On Choosing the Right Font
I switched to Garamond when I was completely stuck in the middle of one of my qualifying exams to become a PhD candidate in philosophy.
I was writing a paper about Spinoza, a 17th century Dutch philosopher whose writing in the geometrical method (a mathematical proof essentially), as a result of being excommunicated from his Jewish community, had previously inspired me to the point of seeing his fingerprints EVERYWHERE. Body and mind are ONE. Love IS an increase in power of thought and body with the idea of an external cause (my beloved). And so on and so forth...
I had lost the inspiration, though. I had lost the belief in my role as a member of an academic community with anything interesting to say about Spinoza or any other philosopher.
I felt blocked. I pictured a giant boulder in my way and I couldn’t see a way out. I started to panic. I had to write my professor an email asking for an extension, the first email about an extension I had ever written. The letter brought me to tears and I had to be reminded by others that it’s ok. It’s NOT THAT BIG OF A DEAL. It’s just a paper about a dead philosopher that no one will ever read.
One morning, I resolved to move the damn boulder. I was going to push all my body weight to the point of exhaustion to see if it could budge.
I didn’t know what to do so I thought about the professor who inspired my one-time love and obsession with the Dutch thinker.
I went to graduate school and am a philosophy professor because of Hasana Sharp.
She was my idol in university. She loved Spinoza and so I fell in love with Spinoza.
As I reflected on the many philosophy classes I had taken with her (seven in total I believe), I had an idea.
Sharp’s writings (from her syllabus to her book) were in a particular font.
The way out from the boulder was obvious. I clearly had to spend the next 30 minutes or so trying to find this particular font.
The closest I could find was Garamond. And so, I switched my paper and all my research notes from stale Times to the new and exciting Garamond.
To say that this switch changed my life would be a bit of an overstatement. But maybe not…
As soon as I saw MY words in what resembled HER writing, I felt the boulder start to move. Suddenly, full sentences sprouted from my fingertips.
This new font made me part of the club of people who have interesting things to say (about Spinoza, about philosophy…). By using her font, I gave myself permission to think alongside her. I gave myself permission to take up space.
Because isn’t that what writing is, taking up space? Words take up space on the blank screen, books fill our shelves and ideas fill the room.
Years later, Garamond is still my default when I write (from syllabi to articles to a book proposal).
And Sharp is still my role model.
I think of her when I teach as I try to remember what she did. She twirled her bangs when she read her lecture notes. She had a nervous laugh.
I’m a very different kind of teacher. I don’t really lecture and I rarely have printed notes.
My favourite moments of the past year of teaching have been smaller teaching moments with one or two students in my office or in the classroom.
I ran a reading group in feminist philosophy last term. There were moments throughout the term and especially at the end where the students were expressing what the class had meant to them. The things that they were saying about me were things that I had said about Sharp.
I had become their version of what Sharp has/had been for me.
So, if one of my lifegoals was to become like Sharp, I’ve succeeded, at least in moments.
I’m not saying that Garamond changed my life, but maybe it did.
Recommended Readings
Hasana Sharp. Spinoza and the Politics of Renaturalization. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Spinoza. Ethics. Trans. Edwin Curley. New York: Penguin Books, 1994.
Spinoza. Theological-Political Treatise. trans. Samuel Shirley. Indiana: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2000.
“Garamond.” www.meaningfultype.com/garamond.html
