What do literary stalwarts of the original typewriter era make of all this? “We old typists, it makes us feel young again to think there’s a new generation catching on,” said Gay Talese, 79. He still uses a typewriter, albeit electric, as does his friend, Robert A. Caro, 75, the Pulitzer-winning biographer of Robert Moses and President Lyndon B. Johnson. They discussed Mr. Caro’s Smith Corona while watching the Super Bowl.
“I’m actually not surprised,” Mr. Caro said, when told of the typewriter renaissance. The tangible pleasures of typewriters are something he’s known about for decades. “One reason I type is it simply makes me feel closer to my words,” Mr. Caro said. “It’s like being a cabinetmaker. It’s like laying down the planks. This is the way it’s supposed to feel.”
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Thank you, Jess Bruder and the New York Times
NY Times writeup: "The Digital Generation Rediscovers the Magic of Manual Typewriters" (An alternate link via Twitter link shortener)
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12 comments:
Deja vu! I've snagged a PDF copy of the article once the original gets swallowed by the NY Times paywall. :-\
Ah...I love that the typosphere gets so much love. We should start charging membership fees :D lol
I've just taken the liberty of posting the NYT cutting on my blog - for the non-typospherian visitors! Thanks for sharing so quickly, Richard. Paywall? What's the world coming to?
Excellent article! Wow, NY Times Style section - I wonder how soon get get gentrified. :D
I saw the print version and it looks marvelous! Congrats to everyone who was quoted.
Awesome! I got to e-mail back and forth with Jessica a couple days ago, so I've been bursting with excitement to finally read it.
As of this writing, it's the 3rd most-emailed story on the Times site. People are interested in typewriters. Jessica told me she has a huge volume of notes for the story. I hope it will turn into a book someday.
I saw the Times article too! I thought it was awesome. I'm part of the typosphere, sortof, I guess.
www.awkwardengineer.com
@Sam, you are now! I've just added you to the blogroll, the index and map.
Weeks ago she told me she had a Quiet De Luxe in her parents' attic. I told her assignment (after writing the article, of course) was to start using the thing. The other day she told me she got it out and that she uses it to type To-Do lists in the morning and is really enjoying it. I figure that in itself is a win for the Typosphere.
Just received the hard copy edition. Congratulations to everyone interviewed or mentioned. I'm not sure they really captured the magnitude of this "typosphere" thing, though. Maybe they were downplaying it so as not to scare anyone. :)
Just found a translation of the original article.
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