I stumbled upon this beautiful passage over the holidays and immediately placed a request for the Diary of Anais Nin (NC State has all volumes). The excerpt below is from Volume 3 of her journals. I’m looking forward to reading her diaries this semester!
“The relationship to handcraft is a beautiful one. You are related bodily to a solid block of metal letters, to the weight of the trays, to the adroitness of spacing, to the tempo and temper of the machine. You acquire some of the weight and solidity of the metal, the strength and power of the machine. Each triumph is a conquest by the body, fingers, muscles. You live with your hands, in acts of physical deftness.
You pit your faculties against concrete problems. The victories are concrete, definable, touchable. A page of perfect printing. You can touch the page you wrote. We exult in what we master and discover. Instead of using one’s energy in a void, against frustrations, in anger against publishers, I use it on the press, type, paper, a source of energy. Solving problems, technical, mechanical problems. Which can be solved.”
— Anais Nin on self-publishing
Having read this passage what would you consider as your source(s) of energy?