We all learned how to write in virtually identical classrooms using the same methods and the same pencils and the same flash cards, but when was the last time you saw two people with the same handwriting?
Strange as it may be for a computer geek to say this, I'm quite enamoured with old-fashioned ink-on-paper writing. Typing something into a text file is quick and easy, but it's not very tactile and the whole experience just reeks of impermanence. That's fine for most things of course. But taking time to write something on a page, or reading a letter from someone with beautiful handwriting, these things are sensuous and gratifying. Anyone can use a word processor, but penmanship is a learned and practiced skill, and when something is handwritten, it's unique.
I'm curious about the influences that have acted upon each of us to make our handwriting individual. Did our teachers have a large effect? Is our hand musculature a major factor -- and if so, is there an element of heredity at work? Do we imitate our parents' letterforms or those we see around us? Are there slow paced fashions and fads in handwriting when observed at the population level? How much influence do mood and personality have upon our style?
I have no answers, I'm just curious. I was thinking about this subject the other evening and I realised that my own handwriting has a lot more in common with my father's than with my mother's... even though it was my mum that taught me how to write. Furthermore, my handwriting at this point is nothing like my 'natural' handwriting at school, it's predominantly a result of decisions I made just last year (when starting to file job applications) to try and improve its readability -- I started to write entirely in small caps and developed a style of my own that I could be proud to use on application forms and cover letters. (I'm no calligrapher by any stretch of the imagination, I just wanted to make my writing look a bit more presentable.) Despite writing like this for a while now, I only just realised that my adopted style had any similarity to my dad's. I'm sure a psychoanalysing graphologist would have a field day with this.
Update: This is my handwriting.
Leave a comment