1.19.2012

Teenager chooses typewriter over iPad

MEET THE TYPEWRITERS:

I've had Night Moon ( right)  for 4 years.
I've had Tom Thumb (middle) for a while, only I didn't know it. He was hiding in the hallway closet.
I've had Blue Jay (left) for around three or four months.

The day has come, that iPads roam the earth. Okay no, not quite yet. Scientists are still in their labs attaching legs to computers and giving them brains to see if they can think on their own. Soon enough this experiment will deem successful and there is no turning back, computers will  take us over. But until then, we have iPads. And after iPads we have iPad2s!

See, I can't deny loving iPads. They are so fun. They are so fun! You can put your finger on the screen and move it around and then wooosh, it moves things around, and I can play solitaire on it, and I can read my email on it, and I can like... do my homework on it. Or read articles on it, or read BOOKS on it. I love the iPad I do, but I love the past more.

Huh? What do you mean Master Lily? The past? Like... past? The past as in white wigs? To which I answer, "Kind of... kind of..." See, it is not as though I see wearing wigs as a treasure at all. I personally do not feel like wigs are all the comfortable, and white isn't my color, but see, at the same time, I think what is interesting is the way things were done in the past. The present is all about what is convenient, but if convenient means zooming away in an ugly aerodynamic car, then I'd rather ride a beautiful 1930's car. Although that of course has a much worse gas mileage... So never mind, I'd just rather not drive a car. But I'd rather look at an antique car, and I'd rather live in a society with beautiful cars (and only some people own them) than a world where practically everyone owns a car, that may have better gas mileage then the cars from 60 years ago, but because everyone has it, the outcome is even worse for the environment. We don't need cars gosh darn it! Ride your friggin bicycle!

If convenient means typing on a computer and pressing print, I'd rather have fun on a typewriter. Of course, someone who actually lived when typewriters were around might as well call me mad, because I am merely interested in something I am not used to. If I had grown up with typewriters I'd probably be typing a letter to my friend complaining, "Can you imagine our parents used to write letters on paper with a quill? That seems so much better... "

I guess what I'm trying to say is I am falling into the "I wish I didn't live in this time" trap. Just like in the movie Midnight in Paris. Everyone wants the past because it is more interesting. I feel like in the past people thought more and people were more interesting, but chances are there were people thinking the same thing in the past. We are merely hard to please... But YES... I'd rather not get sucked into the technologies of today, but rather explore and try to understand how people used to get by. I want to write more, read more, exercise more, sing more, act more, play music more, have fun more, and I think typewriters are fun! And iPads, although they are beautiful and convenient and lovely to most people, are to me an obstacle and distraction from other things. If I had already lived a life of typewriters things may be different, but for the time being I am interested in typewriters more than iPads that may or may not develop legs.

7 comments:

  1. Fellow old-time nerd! I wrote an entire novel on a typewriter once (and would love to do it again except said typewriter is currently buried under an assortment of paper that I'm too lazy to move). I still handwrite nearly everything I deem important for future reference; I have claimed (and actually use) my dad's old film camera, and most of my music comes from the 1980s.
    Also I'm in the proverbial market for a 1960s or 70s car of some kind. I would totally ride my bike everywhere except I live a twenty-minute drive from anywhere worth going, so that makes non-recreational biking slightly difficult...

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    1. You wrote an entire novel on a typewriter once? I can't even imagine... That is INSANE. I would love to write a novel, but I can't even get one going on a computer, non the less on a typewriter.. How long is it?? How long did it take you to write it??

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    2. I did... but only because my mother wouldn't let me on the computer enough for me to write it on there.
      I did it based on National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo.org), only it ended up taking just over three months because I paced myself far too low for the first two weeks. It ended up at 51,053 words long (it's still just a rough draft though).
      And it was so much fun I wrote seven more novels after that. :-) But I graduated to a computer for Novel Two and onwards.

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  2. I agree with you 100%. I feel this way about books. Sure cool gadgets like the Kindle and such are great to read books, but there is nothing like holding a book in your hand, flipping the pages and what can I say about the smell of a brand new book....AAAAHHHH Heaven! The same holds true for greeting cards instead of E-Cards and let's not forget the pleasure to be found in writing a letter on beautiful stationery instead of sending a cold text message on your smartphone.....PRICELESS!

    Love your stuff....Blessings!

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    Replies
    1. I know it's true! The kindle is cool but I think half the pleasure of reading a book is smelling it.

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