18 thoughts on “Sunday, October 31, 2021”

    1. thank you, KENT PETERSON. as ever, robert messenger does superb work with the technical and factual aspects of typewriter history, but what i appreciate about lyons’ book (despite the factual and derivative flaws that messenger rightly underscores) is the emphasis on what typewriters did to writers, and to the art and craft of writing. on that particular relationship between the writer and the typewriter, i think there is still no book quite like THE TYPEWRITER CENTURY, and i don’t think the factual flaws undermine the general thesis of the book, which is that there was and is a deep ambivalence amongst writers about the impact of mechanization on creativity. enjoyed your post today on why you type. food for thought: historically and in the present time, anonymity has often been one of the only weapons the weak have to wield against the powerful, and signing one’s name is both a privilege as well as a marker of integrity. of course, on the supercharged interweb, anonymity is also the last refuge of scoundrels. ; )

  2. To Ap (I think it is signed, sorry if I am wrong),

    So sorry for the loss of your grandmother. My condolences to you and your family 💐

    1. AP in Tacoma I know from experience that when the loss of someone close happens we sometimes lose the ability to hear the grief being such. But I think we should try to focus on the gain that that person afforded us while living and the joy that they leave with their memory. Be safe Amigo.

  3. I too typed today’s OTP before having read the days pages. It is not about sports.
    I may type a Second Page but usually that is not a great idea for me. We will see.

  4. CATALINA, i love your post and the photo of your kids and carved pumpkins. LEO MADIGOW has now achieved what every poet yearns for: jack-o-latern immortality. CATALINA, the new ribbon looks so good, and i envy your berkeley typewriter stationary! I’ve been meaning to ask: how do you do the perfect corrections? I just take a pencil and slash slash slash, but your corrections are always so beautiful and so perfect. also, thank you for the tagalog lesson on diwata. xtian missionaries tried hard to kill or convert these beliefs out of the “natives,” but thank goodness they failed and we still have them with us. we will need (to return to) them, if we are to survive the anthropocene. AP: condolences on your many losses, and especially that of your grandmother. XICANO, i want to read your page two. always. hope the runny nose is nothing more than that. also–did understand correctly from your otp yesterday that you had your 56th birthday recently? if so, happy birthday, mi hermano!

  5. Mr AP,
    May you have many happy memories of your grandmother to carry you through these tough moments of saying your final goodbye. You have our condolences.

  8. Better Read Robert Messenger’s review of all the incorrect and false information in Lyons’ book before you spend your money on buying it. Robert and others in the Typosphere know more about proper typewriter history than a so-called professor of History who only reprints the wrong things before properly researching them. I read the book about the time Robert posted on it and even I recognized its poorly done work.

    1. i’m a bit amused and surprised by the level of vitriol against lyons’ book. i don’t at all have a dog in the fight (nor do i fight dogs), but i think it bears repeating that lyons is not after a history of the typewriter itself, but rather a historical-cultural account of writing practices, and in particular the ways that the typewriter has impacted writers relationships to their own creative process. even messenger admits as much in his review, which is angry (rightfully) for the lack of citations back to himself as about anything else.

      i will say that one thing lyons does that i’ve not seen anyone else do (except polt, briefly and–in my view–in a less than satisfactory way) is deal with the gender relations that the typewriter engendered (pun intended).

      that said, by all means do not pick up the book if a negative review that does not deal with its actual central thesis is sufficient to dissuade!

  9. AP, My condolences to you and your family on the loss of your Grandmother.

    KQ6UP, Chris, Good to see another user of the original social network and digital mode of communication. CW all the way!
    73, de Bill AI4WM

    Sorry for dual comments, I had to run out.

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