Here’s a rather charming little video from the LA Times on three generations of repairmen who’ve operated a typewriter shop. The proprietors say they’ve seen a resurgence of interest in the manual typewriter in recent years as interrupt-driven computer users seek out a writing tool that does just the one thing: allow you to write, undisturbed by pop-up ads, joke emails, and tanking stock tickers.
Video: Typewriter stays relevant in technology-saturated world
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4 thoughts on “Typewriter repair shop”
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“interrupt-driven computer users seek out a writing tool that does just the one thing: allow you to write, undisturbed by pop-up ads, joke emails, and tanking stock tickers”
Are the technophobic writers simply unable to close their email client and browser, while running a word processor?
This takes me back to Jerry Pournelle’s complaints years ago re: word processors. All he wanted was a 16×64 ASCII screen, with no highlighting, line numbers, cursor position counter, etc. Well, back to that and far beyond! At least Jerry’s dumb terminal text capture device created an editable output!
I think the idea is that, in such an interrupt-driven world, any excuse or trick or thing you can tell yourself to get you to write is worth pursuing, so if setting up a nice refurbed manual on a table in a back room gets it done…
Personally, I close down EVERYTHING but OpenOffice, take the phone out of the room, and set a kitchen timer for hour-long writing stints. I turn the timer away from me so I won’t see the face. When it goes off, I check/answer my mail, answer the phone, etc. and then go back under for another stint. I am so distracted and fragmented otherwise, I’d never get my actual target-tasks done. Each person is different. This is what works for me.