Meditations in a Pandemic: Day 7

“You can do without a woman but not without a typewriter.” - C. Bukowski, 1970

The death of the typewriter was the death of undistracted thought for the writer. Sure, longhand still holds water in our society, but once it is brought into the enamoring light of the computer screen, it loses that focused essence it once possessed (but gains the quality of being accessible). 

When there was a machine whose only human-given talent was for typing, writing, and thought, there was a sacredness to writing. What hath the multiple-tabs-open wrote to our writing and composition? Boredom or ‘feeling stuck’ with a piece of composition is abolished by our multi-purposed machines. Typewriters denied you an outlet to browse; there were no windows of escapism to fall into when frustrated with writing. All those poor, type-writing-fools had were literal windows to gaze out of (and perhaps contemplate jumping out of, if those words and ideas refused to elegantly compose themselves together on the double). 

I do not suggest we go back to typewriting (nor horse and buggy), but I do ask you to consider the illumination that being forced to sit with the discomfort of unknowing, of frustration, of no distraction (save for your own imagination) would bring. Perhaps concentration, focus, dedication. Computers with no internet capability are akin to a faster form of freehand-writing; generating curious and unexpected thought.

 However, the very purpose of the machine and its multifaceted nature, (and even by its nomenclature “computer”) derails this fantasy train of thought. Yet, my proposal (a modest one - which to some may sound as horrific as Swift’s, no doubt) asks not that we rid ourselves of our progress, but challenges us to remember something we do not even know that we’ve lost touch with.  

Research, connection, and distraction are welcomed mainstays of the computer, but does the computer have to embody the almighty internet all the time? Is there room for solace and private musings, without the clatter of the world in an adjacent tab? Remember: the computer is not a “faster” typewriter (we type the same speed or slower than we used to) nor is an “upgrade”. It offers entirely different capabilities, which are marvelous, but are not a replacement for a dedicated writing tool. Just some type for thought. 

Now for the fun stuff:

• Tune of the Day: Gumboots (Graceland, Paul Simon & Boyoyo Boys, 1986)
• Text of the Day: Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892)
• Misc. Item of the Day: “Grand”: Give someone in your life a ring that does or could have the title “grand” (e.g. grandma, pa, or person related or not: find link in contacts on phone)