The sad decline of cursive

I have been a correspondent all my life, starting long before computers and e-mail showed up (at least in my life). Thoughts would be exchanged on paper and in handwriting and through the grateful use of the postal system. (There is nothing like hearing the sound of the mailbox and racing downstairs to find a heavily stamped, bulky envelope on the doormat with your name on it in a familiar hand, but that is another matter.)

Part of corresponding that way is becoming familiar with each other's handwriting. This can be laborious but it is rewarding in its own right.

When I was at the university I had a lengthy correspondence with a friend who had, even at that tender age, a well exercised hand: thick expressive staccato lines in pitch black fountain pen ink. They looked more like the outlines of spiky mountain ranges than words. Deciphering her handwriting would mean you had to go slowly, letting the words sink in one by one. Which only enhanced their impact for she wrote achingly beautiful letters. Her handwriting befitted her fearless character, complemented her writing and forced me to pay close attention. Try saying that about an e-mail in Helvetica 12pt.

It's in decline because it's inefficient and almost everything connected to text is done on the PC. When I wrote in cursive after school taught it my handwriting was slow, cumbersome and ugly. Now it's just ugly. And switching from ink to ballpoint pens solved the blue hand problem.

I admire how some people can draw flawless cursive letters but calligraphy doesn't seem to be my cup of tea. Would be nice if computers had support for it, though.

Related:

Gen Z never learned to read cursive: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32884213

What Is Killing Cursive? Ballpoints. Probably: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37571180

The importance of handwriting is now better understood: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37909756

> Palmer Penmanship Method

Is the author at least 70 years old? Or was his parochial school behind the times?

"By the mid-20th century, the Zaner-Bloser Method was the most popular style of penmanship instruction in the US, while interest in the Palmer Method had been declining from the 1950s" says https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaner-Bloser_(teaching_script) and "When the D'Nealian Method was introduced in 1978, it quickly became popular and led to a significant decline in the use of the previously leading Zaner-Bloser Method" says https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27Nealian .

The author was born in 1950 says https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Queenan_(author) so most likely just behind the times.

> As for the stately, elegant penmanship of the kind I was taught in grade school, just forget it. Beautiful handwriting is a thing of the past.

For elegant penmanship, see Spencerian script at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencerian_script , where you'll also read "President James A. Garfield called the Spencerian script, "the pride of our country and the model of our schools.""

Before then was English roundhand, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_hand .

The Palmer Method is a less elegant script so people could write faster and compete with the typewriter.

Some 15-20 years ago, it was common among Europeans to make fun of Americans for writing in block-style. These days, I imagine, most Europeans have trouble deciphering what they write, so they use a mix of block and cursive - aka cursive as taught to a toddler. I now wish I learned how to write block faster because I can't use cursive without it becoming mostly unreadable and I can't use blocks without slowing down too much.

In other developments, I see recursive coming out on a resurgence in some self-help circles - marketed as a tool to unlock your inner potential, relieve stress/anxiety - just shows that forget about something long enough and you can relabel it to make some money.

I write all the time as I slowly ramp down my reliance on computers. It has been one of the rare joys in my life to identify which things I don’t actually need a computer or phone for. Next year I’ll go to paper calendar(s).

Here’s the thing(s) that I’ve gone full analog on:

1. Reminders. Use a small moleskin notebook in my pocket and cross things off when they’re done. Really satisfying, that crossing-off.

2. Notes. I just use a tear away pad for notes and a self-inking date stamp. As the notes stack up, if I don’t use them in a few months then I didn’t need them and I toss them.

3. Books. I have stopped buying kindle/ebooks and now have paper books. They are far less expensive now and I can browse them both on the shelf, and whichever highlights I’ve made very quickly. Ebooks are a scourge, a censor’s delight, and also are useless for quickly finding information unless you have a keyword etc. The Kindle apps are especially useless for anyone who wants to do serious thinking/research/scanning.

4. Brainstorming. I have a chalkboard, an old one, got it for $20. I put it on casters so I can wheel it around the room. Great for planning and social discussion too.

5. Letters/notes. I can leave them for my wife or write notes to my friends and they’re delighted. Why did we stop doing this?

6. Letterpress! I bought a small tabletop press and a ton of old lead type. I have yet to really master it yet but have made some cool tests/samples for gifts. I think my whole setup cost less than $1000, I have maybe 200 typesets/weights/sizes.

Improving your penmanship and doing things analog is quite satisfying. You can keep your futurecel techbro futurist nonsense, when the grid has failed and the surveillance panopticon has imprisoned you, I’ll be happily writing and distributing Constitution 2.0 ;-)

Also, the sad decline of onion-belt wearing.

This link (1) works to read the article. My usual go-to is archive.today, but I am getting endless captchas there today.

1: https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/the-sad-decline-of-cursiveespe... (link from https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/372943-the-sa...)

it's not sad. cursive is horrible writing style. most people cannot even read their own writing. yes, it can be done properly but it takes a very long time to practice and writing this, clear and readable, way is slow. hence why most people switched to small case printed letter writing, or the hand-written style of it. even a bad writer can get his works read. a bad cursive writer can not. and the compromise between speed and readability is better. some go with full on printing style letters but even though they offer best readability, speed of writing is the worst.

I'm left-handed, so as far as I'm concerned, the decline of handwriting (cursive or not) can continue. As a leftie, you either have to contort your wrist or put up with smearing over what you just wrote - ballpoint pens (only the best - most of them are prone to deposit blotches of ink that can be smeared from time to time) are a relief, fountain pens a bane. Or you can move to Israel or an Arab country and start writing right to left...

I can't tell whether the article is a work of sarcasm or the author is unable to grasp the entirely subjective nature of beauty.

Very analogous to the numerous articles both on WSJ and elsewhere complaining about "ugly" architecture.

With cursive you don't lift the pen so you write faster, which is the point, to me at least. Like touch typing, not for everyone, but comparing it to stone carving is a stretch (although funny and thought provoking).

These days I find I spend more time finding an actual pen and paper that writing what I needed

Read the non-paywall version at https://archive.ph/ONRfE

Are there any good (free) courses on YT or elsewhere for learning pretty cursive?

I began writing cursive again on my reMarkable 2 for better undo/redo.

A range of abilities seem to be in decline:

- inability to hand-write

- inability to solve an equation system or to calculate the zero points of a polynomial

- inability to read a book cover to cover and to summarize its contents

- inability to listen to a 2 hour lecture concentrated and to take notes

- inability to conduct a scholarly literature search on a topic (other than coming back with 8 blue Web links)

- inability to find the library or to use it other than for drinking coffee with friends

- inability to read a daily newspaper or weekly news magazine to stay informed about current events