Typewriters.

[LabelKing]

Does anyone else still use a typewriter? I find that they're much more convenient, not to add more pleasurable, than computers for small things such as letters, shipping labels, envelopes, etc. Of course, for longer things, a computer has the capability to save.

 

[Thomas]

I use one for the inevitable 1099 tax forms we deal with at year end. For longer forms I use computer, but there's always the one person at who gets the odd form - for interest or something. That then becomes an exercise in paranoia, since typos abound for me. Wrose still, I have adpoted one of those comfort curve keyboards at home and the office, so coming back to the clickety-clack machines is once a year is fraught with anxiety.

 

[caelte]

I sold my three typewriters when I left San Francisco in the late '80s.
One was a very nice Hermes desk model, the other two, quality lightweight portables.

There is an underground trend towards the use of manuals.
I think it is more than just Luddites tapping away.

I recently bought two portables. Mostly for color and design but I do have an unfullfilled urge to go sit in the sun under a volacano and type out a romantic novel.

The computer is my main printing device and the pen gets a great deal of use as well.

Actually , I favor the pen.

 

[denimdestroyedmylife]

I am thinking of getting a typewriter.

I have ambitions to write, but when I open my laptop, I end up here... or worse.

When I sit down with pen and paper, I doodle.

Typewriter may be the only solution.

 

[faustian bargain]

or one of these:

 

[LabelKing]

The writer of "Brokeback Mountain"--I don't know his name-- somewhat famously thanked his Hermes 3000 typewriter when getting the Golden Globe.

 

[faustian bargain]

here's a couple more for the retro hardware lovers:

http://www.dans20thcenturyabandonwar...ssor-wp-80.jpg

http://www.dans20thcenturyabandonwar...r-wp-2600q.jpg

...and one that's a little more recent:

 

[LabelKing]

Here's what appears to be a modern Olympia typewriter, from Germany:

http://www.manufactum.de/product/761...il.1773.0.html

 

[LabelKing]

This is a very nice looking one:

 

[LabelKing]

Here is a Royal I have; unfortunately the string broke and I haven't had it fixed:

Here is another one I use. In fact, I just used it today to type up some forms and envelopes:

I got the Remington for $5 at a rummage sale.

 

[denimdestroyedmylife]

i quite fancy this one:

here is a link to a typewriter purveyor-------and a nice write-up of the HERMES 3000. $350 OUCH! i just found a site that provides a nice summation of the manual typewriter game, to include the preferred typewriters of a laundry-list of authors. here's philip k. dick's typewriter and mug:

 

[caelte]

Originally Posted by LabelKing

Here is a Royal I have; unfortunately the string broke and I haven't had it fixed:

I used a similar one for many years.
I prefer the glass topped keys to the plastic.

 

[denimdestroyedmylife]

William Gibson wrote Neuromancer and all his short stories on a Hermes 2000, per his blog. He linked me here.

 

[Bradford]

I'm having a flashback to 7th grade typing class...

And DDML, I'm not really surprised that Gibson uses a typewriter. I went to a book signing when Pattern Recognition came out and he looks like the stereotypical sci-fi writer who writes about future technology but doesn't use it, but what do you mean by he "linked you"?

 

[denimdestroyedmylife]

erm... yeah. he had a link on his blog. i've never communicated with the fella.

yeah, those sci-fi guys are conundrums. i think he has stopped using typewriters. he mentioned making the move to word-processors in the same blog entry. so i assume he's using a mac laptop of some sort-----pattern recognition is littered with ibooks and "the cube"