What is so damn special about typewriters? I don't get it. Recently, I saw a movie about a writer, who wrote all of her stuff on an old typewriter.
I have an old typewriter myself, actually. I used my pocketmoney to buy it from an antique shop when I was ten. It’s a great typewriter, as far as typewriters go, but actually writing on it is a bit like trying to get a three-year-old to eat its vegetables: it’s a slow process and sometimes you get your fingers bitten.
Those who love the idea of writing books on a typewriter, probably aren’t writers. They might want to be, I suppose. They might think that creating one masterpiece after another on a typewriter, is a terribly romantic idea. And every once in a while, someone (who’s obviously been staring at theirs for way to long) says that it helps them to “get in touch with the words”. I still think that after the second, third, fourth or maybe fifth draft, they’re going to wish they had a laptop. I mean, you can only sniff a certain amount of whiteout before you start going a bit loopy.
In the movie, the writer moves to a tiny, little island community with only 100-and-something citizens. Here, she moves into a tiny, little cottage with her typewriter (obviously) in order to work on her next book. She meets a handsome man (obviously) and falls in luve. Then he turns out to not only be a deranged serial killer, but a ghost as well. The thing that struck me as being the most odd, wasn’t the dead-bit, but the serial-killer bit. Son of Sam killed only killed a handful of people before folks started freaking out. And that was New York. I could go on a killing-spree in Hellhole, and I’m pretty sure I’d get arrested quickly. But this guy takes out several percent of the population, and nobody notices.
I guess everyone was just to busy messing around with their typewriters.
6 comments:
For practical purposes, I'll take computers anyday over a typewriter. But old typewriters carry a certain sentimental value. My dad at his home has a real old one that I wouldn't mind having just for it antique beauty.
Interesting point of view..It is kinda funny how things progress and change and in society however the tend to stay the same
I love my old typewriter. I wouldn't want to actually work on it, though. Every once in a while I type with it, just for fun, and it makes me feel very grateful that someone invented the computer. lol
I had a creative writing teacher who insisted that writing on a manual typewriter was the only way that true writers worked. Most of the class believed him. I wanted to throw my desk at him for even suggesting that.
I admit that when writing there is a stage at the beginning that I absolutely must write with pen/pencil and paper. I can type out later drafts on my pc, but I need to sort my thoughts on paper first.
I guess I sort of understand someone who says that a typewriter brings them closer to their work because writing in my own hand does that for me.
Ticknart - it's funny how many things are labeled by people as "the only way that true writers work", isn't it? I absolutely would have thrown my desk at him. I would have done it in a dark alley at night, with no witnesses, but at some point there -would- be a desk coming straight at his head.
Too_lively - I'm completely free of that need, myself. Whenever I'm writing either in my own hand or with a typewriter, everything just seems to be going to slowly and I get frustrated because the writing doesn't keep up with the thinking. So for me that has the opposite effect.
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