I'm very interested in this phenomenon where people seem to idolize certain outdated, analog technology. It seems to be some reaction against, or coping mechanism for, the increasingly digital world. I have a lot of fuzzy thoughts on it, and I'd like to read a book or an article that unpacks the idea more thoroughly.
As a musician, I've recently started working with analog synthesizers. Digital synths tend to be very alienating devices, at least for me - you don't really program them, you just select a preset that sounds kind of like what you want. Software synths even more so. Then I picked up an Arturia Microbrute, and the visceral thrill of twisting knobs to get the sounds really turned me on! There are no presets. Want to rep…
Tom Hanks on Typewriters
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Re: Tom Hanks on Typewriters
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article makes a very astute point: that people are attracted to the physicality, the tangibility of "analog" things. Whether out of nostalgia (because we've been there) or retro fascination (when we haven't lived it firsthand), we can develop an emotional connection with a single physical objects that succinctly and permanently hold an abstract concept in a physical package -- like a letter, a book, a music recor…
Those objects are collectable, timeless and perfect for what they do. It's not like buying a laptop, which is useless a decade or two later. In my opinion, the older you get the more you appreciate stuff that lasts. Especially if you face hardship at some point and see the world for what it really is.
> collectible, timeless (...)
and markedly more backwards- and forwards-compatible than anything digital. We can read plays from the 1600s, or essays on how to build a government from the 1780s.
We can admire art from thousands of years ago, and people thousands of years in the future will be able to hold developed photographs of us in their hands and readily perceive it, while JPEG/EXIF file format will, without conscious intervention, will sink into near-complete obscurity.
When we die, how do we pass on our digital possessions? Do Facebook's, Instagram's datacenters, full of pictures of now-dead twenty- and thirty-somethings, will have to purge inactive accounts one day. Will our kids inherit our iTunes library even though they have their own? Do we pass 1000-game heirloom Steam accounts to our grandkids?
Morbid, I know, but the tangibility of physical, 'real-world' objects exudes a more reliable aura of permanence than that of digital content. Even if our descendants hold a garage sale the very next day, at least the world is made aware of our stuff, and it doesn't just spin away on a hard drive somewhere, forgotten.
Re: Tom Hanks on Typewriters
#63Last year I had a revelation while reading Gore Vidal that all my favorite books almost without exception had been written on typewriters. I immediately went to Ebay and bought two: an Olivetti and a Olympia.
I think Mr. Hanks missed one salient point of why bothering to type on an old machine still may play a valuable role to the writer in the modern age----------Silence.
I found there is a vast difference sitting in front of any computer compared to a typewriter. Mechanical typewriters are not alive. They do not have an internal CPU constantly cycling and doing things, constantly prodding you for attention with little indicators and wifi meters and clocks and things. Computers are needy. They are constantly trying to distract you, even when they are doing absolutely nothing. Typewriters on the other hand, are doing absolutely nothing. They are merely empty mechanical contraptions with no life in them whatsoever. What you find when typing is -- well, at least what I found -- is that you are left alone with your thoughts and the workings of your mind and nothing else but the silence of the room. This might be the first time in fifteen years you have experienced this sensation. It was odd at first and slightly uncomfortable. But I found that when writing narrative fiction, the words are totally uninhibited. They are not forced. You are not churning away as if you are a member of a large electronic industrial machine: society, but instead are left in quiet solace with nothing but you and the table, the stillness of the dust floating in the air and this solid bit of metal under your palms, and they are utterly quiet, and you can think, as if for the first time. It is a miraculous sensation.
I urge anyone to try it who has been steeped in tech for the last decade or two.
Re: Tom Hanks on Typewriters
#64At a technical conference a few years back, I decided to give my presentation using hand written viewfoils on an overhead projector. The conference venue had to really dig to find a working projector :-)
For years afterwards, people would come up to me and remark on how that presentation stuck in their memory!
(I still have a mechanical typewriter. Maybe I won't throw it away after all.)
Re: Tom Hanks on Typewriters
#65My dad wrote his book on a typewriter. My mom typed the revised drafts. Again and again and again. It was true drudgery. There's no romance in that.
Re: Tom Hanks on Typewriters
#66The man has a wonderful joy of living.
Re: Tom Hanks on Typewriters
#67We would all be remiss not to mention Hanx Writer, Tom Hanks' typewriter emulator application for iOS. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/hanx-writer/id868326899
Hm... reminds me of this distraction-free WiFi typewriter. https://getfreewrite.com/
Interesting (I'd never heard of this), though pricey.
Strangely, I'd prefer a plain keyboard (w/o a screen) where I could type (for journaling) and have what I type be saved. I suppose this could be easily done with a wireless keyboard connected to my phone. People would think I was crazy, though, seeing me type on a computer keyboard without a computer in view.
Re: Tom Hanks on Typewriters
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
I recently wrote something on a typewriter, got half way though the page and spelt a word incorrectly, tried to fix it and somehow destroyed the whole page...
My international politics professor had a story about how he had a copy of his master's thesis in his carry-on on a train in what was then Soviet Russia. He left the bag on the train and ended up having to retype the whole thing in a weekend.
If you're interested in typewriters and spa I craft, read up on The Gunman Project at NSA.
Re: Tom Hanks on Typewriters
#69Re: Tom Hanks on Typewriters
#70>Computer keyboards make a mousy tappy tap tappy tap like ones you hear in a Starbucks — work may be getting done but it sounds cozy and small, like knitting needles creating a pair of socks. I wonder if he's tried a mechanical keyboard? He might like it quite a bit better, even if just for the fact that you can choose your personality of keyboard with your computer, just like he does with typewriters.
While I'm a big fan and owner of 3+ mechanical keyboards, the force required to type out highly legible letters on a typewriter is not comparable with any keyboard. It's not even in the same ballpark. Especially if your "ink tape" or whatever it's called isn't new, you really have to bang on the keys to get them to show up, not to mention the action lever to go to a new line.
Time to join the modern age and get a Selectric.