Tuesday, May 10, 2016
The opposite of Ivison
Got thinking again about the fantastic Ivison cursive that was simply the way their invoice clerk wrote things, then became a trademark of the store, then became the store's specialty. They switched from books to cursive guides and pens.
I never learned Palmer or Spencer. We were trained in an awful squarish form that may have descended illegitimately from Palmer. A lot of people in my generation stayed with the ugly cursive. I departed from it in 7th grade. Miss Collins, a young and beautiful history teacher, used an Italic form that fitted a left-hander better. So I spent 4 years using the ugly square form then imitated Miss Collins and never went back.
Just for fun I tried to bring it back:
Amazingly this system that I used from 1959 to 1962 is still immediately available. Didn't even have to transition into it. Just decided to write that way and it worked. Makes me wonder: has this ugly system been living in my nerves for 53 years like chickenpox, always forming the base for my scribbles, getting 'transposed' into the Collins Italic form?
Later: Looking at this sample objectively, it's prettier and MORE LEGIBLE than my current scratching. Maybe I should switch back!
Much later: A news feature on reintroducing cursive in schools showed the exact same script we learned, with a caption "Zaner-Bloser Cursive Alphabet". An appropriately ugly name for an ugly script. Google shows that Zaner-Bloser is a school supply company making good money from spreading this ugly script through books and study guides. An exact parallel to Ivison & Phinney!
Amazingly this system that I used from 1959 to 1962 is still immediately available. Didn't even have to transition into it. Just decided to write that way and it worked. Makes me wonder: has this ugly system been living in my nerves for 53 years like chickenpox, always forming the base for my scribbles, getting 'transposed' into the Collins Italic form?
Later: Looking at this sample objectively, it's prettier and MORE LEGIBLE than my current scratching. Maybe I should switch back!
Much later: A news feature on reintroducing cursive in schools showed the exact same script we learned, with a caption "Zaner-Bloser Cursive Alphabet". An appropriately ugly name for an ugly script. Google shows that Zaner-Bloser is a school supply company making good money from spreading this ugly script through books and study guides. An exact parallel to Ivison & Phinney!Labels: skill-estate, TMI
¶ 11:16 AM
