I want to know what will happen when they run out of paper/pens. It doesn't look like they are doing a lot of writing but it'll be a problem in the long term.
Easy. I can make both paper and ink. I'm sure with all the plants on the island, plus things like worn-out, leftover clothing and upholstery fibers, others can do that, too. The hard part would be the screen material for papermaking, but I could probably improvise a finely woven plant fiber screen in a wood or bamboo frame. The other hard part would be pens. Quills require netting or shooting of birds for wing feathers, but I'd think empty ballpoint pens would work fairly well as dip pens.
I want to know what will happen when they run out of paper/pens. It doesn't look like they are doing a lot of writing but it'll be a problem in the long term.
I swear I thought you meant the writers at first.
Maybe because I'm not clear on what they [um, the characters] particularly need them for to begin with.
Maybe because I'm not clear on what they [um, the characters] particularly need them for to begin with.
Hurley takes a census. Claire keeps a diary. Sawyer might want to pass Kate a love note during one of Jack's speeches. Sayid's supposed to be drawing a damn map of the island. Michael sketches his blueprints.
Michael sketches his blueprints.
I thought he was using a pencil.
Eh, the diary's the only thing that would be particularly hard to accomplish with other means. I don't think any of it's likely to drain a handful of pens.
I wonder how hard it would be to make ink? There are some methods here, but they seem a little complex.
Besides, there are always international stationary smugglers. Or boxes of Cross paper washing up on the beach, given that Walt may have to wish very hard for it....
(There is actually a remote beach on the Pacific side of the Baja peninsula that sits directly in the path of the N->S coastal current and which reputedly has the best beach-combing in the known world.)
All they need to do is have a container ship pass by and, before the castaways can get their attention, it gets capsized by Walt's mind. The debris that washes ashore can be many and varied.
