>>4125561I don’t think Steinbeck was fetishising his ball point the way OP thinks he was. For a start he probably used a typewriter. He probably didn’t fetishise that either. The ‘pen’ is merely a metaphor for the writers ability to observe and experience the world around him and relate that back to the reader in elegant, convincing prose.
But Steinbeck’s typewriter was never an extension of his heart and mind it was merely a conduit through which he gave a physical presence, in the form of printed words, to his experiences in the world beyond his typewriter and the ideas that developed in his head.
Likewise an instrument is the conduit that allows a musician to give voice to the sounds in his head and a camera is the conduit that allows the photographer to show their own way of looking at the world around them.
Both cameras and musical instruments are expensive things and hobbyists are wont to attach personalities in the form of names or “body, mind and soul” to such inanimate objects. This is mostly to compensate for their shortage of confidence and skill in using them. It also gives them something to blame for their lack of ability and helps foster the excuse that what they are really short of is not so much ability as more gear.
