Saturday, January 10, 2015

Let's Get Physical

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Post-Script: I'm certain a significant part of my enjoyment of typewriters is the act of typing itself, enough such that there are times, while at work, that I can hardly wait for the weekend to begin. This is something that those who aren't intimately familiar with manual typewriters cannot possibly understand, as it's a notion counter-intuitive to the common misconception typewriters hold in our culture. Similarly, I do also enjoy writing with fountain pen, enough such that it has been my usual method of writing first-drafts; although in the case of today's two-page article, I composed the first draft while seated in my front courtyard in the fading day's warm sun, typing onto children's manuscript paper using the tiny Hermes Rocket - which, I must say, has a very nice imprint for being of elite-sized font. The sun quickly set behind the shade of the house and thus the courtyard suddenly returned to its wintery chill (it gets well down into the teens at night, here in the high desert). So I finished off the final typing using the Smith-Corona Silent seated in my comfortable living room, watching NFL "foot" ball.

I'm not necessarily a doom-and-gloom apocalypse "prepper," but I feel one should never take for granted the comforts of affluent western culture, were some unexpected disaster to befall us and we suddenly find our private stash of typewriters and manual writing paraphernalia to suddenly become well-prized booty for some potential horde of desperate writers. Now that would make an interesting story. Or blockbuster movie.

1 Comments:

Blogger Bill M said...

I fully agree, there is something special about using a manual typewriter. I did not appreciate manuals in typing class because half the class had electrics and those of us on manuals were expected to be as fast as those on electircs. I hated using manuals until about the time I started collecting them.

The clack wiz whirr of electircs is still neat, but now I prefer manuals. I think the PC has been most influential in creating that like. Manuals are not limited by wires or any kind of connectivity but my fingers upon the keys.

Growing up where we still made many of our own things due to lack of money to buy them or even the availability I am amazed at the maker movement, many of them adults, finally realizing the rewarding feeling of making and successfully using something made by ones own hands. It's good there is such a group to keep alive the fun and rewards of a made-it-myself object whether a simple tool or complex machine.

8:44 AM  

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