A Day of Moments
Epilog: This is what happens when 1)You read Kerouac's "Visions of Cody" late at night, and 2)You're inspired by Oz Typewriter's blog entry about typesetting by typewriter. Don't ask me how long it took me to do this justified margin thing (unless you're really curious).
Edit: Here's a scan of a portion of the original document, including all the little jots and tiddles, should one be so inclined (or insane):
posted by Joe V at 1:06 PM
4 Comments:
Well, Joe, I am really curious, and since you offered.... I noticed the justification right away, and my mind raced through the techniques: well, it's a tlog so maybe an Executive or other proportional; no, it's not proportional and I don't know of a non-proportional justifier; must be Word with its coarse justifying algorithms and the American Typewriter font; well, no, it's not that font, maybe one of those digitized typewriter fonts that are floating around (thanks, Richard, et al.); no, too irregular for any computer, must be a real typewriter; nah, who would do that much work? All this in about three seconds and then I drifted to the Epilog, so ...? Anyway, did you imagine Kerouac typing an even right margin? Huh?
Michael, I suppose I set myself up for having to "splain" myself. This blog article was penned via Pelikan M100 into a composition book. Then I measured the character width of my paper, on the Lettera 22, was 47 characters. So I started marking up the writing into blocks, using pencil, indicating where to end each line, and how many additional spaces are needed to pad out each segment to 47 characters. Lots of little pencil and red ink jottings in the margin. Then I typed it up, but not until after making several errors and using a plethora of correction tape. As you indicated, the hard way. This was like typesetting a typecast blog.
Regarding Kerouac, several years ago I viewed the Kerouac scroll of "On The Road," it definitely wasn't right-justified. I noticed too that the scroll was single spaced, and he had to jink the horizontal alignment every so often as it appeared his typewriter platen wasn't fresh. The paper was very yellowed; it was teletype paper, not intended to be archival. The glass case that held the scroll was like 50 or so feet long.
Thanks for reading my blog.
~Joe
There is something mathematical about the technique here that is entirely over my head. I won't even ask.
The day sounds incredible, though. One of my favorite thing about some folks' typecasts is the sense of place they impart, and yours does a peerless job of this for New Mexico.
Very well done. This is a fine prose poem, and the justified typing instantly shows your care for your words -- illustrating your point about paying attention to each moment.
(Minor note: I like the term "mancave." My wife and I refer to my basement typewriter repair station as the manpit.)
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