The revenge of the electronic typewriter

An interesting article (by Greg Stanmar from the Chicago Tribune 13th August 1988) below is interesting. It says a lot about the author, who links "a typewriter with socialist leanings" to "recalcitrant billpayer" to "deadbeat". But what puzzles me more is the reference to "buy ribbons manufactured by Asian prisoners of war"? The reference to … Continue reading The revenge of the electronic typewriter →

EZ Writer

With a quiet typing action and a top speed of 14 cps, the Silver Reed EZ 20 is poetry in motion ... There's an indirect link between this typewriter and Australian poet Les Murray’s poem ‘The Privacy of Typewriters’: Les Murray's Brother (Deluxe 762 TR) ~ As revealed in an ABC National Radio "The Science … Continue reading EZ Writer →

The E Wasteland

"T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland not only featured a typist as one of its figures, Eliot's actual typing of the poem on three different typewriters proved the key by which Lawrence Rainey unlocked the history of the text and accurately reconstructed the different episodes' order of composition. Would such a coup have been possible if Eliot … Continue reading The E Wasteland →

Canon Fodder (Part Six)

I finally found an instruction guide for my Canon AP-1500 electronic typewriter. In order to purchase the instruction guide I had to purchase the AP-1500 typewriter that came with it ($15 AUD), and then ask the seller not to ship the typewriter since I already own an AP-1500 given to me for FREE in March last … Continue reading Canon Fodder (Part Six) →

Track Changes

A recent purchase I enjoyed reading on my Amazon Kindle is Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing (by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, Harvard University Press, 2016), an entertaining, well-written and thoroughly researched book. "There have been popular treatises and academic studies of reading digitally, there have been populist rants and jeremiads [...] But whereas e-books and e-reading devices did not … Continue reading Track Changes →

From Ray to Eternity

Born in in Waukegan, Illinois, fantasy writer Ray Bradbury (August 22, 1920 – June 5, 2012) was a native of the "rapidly disappearing small-town world of the American heartland" that English writer Malcolm Bradbury described from the point of view of an alien visitor. Like Malcolm, Ray was a prolific writer of short stories, screenplay and teleplays. However, Ray's tales … Continue reading From Ray to Eternity →

Hitch-Crock

After watching Hitchcock on DVD all I can say is, I wish I'd spent my money on a real Hitchcock movie. While Anthony Hopkins got the voice right (most of the time) he looked ridiculous in his fat suit. This poorly conceived nonsense was not just a waste of his talent, it was a waste of … Continue reading Hitch-Crock →

Lord of the Wedge

I didn't know it at the time of bidding on my Sharp ZX-500, but it turns out the same model of typewriter was used by William Golding to write the second draft and subsequent drafts of his novel Close Quarters. Close Quarters was a sequel to Rites of Passage and the second volume of Golding's To the Ends … Continue reading Lord of the Wedge →

Hum on Rye

IBM Selectric by Charles Bukowskihumming,it will do almost anything youask it to do.hummingbeneath its smooth gray paintthe machineknows.even death stands back andasks, "what the hell isthis?"humming,it astonishes the walls, thewindows, the cats, the ashtray,the wooden Buddha andme.this machine can save my life.this machine *has* saved mylife.this machine can create a womanmore beautiful thanany you have … Continue reading Hum on Rye →