No-Maj: Comparison of Fountain Pens and Wands
Just realized as I’m doing homework with my fountain pen, that the magical world of Hogwarts and its wizarding world most excellent too, the wand, is a form of the parable to the fountain pen usage in our world. According to Ollivander, the best wandmaker in the world, a wand has three qualities that are the makeup of the wand. Starting, in the beginning, is the wand’s core, made of creatures of the wizarding world. A wand’s core is like the alliance to the power that is perfect for the wizard, three examples giving are unicorn hair for consistency, dragon’s heartstring for power, and Phoenix feather for the choosiest of the owners.
When the core has selected the wood of the wand is also an indication of the carrier’s magical projections. According to Ollivander, the wooden material of the wand truly gives the wand a diversity of characteristics, from its ease of casting magic to their defensive abilities. For example, the elder wand isn’t only named for namesake, but the material of the wood is from the elder tree. Elmwood, for instance, selects its users with dexterity and magical presence. There are a lot of other wood types that you can read from Ollivander’s encyclopedia of wands.
Lastly, the third characteristic of the wand is its dimensions and physicality of the wand, or length, and flexibility. For Ollivander, the rule of thumb typically the length of the wand for the height of the person, or their personalities. Snape, for example, the famous killer of Dumbledore and death eater has a 13.5-inch wand, a long wand with his silent but deadly character, but I digress.
Now how does this fit into the No-Maj world of their fountain pens? The fountain pen in the No-Maj world is a lot technologically advanced compared to the wizarding world. Due to the difference in technological advances, No-Maj has moved way passed the feather and ink of pens to a more stable pen structure. For example, rather than dipping the ink in ink jar No-majs have build-in reservoir that’s able to capture the ink in pen, called a “converter.”
There are other striking parallels between wands and No-Maj fountain pens too since wands are rational objects capable of its thinking and choosing of things in the world, fountain pens on the other hand like many No-Maj objects derive no power whats so ever, and therefore inanimate. However, due to the lack of magic for No-majs, (no magic), their words becomes the ultimate source of knowledge in the no-maj world. Words and the exchange words can be thought of as the divergent point differentiating No-Majs and the wizarding world. Rather than going forth towards magical signs and incantations, no-maj’s next step is towards the technological world allowing the creation of similar feats that wizards are capable off, but I digress.
In their recent production, the modern fountain pen is very similar to the wands that Ollivander produces. A fountain pen has three essential parts. From the bottom there is the nib, which based on the material can create different styles of writing ranging from fine to medium to bold words. Up next we have the physical element of the pen as well, its creation is made from either metal or plastic. Plastic are typically cheaper but also a lot lighter, and metallic pens can range anything from steel to bronze, and more expensive gold pens too. Lastly, what made me thought about this comparison is the sigil that’s placed on the top of the fountain pen. Unlike other objects we have in today’s 2016 society, it seems that only fountain pen creators took a lot of care in the production of pens. For example, a cheap Lamy Safari, or TWSBI fountain pen looks and feels amazing even though their price is 20–30 dollars. The marksmanship of the pens is something that we see in classic watches. I think what I’m trying to say is there are not many analog objects that I like where the creators of those analog objects put so much effort into creating for a price of 20–30 dollars.
Like the diversity in the wizarding world for wands, there is an enormous amount of difference in fountain pens as well. Large companies from Germany, US, Japan, China, and more all have their fountain pen shops. Each country seems to have their personalities with their fountain pens too. A pilot from Japan typically have finer nibs than those other countries, and Germany is the creator of one of the best functional fountain pens I’ve used to date.
Lastly, writing as a No-maj, every time I pick up my fountain pen and start producing work whether it’s notes or homework, there’s a power that I feel. This feeling is the desire to write, thus, the desire to create. As much productivity, I get from typing out words on the computer, a device that that wizarding world simply don’t have nor need, the effort I put into writing with my hands gives me a sensation of summoning creativity. Eh, back to work now.
