Much
like it's namesake, Montblanc's 2004 Writers Series is complex, not
to say complicated. It's easily one of the most striking pens ever produced
by Montblanc, and like most extreme designs, immediately became a case
of "love it or hate it". Just like the writings of Franz Kafka
himself!
Franz Kafka was born in 1883 in Prague, now in the Czech Republic but then part of Austria. He received his doctorate in 1906 at the University of Prague. After a short time serving as a legal apprentice, he went to work for an insurance company.
When the long hours at that company kept him from being able to write, he took a less demanding job with another insurance business and remained there until forced to retire in 1922 because of ill health. He died in a tuberculosis sanatorium in Austria, on June 3, 1924.
For the most part, Kafka's writing deals with the struggle between a father and a son, or an individual attempting to plead innocence before detached figures of authority. In his most famous works, the protagonist ends up dying by the end of the story.
Kafka was in most ways a very solitary figure, isolated in his own mind from any true friendship and alienated from his own Jewish heritage. This inner turmoil, as expressed in his writings, has made Kafka into a symbol of the anxiety and alienation that has pervaded much of 20th-century society.
I
don't know that the Montblanc Kafka could be said to inspire anxiety
and alienation! But it certainly does draw upon an extreme design to
carry it's theme forward. Pulling most of it's styling elements from
Kafka's famous story "Metamorphosis", in which the central
character awakes one morning to find himself transformed into an insect,
the Kafka attempts to portray in a solid form the idea of change.
The first thing you notice about the Kafka is the shape. The Kafka is made in both ballpen and fountain pen versions, and each one has a different combinationof shapes. The pens gradually shift from a round profile to a square shape. In the case of the fountain pen, for example, the cap top is round, with the barrel end being square in cross section. The ballpen is constructed with the opposite, the lower end of the barrel is round, and the cap top squared off. The shift from one shape to another is very gradual, and makes for an exciting flow of line in both versions of the Kafka.
The next feature that comes to the eye is the translucent red lacquer finish. This allows light to gleam through the finish at the cap top and barrel ends, giving the Kafka yet another boundary stretching dimension design-wise. The translucent lacquer is easily the most "accessable" of the design features on the Kafka, in fact most people I've talked to who have seen the pen in person have commented on the lacquer finish. It's a new look for Montblanc, but it seems it will be a very successful one!
On
both versions, the cap top and barrel end are covered with silver trim,
and there is also a silver trim ring at the joint between the cap and
barrel. The clip is a simple flat, straight line, which adds to the
design without detracting from the simplicity of the overall look. The
Kafka is very simple when looked at with the cap on.
Removing the cap reveals the nib, probably the element of the Kafka that will cause the most conversation! The nib is 18K gold, plated to match the silver trim. The engraving is of a cockroach, to reflect the central character from the Metamorphosis. It's certainly the most interesting nib I've seen in a long while!
The
section is of a nice size, about that of the popular 146 Le Grand. This
should make the Kafka, like most of the Writers Series pens, very comfortable
for a wide range of users. It's at that "magic size", not
too big, not too small.
The Kafka, unlike most of the Writers Series pens, is not a conventional piston filler. Instead it uses a very nicely done converter style mechanism, when you unscred the barrel from the section, you are faced with a silver colored piston converter type filling system, complete with ink-view windows cut through the metal overlay.
As a replacement for the traditional piston filling system Montblanc normally uses, this works very well. The traditional system would probably have proved difficult to impliment, given the shape and style of the barrel on the fountain pen. The mechanism they ended up using makes for an elegant resolution of the problem.
It does make for an extra step when filling, in that you have to unscrew the barrel before filling the pen, but that's not really all that much trouble! The filler is nicely designed, and fits very well with the overall look of the pen.
Like all of the Writers Series pens, the Kafka is packaged in a book style preentation box. If you're a big fan of the work of Franz Kafka, you'll probalby be more than happy to buy one. If you just like clean, modern pens with a large touch of the extreme about them, you'll love the Kafka.
copyright 2004 William Riepl