fishingpoetThu, Apr 10, 2008 Your work is very, very cool...as are the rules you created for yourself. After-all, you can't grow, push, explore, create without first understanding parameter and limitation. In order to deconstruct, there's must be something constructed in the first place...
I can see where those more concerned with the price an an old Underhill might command on Ebay than the inherent value of the story your work tells might raise your hackles, but why give writers the finger though?
Your post defines your medium with historical perspective and nostalgia, if not for the object then the "countless workers" and "countless hours of trial and error and development..." You and your work embody an evolution in the engineering and artistry you see in those machines. If not for those countless hours (no to mention the inspired thought) spent engineering that time-saving device (and much further downstream, the macbook), we all might be relegated to quill or stone.
The historical and artistic importance of the typewriter to the poet or novelist of today (and any desire to use one for the deliberation of a poem or story) can no more be held against them than the sculptor who wished to use primitive tools to hammer, chisel or carve their passion from stone or wood.
True, Bukowski may very well have reveled in the chance to use a macbook, and his typewriter may have only been to him a means to publish his words, but I wonder if writers in 40+ years will even have the most remote clue of what a typewriter is? If they'll look at a macbook the same way that we're discussing typewriters (what interface will we evolve to next?).
In the end, your work will be the connection, as will the writer who still holds on to the nostalgia...and the collector who simply values history.
By the way, I have an old Underhill I got as a grad student in poetry. It belonged to an American officer in the Korean War. I've alway thought I'd put it to use eventually in my writing. I totally believe in the power and importance of passing on the story, in experience, in understanding your medium, in history...in the end everything informs our art. That said, I'd gladly donate it to your next work...without having typed a word on it. Again, I think your work is very, very cool.
Your work is very, very cool...as are the rules you created for yourself. After-all, you can't grow, push, explore, create without first understanding parameter and limitation. In order to deconstruct, there's must be something constructed in the first place...
I can see where those more concerned with the price an an old Underhill might command on Ebay than the inherent value of the story your work tells might raise your hackles, but why give writers the finger though?
Your post defines your medium with historical perspective and nostalgia, if not for the object then the "countless workers" and "countless hours of trial and error and development..." You and your work embody an evolution in the engineering and artistry you see in those machines. If not for those countless hours (no to mention the inspired thought) spent engineering that time-saving device (and much further downstream, the macbook), we all might be relegated to quill or stone.
The historical and artistic importance of the typewriter to the poet or novelist of today (and any desire to use one for the deliberation of a poem or story) can no more be held against them than the sculptor who wished to use primitive tools to hammer, chisel or carve their passion from stone or wood.
True, Bukowski may very well have reveled in the chance to use a macbook, and his typewriter may have only been to him a means to publish his words, but I wonder if writers in 40+ years will even have the most remote clue of what a typewriter is? If they'll look at a macbook the same way that we're discussing typewriters (what interface will we evolve to next?).
In the end, your work will be the connection, as will the writer who still holds on to the nostalgia...and the collector who simply values history.
By the way, I have an old Underhill I got as a grad student in poetry. It belonged to an American officer in the Korean War. I've alway thought I'd put it to use eventually in my writing. I totally believe in the power and importance of passing on the story, in experience, in understanding your medium, in history...in the end everything informs our art. That said, I'd gladly donate it to your next work...without having typed a word on it. Again, I think your work is very, very cool.