h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Subject: MOLESKINE Pocket Books

DYLANESQ43 : I was glad to see in the BBC 'review' (quoted on the manufacturer's website) of the Moleskine notebooks, that there was a caution included concerning the fact that the present day hot seller is actually not quite ( as in " REALLY,I say chaps, not quite...) the same as Modoemodo would have us believe was used by all those legendary celebrities such as Van Gogh, Chatwin, Picasso and Hemingway.

The author's commentary suggests that making this somewhat stretched connection is actually more a product of ModoeModo's extremely clever (if not suspect) marketing than the 'truth'.

A cup is a cup is a cup, you might say... but we all know that this is not true, so is a notebook based loosely on a much finer, real leather bound French craftsman-printer, handmade notebook that Chatwin truly coveted and trucked around windswept Patagonia, that Van Gogh sketched upon it's blood stained pages, that Picasso mislaid in his lovers' beds or that Hemingway spilled his liquor upon while boozing on his Key West veranda actually the same as one potentially made for peanuts in Chinese sweatshops ?

We are reminded of their actual Oriental 'mano-e-mano' origin by the fact that in the address book version of the Moleskine, the A-Z letters ,having been manually attached (probably for 10 hours a day 7 days a week in poorly lit factories) are not lined up as well as a truly fine crafted product would have been ! I have visions of Chinese women losing their eyesight at an early age.

To select a few quotes (interspersed with my bracketed quips) from the multilingual insert that you get when you buy a version of this popular notebook " Moleskine is ( 'is', you note, not 'is like' ) the legendary notebook used by European artists and thinkers ( not too deeply politically or sociologically thoughtful people, they no doubt hope ) ..originally produced by small French bookbinders (and now by equally 'small' Chinese peasants, I suppose?)..the legendary black notebook is once again (i.e.after being discontinued in 1986 by that aforementioned 'small' family operation from Tours,en Frons).

Were the truth known, these NIFTY NOTEBOOKS(c) that are all the rage with the hipsters of today are actually a partially reincarnated knockoff just like that Gucci bag that dealers are sneaking out from those hidden basement storage rooms on Canal Street in Lower Manhattan and flogging to label conscious clubbers in suburban New Jersey clandestine home 'party' sales. Back in the '50's Woolworth's Department Stores would probably have asked a more realistic .75c for a similar notebook.

Not that they aren't handy, mind you. It's just a tad galling to think that a product that was probably made for less than a buck racks up a hefty margin when it is sold for $11 to $20+ !!

Clever, these I-ties.