Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry, can't write emotionless about Western people getting Japan wrong.
Fair enough. FWIW, I think it's still a great comment.
Thank you.
Japan's Paper Culture
161–164 of 164 posts
Re: Japan's Paper Culture
#162I should really buy something from jet pens. Not sure how how expensive they are for non-US international orders but I’ll have to check. It could potentially add quite a mark-up to a cheaper item such as the sampler packs someone else mentioned. But those packs look GREAT. You should check out the rest of their posts/articles. I’ve ended up on them before when trying to find out the difference in the types of inks an…
If you’re in the UK then cultpens might be a good alternative. https://www.cultpens.com/
Yes I’ve used them for fountain pens. Very good and never had any issues. Great customer service. Highly recommend.
Re: Japan's Paper Culture
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
Japan had interesting art and culture before their modern political system, which largely stems from post WWII. Btw, there's a reasonable argument to be made that constraints are what drives creativity. From my own experience, East Germany had much better political jokes than West Germany. Mostly because you didn't need a carefully worded joke in the West, you could just open a newspaper. Compare also https://en.wiki…
I agree constraints can generate creativity, but is there evidence that constraints generate more of it? It seems like no. This is all difficult to quantify, but if I were to attempt to paraphrase history and try to quantify anyway, at least from a Western perspective, it seems like the cultural output of free "Westernized" countries vastly exceeds those from restricted places (Russia, China, etc), or it could simply…
I agree constraints can generate creativity, but
is there evidence that constraints generate more of it?
I think the strong general consensus is that the right kind of constraints can indeed foster innovation - think of the constraints imposed by, say, early video game consoles. Or forms of music that grew from various constraints - the energetic DIY ethos of punk, or how hiphop thrived within the constraints of working with turntables and early electronic tool vs. live instruments.
Of course, the kinds of constraints matter. I think you're talking about societal constraints. I would guess that they generally have a much more negative effect on creativity.
Re: Japan's Paper Culture
#164For a slightly contrarian opinion: I just use printer-paper (for a laser printer). It works fine with ballpoint or fountain pens (some notebook papers don’t work well with fountain pens and people think they need special expensive paper). Obviously it doesn’t come in a neat book. I just used plastic document sleeves for the first level of organisation (one could then view more than two pages at once too) and box file…
My experience with laser printer paper is that it does not work well with most fountain pen inks. Although I acknowledge that there may be some that do, there are lots of paper manufacturers after all.. I've found plenty of cheap spiral bound notepad paper that does work well though. You just have to try it out and see what works. Paper can't be to absorbent or the ink will spread out.
I find most laser printer paper is not particularly absorbent. But it may depend on how fine we prefer to write compared to each other.