!

Gorgeous!   Thank you for sharing the picture with us.

[knarflj]

On 4/9/2023 at 5:10 AM, InesF said:

Robert Oster Tempest Sky turned out to be too pale for everyday handwriting - at least too pale for me.

Therefore, I cleaned the pen and filled the ink into a Pilot Parallel where it makes a beautifully two-colour shading calligraphy ink for letter initials.

Before cleaning the pen I made a small mandala (Waterman Exclusive for scale), inspired by Kelli Blouin.

Happy Easter!

 

That's really lovely, Ines!  

[InesF]

Thank you @LizEF and @knarflj, you are welcome!  

[InesF]

Monthly Literature Challenge for May

 

The ink set for May consists of four inks in fitting and in intentionally non-fitting fountain pens:

Colorverse Extreme Deep Field in Pineider Arco Desert Beetle EF

Lamy Crystal Rhodonite in Montblanc Princess Grace M-stub

Dominant Industry Leaf Green in Aurora Optima goccia

Dominant Industry Periwinkle Blue in Pelikan M600 Violet-White

 

While all the inks and the fountain pens do follow the theme of this month’s literature challenge quite well, I’m not that happy with the overall colour combination. Green, Pink and Light Blue fit well to each other, but Extreme Deep Field stands a bit too far out. It was unavoidable as transition pen and ink from April. I like how it combines with Periwinkle but I do not like the combinations with the other two inks.

 

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

 

And here is the Literature Challenge writing sample (with the Pelikan M600 for scale) in readable form:

 

... and here again the complete A3 transcription (in not readable form  )

 

The author is:

Spoiler

Lewis Carroll

Online available handwritten documents may be written with either brown or dark blue ink. However, the original version of the book was written with pencil and includes a drawing at the beginning of each chapter.

Similar to April, we need again some goodwill to accept the Periwinkle (light) Blue ink and the Extreme Deep Field as the two inks representing somehow the author.

 

 

The book is:

Spoiler

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass

Alice is represented by the Violet-White Pelikan M600 with Periwinkle Blue ink. John Tenniel has originally drawn Alice with similar colours. The combination of pen and ink is as close as possible and for this I even filled an ink that doesn’t match the pen!

The other three inks are as well inspired from the other drawings of J. Tenniel, with Extreme Deep Filed representing the Mad Hatter but also the „extreme deep rabbit hole‟, Leaf Green stands for the overall garden theme but is also close to the green Absolem was first drawn by J. Tenniel. In later drawings the caterpillar was almost always drawn in blue. Finally, the MB Princess Grace with Rhodonite ink is a combined representation of the Red and the White Queen. To my understanding of the story, the two sisters are much more the two sides of one person and can’t be separated. My first contact with the Red Queen was in learning about biology, where there is the „Red Queen Hypothesis‟ used as an example to explain evolution. Therefore my view on these fictional characters may be a bit different from many other people.

All four fountain pens are either white or have white parts, representing the White Rabbit.

 

I know that the May Challenge is among the most easiest so far. Therefore, I recommend to take it easy and define the true monthly challenge more in searching the internet for scans of the authors original handwritten book pages and try to mimic the handwriting style! But you are welcome as well if you simply complete the interrupted last paragraph on anew sheet of paper in your usual handwriting.

 

Good luck,

see you in June!

[LizEF]

11 hours ago, InesF said:

... and here again the complete A3 transcription (in not readable form  )

I could read that on my big screen, so starting with its last word...

Copied from the British Library - literally, copied using a light box...

[Misfit]

Yea! I guessed right. 

[essayfaire]

 

While yes, this is an easy challenge in terms of literature, it is an exceedingly difficult one for me in terms of the penmanship skills required.  I shall take a pass, while thinking about the fact that just yesterday I placed this on my TBre-read shelf.

 

I do think using a red ink might have been appropriate. 

 

Thank you for all your work with these!  I look forward to them every month; they make me smile and ponder, both of which are good things.

Edited May 1, 2023 by essayfaire
typo

[InesF]

11 hours ago, LizEF said:

I could read that on my big screen, so starting with its last word...

[...]

Copied from the British Library - literally, copied using a light box...

Well done @LizEF! You matched the colour and the style! 100 points (of 100 ) for this Challenge.

[InesF]

10 hours ago, Misfit said:

Yea! I guessed right.

Thank you for participating! Well done!

The bigger challenge was deciphering my lazy, hasty handwriting ...  

 

[Misfit]

@InesF that’s what zooming in is for!

[InesF]

10 hours ago, essayfaire said:

 

While yes, this is an easy challenge in terms of literature, it is an exceedingly difficult one for me in terms of the penmanship skills required.  I shall take a pass, while thinking about the fact that just yesterday I placed this on my TBre-read shelf.

 

I do think using a red ink might have been appropriate. 

 

Thank you for all your work with these!  I look forward to them every month; they make me smile and ponder, both of which are good things.

Thank you @essayfaire for you motivating comment! You are welcome!

While the books are commonly understood as being dedicated for children and young adults, similar to the Little Prince from last month, both (or all three) have some deepness between the nonsense or between the surface story. I like it when the second and the third read are still good for some new discoveries.  

[LizEF]

6 hours ago, InesF said:

Well done @LizEF! You matched the colour and the style! 100 points (of 100 ) for this Challenge.

[inkstainedruth]

@InesF -- One of my favorite books as a child (after the Oz books of course ).

You have lovely handwriting, BTW.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

[essayfaire]

On 5/2/2023 at 2:39 AM, InesF said:

I like it when the second and the third read are still good for some new discoveries.  

Exactly! To me that's one of the qualities that distinguishes good literature.  Back in the day publishers didn't feel the need to stick genre labels on books, either; they just published the book.

 

At one point I wanted to re-read Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War.  Supposedly multiple copies were available.  When I looked in what I thought was the appropriate section of the library, juvenile fiction, and couldn't find any I asked the librarian for help.  They had one stashed with adult fiction, another in YA-- it's all the same book!

[InesF]

On 5/2/2023 at 7:35 PM, inkstainedruth said:

@InesF -- One of my favorite books as a child (after the Oz books of course ).

You have lovely handwriting, BTW.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Thank you! You are welcome!

I have to admit, I never read Wizard of Oz - I only watched the movie (with Judy Garland, I think).