The Typewriter (In the 21st Century)

Typewriters Refuse to Go Away -- To The Delight of Many Authors, Collectors
On April 19, 2013 I traveled to Austin, Texas and enjoyed a program at the University of Texas that included a free screening of a documentary fllm, "The Typewriter in the 21st Century." The film is now available in a DVD which I ordered from Amazon.com for my own collection. This review is based on information obtained at the Austin screening, plus facts from the film's website and my own observations:

According to the website: "The film was inspired by a May, 2010 article in Wired magazine called "Meet The Last Generation of Typewriter Repairman." Director Christopher Lockett and Producer Gary Nicholson discussed the importance of the typewriter in 20th Century literature. The conclusion being that every great novel of the 20th Century was written on one, and if typewriters are in their final days, they deserved to be celebrated one last time.

"It only took a few interviews to determine that the typewriter and its legion of fans is far from dead. By the time...

This is your brain, on a typewriter
This film does an excellent job of telling the story of typewriters and those who love, use and repair them. I was impressed by the depth of the interviews, especially with award-winning authors like David McCullough and Robert Caro. Their descriptions of how their writing is more deliberate on a typewriter than a computer were engaging and convincing.

I did not realize the key role that typewriters played in allowing women to enter the workforce.

The interviews with the typewriter repairmen and women were especially poignant. Hopefully there are enough old typewriters for spares to last another generation.

Collectors, members of the "typosphere" (bloggers who type their blog on a typewriter then scan it and post it online), and innovators in art, music, poetry and technology (yes, a USB manual typewriter!) are featured. An intrepid high school english teacher shows that students are improving their spelling and writing skills since he brought...

A fun, enjoyable documentary
There is more to this documentary than just discussing a sub-culture of typewriter fashion. The "Typosphere" is representative of a broader back-to-basics movement; slowing life back down to the speed of human thought. Even connectivity addicts should be able to appreciate the virtues of unplugging for a while, after seeing this film.

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