In Praise of the Pencil

It can generate megabytes of text, needs no batteries, and has no user manual. It is comfortable to hold, it smells good, and it is relaxing to turn around in your hand as you try to think of the right words. The humble pencil, the forgotten analog writer’s tool, is generally ignored as people try to have the fastest computer and the most powerful word processor. But no tool has more power to change the world: words written with a pencil may last forever, even after the last power plant dies.

I’ve long been a pencil fan, and, even if I’m writing these words on my iBook, I have several pencils next to me. I use them to doodle and sketch, or to jot down ideas as I brainstorm. Much more than pens, the pencil has character: it comes from nature – from trees and the soil – and it is rooted in the deeper subconscious as a tool that has lasted for some two centuries.Pencils don’t need ink; all they need is a sharpener. (And, in a fix, you can whittle a pencil point with any knife, or even hone the tip of a pencil on the sidewalk.) The smell great when you sharpen them, as the musky aroma of cedar wafts up to your nose, combined with the gritty, underground scent of graphite. They are warm and friendly; they have souls.

But not just any pencil will do. I’ve tried out most of the pencils I have come across, and my quest ended when I bought a box of Derwent Graphic pencils, in assorted hardnesses, and eventually discovered the sensual feel of the 3B pencil. The soft lead of the 3B lets me write with no impediments, as the words almost ooze out of my hand. Combined with a yellow legal pad, I can think of no better word processor.

To learn about the history of the pencil, Henry Petroski’s wonderful book The Pencil: A History of Design and Cir*censored*tance is a must-read. Not only does the object come alive, but Petroski’s wonderfully gee-whiz writing style helps you understand the import of such a banal yet powerful object. You’ll learn, among other things, that Henry David Thoreau revolutionized pencil-making in the United States – his father had a pencil factory – before going off and becoming a writer.