- What Sam's Reading
- Posts
- Making Wax Seals While Late-Stage Capitalism Burns
Making Wax Seals While Late-Stage Capitalism Burns
Is it time to panic-buy stationery from Japan?
Doom-scrolling in bed one morning, I got served a short video called “The Zento Signature Craze: First Look at Uniball's Highly Sought-After New Rollerball.” Sold out everywhere! They spent six years “developing” the ink! A magnetic cap! The algorithm got me.
Will this pen fix me?
I’d seen videos about some sort of Japanese stationery awards before. Despite being intrigued, I had avoided Shopping Those Posts. But this pen video got me curious.
I LOVE things that make life easier, maybe more so than the average, able-bodied person because of my physical disability. If we use a social model of disability, we (I) can even argue that having things that work well for me/my body actually makes me less disabled. As Bob Williams-Findlay writes in Disability Praxis: The Body as a Site of Struggle: “The design, weight, or surface of objects often have a disabling influence upon functioning ability in terms of dexterity, bodily movement, emotional response, etc. [for people with cerebral palsy and other physical disabilities].” Sooo basically it’d be ableist for me not to buy myself this 22 gram, $28 Japanese pen. I’d write more letters to friends!
Coincidentally, I was also just about to start reading Dangerous Liaisons, an epistolary novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos from 1782. It’s juicy! Dark! It’s full of toxic, f*cked up behavior and outrageous misogyny. (It’s what the 1999 movie Cruel Intentions is based on.)
But it’s also about letters, reminding this alienated, chronically online Millennial all that real, physical letters can be and do.
A letter is a chameleon-like entity. It may in turn be an auto-portrait, a weapon against an enemy, an instrument of meditation or manipulation, an internal monologue, a personal diary, an unconscious revelation of character, a threat or an instrument of ridicule… They can be hidden, torn up, kissed, enclosed with other letters, copied out, returned, dictated or left unread.
Two of my favorite bits from the novel:
Don’t confuse the priest for the deity
The Marquise de Merteuil could run me over with a truck, tbh.
So keep your advice and your fears for those silly women who say they are women ‘of feeling’; who fondly believe that Nature has placed their senses in their heads; who, without ever thinking about it, invariably confuse love with the lover; who foolishly imagine that the only source of pleasure is the man with whom they have sought it, and, like all truly superstitious people, accord to the priest the respect and the faith which is due to the Deity alone.
The veil of your indulgent friendship
Another letter, by a different character, ends with what I might call a closing benediction for any intimate conversation, letter, or book club meeting:
If I have expressed any sentiments in it which I ought to have been ashamed of, draw the veil of your indulgent friendship over them.
Rachel Syme knows all of this already
Illustration by Joana Avillez
One of my taste crushes/para-social big sisters, Rachel Syme, recently wrote a book about writing letters. I didn’t buy it right away, but given all these letter-related thoughts, I gave in and ordered a copy. It’s a wonderful object. The subtitle of the book sums it up well:
A guide to modern correspondence about (almost) every imaginable subject of daily life, with odes to desktop ephemera, selected letters of famous writers, epistolary relationships, fountain pens, typewriters, stamps, stationery, and everything you need to embark upon adventures through the mail.
It’s a sort of encyclopedia in praise of letter-writing, with sections like: “Creating a Letter-Writing Ritual (or the Importance of the Correspondence Hour),” “How to Write About the Weather,” “A Little Note on Wax Seals,” “Writing an Apology Letter,” and “How to Write About Secrets (or the Art of Very Juicy Gossip).” Phew!
And Syme’s introduction is an actual letter!
Swoon
Some stationery things I treated myself to
Inspired by all of the above, I decided to be a good American and express my new interest with my wallet and then, being careful not to confuse the priest for the Deity, write some letters.
Pen
Since that Uni Zento Signature pen is indeed still sold out everywhere, I went with the cheaper, standard Uni Zento 0.7mm gel pen, which apparently uses that same fancy ink. I can confirm it is… chef’s kiss nice to write with, though it glides over the paper so smoothly that some might find the ink too “slippery.”
Paper
Midori MD letter set
For paper, I got a Midori MD letter set (pad and envelopes sold separately) plus an A5 Rhodia note pad for making lists. A5 (5.8 x 8.3 inches) is a nice size! I’m happy with all of these so far.
Pencils for annotating books
Me figuring out the Vicomte de Valmont and his misogyny
But the biggest project this spree was finding a mechanical pencil to annotate books with (ink feels too permanent for marginalia to me?). Spreadsheets have been created.
I had been using Blackwing 602 pencils, which are excellent but at $2.67 per pencil make for a pricey habit, plus you have to sharpen them all the time! I figured a mechanical pencil would solve both of these issues.
So far, I’m liking a Uni Kuru Toga 0.7mm mechanical pencil with — and this is notable — smooth Pilot Neox Graphite (0.7mm) in B grade best for preventing my palsied hands from piercing through fragile book paper.
In general, I found the guides from JetPens very thorough and helpful, like this one on erasers or on four methods of making wax seals (none of which, full disclosure, have I tried, despite the title of this post). Eat your heart out, Wirecutter!
I did not try this this go-around
Looking ahead: A shelf’s worth of French classics
Some thicc bois here
Dangerous Liaisons is the first novel in my list of French classics I hope to get through this year. Will I make it to Bonjour Tristesse (#22-ish on the list; not pictured) before summer ends!?
Spring is arriving, finally, here in New York and I’m listening to a Ratatouille Vibes playlist. Let me know if you have any favorites, whether they’re pictured above or not!