Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Touchstone, albatross, or punchline?

20090415 typecast

Wow, sorry about that sudden bleakness at the end. I've a birthday coming up, and I think that I'm beginning to feel it, despite my protests that I'm not. Here's that first typecast, by the way. My speed and accuracy have improved, although I still rush this old machine more than it wants to be rushed.

Royal Portable Model "O" c1932

3 comments:

Monda said...

I refuse to believe it. What are they going to brandish at my passing? An old manual Tower typewriter, a tube of discontinuted plum brandy Clinique lipstick, and a Moleskine XL ruled cahier.

Relics, all. It's just more than I can imagine.

Elizabeth H. said...

I vote touchstone. Or something along those lines. Think about it: how many of us not only reminisce about our old typewriters, but still want to use them *now*? Granted, we typewriter people are an odd breed, but even many people who have moved on cherish fond memories of typewriters gone by. I don't know about you, but although I remember my first computers, I don't have any real desire to revisit them or even much in the way of sentimental feelings for them. Few people bond with technology in the same way that they do with more analog devices, in my experience. We use digital devices, we enjoy them briefly, we move on when they're outdated.

Maybe it's just a matter of technology advancing too fast for us to develop any bonds. I don't know.

Duffy Moon said...

I think they're using it in the same way they might say "...a veteran of WW II..." or "...one of the first residents of his hometown to own an automobile..." It's a way to describe someone impossibly old, someone from a completely different timespace.

This depresses me, but I think that's why they mention it.