[I have written a series of blog posts on paper entitled “Gedankenspiel” that I am entering verbatim into WordPress. The thought is that I write differently by hand than via computer.]
I.
The pen is not only mightier than the sword, it’s mightier than the COMPUTER.
When I confront my students with the task of research, I usually present to them their mightiest tool:
the pen.
Why this, in an age of smartphones, micro-cameras and ubiquitous information?
First of all, information is neither neutral nor ubiquitous.
It is invested, complicit, contextual, and throttled.
Invested, in that powerful interests support only certain information flows
Complicit, because the flows themselves impact the information available (McLuhan, Kittler)
Contextual, in that it cannot convey but a partial view of the given story
&
Throttled, because access even to the permitted information is part of someone’s profit model
You use your pen to invest in your own, simple information flow
The pen allows us to be selective about reality, because we by nature have to be.
No circuitboards or touch screens or operating systems stand between us and the comparatively simple algorithms of writing.
Pens afford a mastery over language, which is itself not only a means to power over others, but also over one’s own thoughts.
Should our notebooks be set alight, our memories, narratives and control over them blown away as ashes into the wind, then we shall use our pens to once again inscribe power – via the written word and image – into the personal realities we perceive.
The Guy in the Black Hat 
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