Ink warm as blood

When one holds a fountain pen in one's hand, the ink grows warm. The ink flows as warm as blood onto the paper.

Harry Mulisch

Like no other writing instrument, the fountain pen embodies this somatic dimension of writing. The trace of ink flows evenly and continuously from the hand via the fountain pen as if it were extracting its serum directly from the artery. 

Sonja Neef*, Imprint and Trace, Handwriting in the Age of Technology, London 2011.

* I was saddened to learn about Sonja Neef's passing last year, on 6 April 2013. I got to know her through her writings and I have often quoted from her book Imprint and Trace in this blog. A sad sad loss.