Love Letter to Manual Typewriters

About This Video

A love letter to manual typewriters. It reminds Van of a firearm in some ways. Kind of sounds like a .22 being fired maybe a mile away. If you're angry, there's a violence in the keys. The competitor is the computer: layers of distractions, apps, windows, news, popup text messages that can throw the idea right out of your head. The typewriter has one less sophisticated set of resources in the chain. You just sit down and bang on it. One minute. No backspace. Every keystroke committed.

Transcript

this spirited man understands that the manual typewriter has become a symbol of the pretentious hipster for a novel or

screenplay with multiple drafts yes a computer eventually yes but for

converting ideas into words on paper he begins with a typewriter it reminds me

of a firearm in some ways and it kind of sounds like a 22 like being fired maybe a mile away and if you're angry

there's like a violence in the keys the competitor to this machine is the computer there's a lot of layers in a computer you don't just sit down at a

computer you sit down on a computer full of distractions there's the all the apps and windows and there's news and there's

popup things with text messages coming in and that can throw you off the trail of your thought that can throw the idea right out of your head but with this

thing there's one less sophisticated set of resources in the chain it's just there you just sit down and bang on it

Products & Tools Mentioned

• manual typewriter essential — subject of love letter