Here’s another blogger pondering the dilemma of the Moleskine brand:
As I approach the cash register to purchase a Moleskine Notebook, I couldn’t help but think of post #122 in “Stuff White People Like” that rails against the cliche mode of thought that one can be declaratively “creative” and need an expensive notebook that offers no more functionality than ones that cost a dollar to catalogue their profound thoughts. I cringed as I thought of becoming a cookie-cutter robot of the modern era that spews nonsensical tidbits and quasi-epistemological musings as “art.”
But I have to admit this notebook is pretty cool…
I’ve always liked notebooks of any kind, but I’ve always found it difficult to want to scribble in them. I’ve carried Mead notepads, small Five-Star journals and even notebooks with abstract designs I happened upon at Urban Outfitters. I manages a few scribbles here and there, but they were highly irregular and the experience of writing in them felt forced….
Read more and see more photos at Dare to Compose: Moleskine Notebooks: Cliche or Cool?.
You know what’s cool? People who wear what they like, eat and drink what they like and use whatever tools they like. You know what’s not cool? People who are tactless enough to make derogatory comments about what people wear, what people eat and drink and what tools they use.
I completely agree with Winnie. I don’t think it matters what others think as long as it’s a notebook that fits your needs and tastes. I’ve got one sitting here at my desk and I was just scribbling down the opening of a play (not my ususal genre by any means) at lunch. I think if anything makes a Moleskine a cliche it’s the marketing gimmicks, but I write in them because I like them, not because it will make me the next Hemingway. Come on, there was only one Hemingway. I read the pamphlet to my husband when I cracked this one open this weekend and we got a good laugh out of it before I even explained the whole issue with the marketing. Like my husband said: Who would want to be Hemingway anyway? Sure he was a great writer, but he blew his head off with a shotgun. It’s all a matter of perspective. If you like it, use it without apology.