At the intersection of true crime and pleasure writing, many people find themselves fascinated by things like … Brian Laundrie’s notebook.
Earlier image of Brian Laundrie’s outdoor reading & writing materials including notebook with “Philz Coffee” sticker and waterproof MICRON pens (featuring archival ink)
It’s like there are three bodies we have a macabre fascination with: hers, his … and the notebook.
What’s in it? Every true crime junkie wants to know.
A suicide note? An explanation? Detailed descriptions of how and why and everything leading up to it? A diary logging what he was doing — what he was eating, how he was faring — how long he was alive and what wildlife he saw in his last days and hours?
Handwritten words, drawings, maps, diagrams: we romanticize them. Especially within the contexts of mysteries, tragedies and crimes.
We want to see them, parse them for clues, detect codes and hidden meanings. Discover obscure references. Determine the author’s state of mind and quality of character based on the slant, straight-upness or slop spilling over of their writing.
It’s hard to imagine any of the writing being legible considering the reason they gave for not finding his body sooner (the “area” was underwater). BUT judging from this photograph of him posed with a book (Chuck Palahniuk on the spine and title looks like Lullaby which is all so on the nose I almost wonder if the pic is a photochop) a notebook and pens … there’s a chance some of it may be readable since Microns use waterproof archival ink. So even though his body was decomposed, his notebook might have more than just skeletal remains.
I don’t feel curious enough about it to search and read through what internet sleuths are saying about it. I’m too lazy to even find out what the other pens are in the photo, but I did catch some chatter in my periphery that Brian may have been more of a drawer/artist than a writer/journaler.
I will be interested when they release images and results from the notebook if anything worthwhile remains, but the main reason I’m posting about it is to say how important ink choice is if you plan to do any outdoor/nature writing or drawing. IT HAS TO BE WATERPROOF! And your paper should be able to hold up to the elements, too. I learned that from my Environmental Science professor back in Community College, and appreciate that lesson to this day along with the value of nature journaling / logging.
Most fountain pen inks are NOT waterproof (you risk messing up your fountain pen with waterproof ink) so you need to use other kinds of pens or have certain fountain pens dedicated to working outside and/or using with water that you load with special ink and wash out often.
I don’t see any fountain pens in their trip pictures or in the white van.
I wonder if they found the Palahniuk Lullaby with his body and the notebook.
I’m working on corralling posts revolving around criminals, violence, and other darkly distressing &/or sensational content on a separate page away from the other PleasureWriting blog entries so you won’t unintentionally stumble upon them when trying to just enjoy innocent fountain pen and pleasure writing content.