Wrote a silly little essay about owning a typewriter.

You ought to have written it on a typewriter and posted pictures of the pages. And then typed it all out again on the computer for the alt text.

@Skep you act as if this idea had not crossed my mind. But I don't hate myself quiiiiite that much.

thanks for this essay, i know you said you don’t romanticise the typewriter yet it’s still so cozy to think about drafting at that pace. bouncing ball imagery makes me think of pianists, i’m sure an obvious comparison — they way they strike the keys so purposefully and precisely

ooh I've been pondering getting a typewriter recently, a decent one has popped up for sale near me. this isn't helping dissaude me 👀

@sorbier I was thinking about including the piano as a comparison because I imagine the mechanics are very similar to a typewriter. But I've never played piano so I didn't know if the feel would be similar.

@ghostscape I feel like I have been forthcoming as possible about how much of a pain in the butt typewriters are, so if this didn't dissuade you, nothing will.

i am really curious about it as a physical experience (among other things). i used to play piano and i assume i'll be needing to rebuild those finger muscles

You'll probably have a head start because you used to play piano, but yes, finger strength is definitely necessary!

This was fascinating. I understand to some extent the forearm pain. Using braille input on a normal qwerty keyboard involves pushing multiple keys down at the same time in a sort of rhythm and I get pain after doing it for awhile. A Perkins brailler is much like a typewriter in design - I've never used one but it's a fascinating piece of machinery if you want to look up about it.

I really enjoyed reading this one, thanks!

@pixelglade Wow, that's so interesting. My workplace has a braille printer, but I had no idea that a typewriter for braille existed!