On the Lure of Paper

            What is it about the smell and feel and look of paper that appeals so strong to my sense of aesthetics and my materialistic desires?  I can scarcely pass the office supply sections of a store without lingering and admiring their stock.  I have more than enough notebooks, plenty of cheap mechanical pencils, a range of lovely colored pencils, an array of patterned paper, a set of calligraphy pens and ink—yet I must always resist the impulse to buy more. 

            Is it their pristine newness?  Is my subconscious nostalgic about the pleasure of new materials at the start of a school year?  Is it the therapeutic sensation of writing that I look forward to? 

My affection (or affectation?) does not only extend to fresh, unblemished paper.  I hold antique paper in a kind of awe, whether displays of the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls or music books a mere century old.  And on paper of any age, I admire both the swirl of an elegant hand and the crisp type of a printer or typewriter.  I would wince at their loss, but I confess I feel no such attachment to abused papers--those that have been poorly treated, creased and covered in eraser marks and poor handwriting.  Destroying once-beautiful papers seems tantamount to a crime, but after the initial sorrow, practicality sets in; assuming the content of the text has no value, I can generally toss them without a second thought.

Certainly from an environmental standpoint, paper is inefficient and unnecessarily consumes natural resources.  Why not convert entirely to electronic documents that we can edit and delete without waste, and that we may view and share without cutting down trees?  Well, I do value and use electronic forms of writing.  Indeed, the smooth feel of a keyboard and the rhythmic clack of keys as words appear like magic on the screen before me has an allure of its own.  That doesn’t stop me from admiring a tidy sheaf of paper or a classic, leather-bound notebook.  Simply put, electronic books will never capture the smell and feel of paper--the tactile experience and joy of writing and reading.

 
            Am I bonkers, or have you felt this, as well?  Add your thoughts about paper in the comments below.