I forgot to post this over the holidays, but this appreciation of the humble Pilot G2 by Trishna Rikhy for Esquire is one I fully endorse. Yes, being a gel pen means you need to not be impatient for a second or two while the gel ink dries, but I adjusted to that decades ago when I first made the switch from scratchy ballpoint to this smooth-gliding wonder and I have no regrets.
In truth, I want to like fountain pens. It feels like the writerly thing to do. They look wonderful, like little steampunk wands, but more practical. I’ve tried a number of them, and perhaps it’s because I haven’t tried the ones that are over a thousand dollars, but therein lies some of the (ball)point: you can get a Pilot G2 for under $2 easily. For less than the cost of lunch these days, you have backup pens for months if not years. I regularly use G2 pens until there’s not a drop of ink left in them. Why would I suffer scratchy inconsistency from a more storied pen? Because it has a cap? Because it’s opaque? Please.
Now I understand the importance of ritual and I am not suggesting that important treaties or other documents should eschew using an admittedly gorgeous-looking Montblanc for the formal signatures, but I’m sure nations include that in their diplomatic corps’ budgets. For us regular folk, the G2 writes gorgeously enough.
Note, that I will happily try any and all people’s favorite pens, just know that the bar has been set in smooth-writing black gel ink.