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I don't know about you, but every time I read a story about an old typewriter repairman like this, I immediately want to grab a microphone or video camera and get his story recorded. I am no documentarian (as the poor iMovie editing maneuvers in this clip demonstrate) but I hate, hate to watch these stories fade out of the world. I mean, 100 years of writing machines. 100 years! A few years on Facebook, and it's like a century never occurred.
I want to get these stories down. Typewriter lunatics, we have an obligation to do this. If not us, who? If not now, not ever. Because every day it's already a little too late.
I'm signed up to take a class on storytelling/video production next quarter in graduate school, and hope to tackle typewriter storytelling in some way, amateur though it may wind up.
What are you going to do?
Time Out.
1 hour ago
11 comments:
Little by little, I'm bringing the typewriter more into everyday work and personal activities. I have begun corresponding more via typewritten letters through the mail, and less via email. Overall, electronic- based correspondence has become so bloated (and common), that it can be difficult to cut through. However, a typewritten letter, with letterhead and on a quality paper, has been getting attention.
I now have a hand-drawn typewriter at the bottom of each sheet, and a line that says "the above letter was typed, by hand, on a fully-restored antique typewriter".
The last phone call I received after sending one the caller said "I just LOVED receiving your typewritten letter!".
Thanks for what you're doing for the typewriter, Strikethru. To us oldtimers, you're a real trailblazer with the re-birth of all this.
Guilty as charged. I've been meaning (for years, it seems) to do something writerly about my days in the TV Repair business, which is rapidly dying. I still have time, and have access to the shop I once worked at, for photographs and interviews.
Thanks, Strikethru, for the gentle prodding that we need to get us to use our writerly talents for something real-world and useful, like documenting the world around us.
~Joe
Hmmm...got me thinking that I may want to call my local typewriter guy and see if he'd like to talk...
Me and my friend from Kent, the only other person who has a typewriter I know, and who uses it, have been writing letters to each other with our typewriters for a few years now. When I look back on them, I can track his typewriters decent towards breaking. The spacings became merged and the lines just veered off towards the bottom of the page. I just love the way letters from typewriters look, no two are alike; even from the same typewriter. I have also written a short story where a typewriter plays a big part, but it needs more work yet.
The UK needs more typewriter shops/fixers/handymen.
Seen this?
Cormac McCarthy's Typewriter Auctioned
The legion of typewriter users must unite.
I save typewriters from dumpsters, attics and basements, take them to my local repair man, and keep them until I find a writer who won't make cufflinks out of the keys. Unfortunately, last spring, the only typewriter shop in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where I live, had to close it's doors after decades of proud service.
Recently, I found hope in a story I read in the New York Times about my favorite novelist giving his typewriter, 5 million words old, to be auctioned off for charity. Naturally, I blogged about it, but it's in the Times too.
Should such documentaries all go into a central repository? They need to be made available in some way. Putting them up on youtube or something is all very well, but they need to be preserved for the long term too. Who should do this?
Thank you Frank. I would love to see your stationery with the typewriter on the bottom.
Joe, for SURE looking forward to tales of TV repair (and as always your photos.). My dad was a teletype repairman and I was always fascinated by his work.
Deek, get on that!
Alex, have you worked with any UK typewriter repairmen or do you know of any? I was in London in Sept on this super short vacation and got this wild idea of trying to hunt down typewriters or typewriter places, but realistically I barely had time to hit the major tourist spots.
Jay, I did, there was an interesting recent interview on the BBC with the american novelist Lionel SHriver related to this story that I keep meaning to post a link to.
Ryan, you've been elected to mastermind a Seattle area typewriter meetup. Waiting for your big ideas ;-)
Mariano, do you blog about your typewriter rescue efforts? I hope so. THat would be fascinating.
Cstanford: Hmm, I am thinking that actually, these kinds of documents should take all forms -- self-published books or zines, photographs, and video as well. Perhaps there could be a site or central repository for all these stories once they are collected. (Or a book about it). The possibilities fascinate me really.
@strikethru: you're the one with the Typewriter army! I mean blog!
@strikethru
My friend told me there is a nice stall in camden which sells handmade notebooks and typewriters and other things like that but I have yet to investigate. And google told me there is one typewriter repair man in far north london but it is a little too far for me to get to easily. I plan to investigate a bit more though, there must be some hiding somewhere.
I came home this weekend so have managed to type up some posts for The Analog Set. It is now underway and I will be looking for guest posters to talk about their analog addictions and fascinations.
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