The act of picking up a pen from the floor seems at first glance to be a simple, routine activity—an act so deeply embedded in everyday automatism that it barely enters the realm of conscious thought. Yet behind this everyday act lies a complex network of cognitive, motor, phenomenological, and even existential processes that radically undermine its triviality. Picking up a pen raises questions about the relationship between the body and the world, about the intentionality of objects, and about the underlying dynamics of power, control, and resistance.
But perhaps picking up the pen is not so much a simple act as a confrontation — a subtle power struggle between subject and object. What if the pen does not simply let itself be picked up? What if the pen resists human will, manifesting itself as a rebellious element within the seemingly smooth flow of everyday life?
1. The cognitive challenge of picking up
The process of picking up a pen requires a precise cooperation between different cognitive and motor subsystems. The first step is perceptual: the pen must be perceived and identified as a pen. The visual cortex processes the shape, color and position of the object, while the parietal cortex is responsible for estimating distance and determining spatial coordinates.
At that point the problem of the grasping movement up. The premotor cortex activates a motor program that instructs the body to straighten the arm and position the fingers correctly. The fine motor skills of the hand and the tactile sense of the fingertips take over: the pen must be held firmly enough to get a grip, but not so firmly that it slips away. Picking up a pen therefore requires a delicate balance between force and finesse, between intentional action and tactile feedback.
But here is where the problem begins. The pen is not lying there neutrally. It can roll out of the field of vision, slide just out of reach of the hand, or simply remain at an angle where picking it up becomes motorically uncomfortable. The pen positions itself, as it were, against the subject — the object reveals its resistance. It seems that the pen does not want to be picked up.
2. The will of the pen
The idea that objects can have some form of agency, however subtle, touches on the concept of thing-power as formulated by Jane Bennett. According to Bennett, objects possess a certain kind of liveliness—a power that manifests itself in their ability to interfere with human intentions. If the pen moves, slips, or tilts as you try to pick it up, is that mere chance? Or is a subtle form of resistance revealed here, an object that refuses to submit to human control?
The pen does not submit effortlessly; it reveals its material identity as something that resists. The smoothness of the surface, the inertia of the movement, the force of gravity pulling the object back to the floor — all are manifestations of the intrinsic materiality of the object. The pen is not a passive entity, but an actor within a network of forces, a participant in the dynamics of action and reaction.
3. The existentialist dimension of the picking up
According to Jean-Paul Sartre, human existence is characterized by the fundamental conflict between the subject (man) and the object (the world). Man tries to control, order and understand the world, but the world continually eludes this attempt at control. Picking up a pen is a microcosmic example of this existential conflict.
When the pen lets itself be picked up, it affirms human control over the world—it is a triumph of human will over the material resistance of the object. But when the pen slips, tilts, or falls from the fingers, human inadequacy is exposed. The failure to pick up a pen is an existential confrontation with the limits of human power and control. The pen, however small, reveals the fundamental vulnerability of human action.
It is here that the act of picking up a pen loses its apparent triviality. The pen functions as an existential mirror — an object that reflects human limitation in its most basic form of action. Picking up a pen becomes a symbol of human deficiency, of the failure to fully master the world.
4. The temporal structure of picking up
Picking up a pen occurs within a specific temporal frame. It is an action that takes place within a delimited moment in time — a transition from the state in which the pen is on the floor to the state in which it is held in the hand.
Yet this temporality is fraught with uncertainty. How often does it happen that the pen slips from the hand halfway through the process and falls back to the floor? The repetition of this failure introduces a loop of temporality in which the moment of success is postponed again and again. The pen becomes a symbol of postponement, of the inability to reach a definitive state of completion.
5. The aesthetics of picking up
Even the way the pen is picked up reveals an aesthetic dimension. A fluid, controlled movement shows motor skill and elegance. A clumsy attempt, in which the pen tilts or slips out of the hand, evokes feelings of discomfort and disharmony. The pen thus becomes a mirror of physical control and balance.
Picking up a pen can thus be seen as a form of bodily expression — a subtle dance between the body and the object. The smoothness of the surface, the resistance of gravity, and the responsiveness of the object form an aesthetic interplay that aesthetically frames the action.
Conclusion
What at first glance seems a trivial act — picking up a pen — turns out, upon closer inspection, to be a complex interaction between the body, consciousness and the material world. The pen does not position itself as a passive object, but as an active participant in the process of human action. The resistance of the pen reveals the existential vulnerability of human existence: the inability to fully master the world.
Perhaps the pen will eventually let itself be picked up. But that does not mean that it has completely surrendered to human will. The pen remains an autonomous object, a silent reminder of the material resistance of the world. Picking up a pen is therefore not just a practical act, but a philosophical confrontation with the limits of human action.
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