“Inktober.”
Gah. (Not the project, which I’m sure is fun. Just the abysmal name. The hackery, the butchery. The base assault on the language of Shakespeare, Milton and Austen, of Dylan and Ishiguro, too. Of far humbler wordsmiths who still take the time to write and rewrite, to find the perfect word, to hew the soundest sentence.)
Sure, at first I just ignored it. As one does. As when your brother-in-law talks politics at Christmas. But after only a few days, it’s un-ignorable. The merchants have seen this opportunity, and cannily jumped in. Instagram has been infected at levels last seen in the movie Contagion. And October is 31 days long.
So sure it’s going to be hell, but at least it’s an extra long month. Gah.
Fountain Pen Follies 
Bite me. Words are meant to be contortionated.
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Fortunately, my brother-in-law is now an “ex”, so I don’t have to listen to his inane drivel (politics, religion, life in general) ever again; plus I emigrated to Canada–extreme I know, but needs must. I love this post, I have been thinking the same thing since I first saw the marketing.
By the way, is “gah” a word?
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It’s a cry from the heart. 🙂
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#gah
(I comment lovingly, as “gah” is one of my favorite interjections.)
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I feel for you, Laura. My brother-in-law also talks politics at Christmas. 🙂
Love your blog!
Christina
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Thank you!
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Go on, let us drawers have our fun. We’ll soon be back to eating cold baked beans, staring out of cracked windows at the rain, and wondering how to replace all those spent ink cartridges.
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Wait, artists can afford windows? And beans??? Geez, as a writer, I am envious.
Seriously, I love all artists. Art is the highest calling; art demonstrates the heights our civilization has reached; art will save us if anything can. It is the balm of the world. So it’s not the thing itself — I’m sure it’s great. It’s the horrible hashtag name. 🙂
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Haha. This made me laugh, although I’m sure you are fully horrified at the name and would deem this no laughing manner. For the love of ink!!!
I love my fountain pens and my ink. I also love art and “inking and am taking part of the month long art challenge who’s name shall not be mentioned. What name would you propose as an alternative?
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I love following your work on your blog, and I love you even more for calling this the “art challenge whose name shall not be mentioned.” 🙂
This was all in fun, yes. And I couldn’t propose an alternate name. But, semi-seriously, does everything have to have a hashtag catchy name? I understand that it makes commercialization easier. That’s the whole point of trademark, after all — to monetize an idea; and clearly a trademark actually helps commercialize things. So this is similar — I get that.
It’s just, I don’t know — can’t anything ever not be about marketing, or viral marketing? Can’t there be ideas or things that aren’t rooted in commerce? And I do say “rooted in.” Obviously artists, writers, singers have to make a living. But many of them actually are primarily motivated by wanting to express themselves, having to express themselves. (Sure there are both kinds. Just like my best friend became a doctor to help poor kids, while this (very nice) guy I met in college decided to be a doctor because he wanted to make a lot of money, narrowed it down to medicine or law, and thought medicine was more profitable. Not that they aren’t both good doctors.)
This is why people roll their eyes at me. I am out of step. 🙂
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