Flying fingers postcards

 

Want one, free? Send me an email with an address in the U.S.A.

At this link you'll find a very high resolution version with improved typography, suitable for an 18" x 24" poster.

Logan Lane and the Luddite Club

Meet a young leader of the insurgency.

A recent New York Times story introduces the Luddite Club, founded by teenager Logan Lane of Brooklyn. She decided to turn off her iPhone during the pandemic, lived for months without any phone at all, and now carries only a flip phone (a concession to her parents). Her friends have joined her in "making the flip," and the movement is spreading.

What substitutes for TikTok? Boethius, Du Bois, and Dostoevsky.

Listen to an interview with Logan here. She lucidly explains how going "Luddite" has helped her with school, sleep, friendship, reading, concentration, and "hanging out with yourself." This interview is especially recommended to parents of teens.

And yes: Logan incorporates a typewriter into her healthy life.

It doesn't have to end, Logan! Not if someone founds Analog College ...

Of course, my impulse to share this online immediately is a symptom of my own disease. I look forward to my next opportunity for a digital detox, which may last for the second half of 2023, once I'm done with my current administrative position and get a semester off.

(PS, 2024: Logan now attends Oberlin.)

La skribmaŝina insurekcio: The Esperanto typewriter insurgency

The latest version of The Typewriter Insurgency Manifesto is in Esperanto. Dankegon, Toni E! La Revolucio estos tajpiligita!

This seems like a good moment to republish Norbert Schwarz's article "Is There an Esperanto Typewriter?" from ETCetera no. 100.

Manifest Maszynopisania

Thanks to Adam Piskorek for this Polish translation of the Typewriter Manifesto, typed on an Olivetti Valentine.

Adam writes:

I was moved by the California Typewriter movie, and Typewriter Revolution book and typewriters in general for which I am thankful. Since months I have been repairing, collecting and changing foreign typewriters to ones that have polish font. 

In Poland we do not have many great typewriters that could write in my language due to iron curtain and socialism in general so I took on a mission to revert history when it comes to that aspect of typewriters. 

I have also started a typo-sphere club and webpage because I have noticed that we do not have a single webpage about typewriters in the whole 40 milion country. It's https://www.maszynopisanie.pl/ and there is so much to do. Typewriter nights, tips for repair, reviews of books for and about typewriters etc. 

Thanks again for giving fuel and igniting a passion.

Good luck, Adam! Powodzenia!

 

The Typewriter Manifesto on a typewriter

How wonderful is this?

See more on The Typewriter Database, where Julian Walkner writes:

This Triumph Gabriele 35 has an OCR typeface. OpticalCharacterRecognition. The typeface OCR-B was developed in 1968 by Adrian Frutiger. The look is less technical than the OCR-A font, which was one of the first fonts to meet the U.S. Bureau of Standards criteria. ... The goal was to design a typefont that could be automatically read by machines, and that would be aesthetically accepted by the human eye. The description is from the time the font was published and not some information that was gathered for an article 30 years later - it closes with the sentence: „We can hope that one day "reading machines" will have reached perfection and will be able to distinguish without any error the symbols of our alphabets, in whatever style they may be written“. 

Julian continues:

For those who wonder why the typewriter looks like this. Here's the story: When the machine arrived at my house, the plastic chassis was broken into 3 pieces. I was very happy that I had recognized the font correctly based on a few recognizable typeslugs on the photo. But what to do with the chassis? Ok, I glued it together, but now cracks are catching my eye. I decided to „tattoo“ the machine with words. But I'm not a writer. This particular typeface, on a mechanical machine, is a link between analog and digital. This font was developed to make it easier for computers to understand human „language“ . Now, 50 years later they do „understand“ us in various ways but we don’t want them to understand everything and all the time. Under this perspective, the words of The Typewriter Manifesto seemed the perfect fit to me.

Thank you, Julian. And the idea of writing the Typewriter Manifesto on a typewriter has actually never occurred to me before. 

The Typewriter Manifesto in German: two versions

From two fellow insurgents.

There are more translations here.

 

Guest poem: To the Tyrants, by Frederic S. Durbin

(Read Shelley's "Ozymandias.")

Words do make a difference—as typewriter insurgents, we must believe this. 

What else has the typosphere been doing for Ukraine? See Kelye Kneeland's work here and Charlie Maguire's work here, here, and here.

Manifest de la màquina d'escriure

The insurgency continues to spread! The latest translation of the Typewriter Manifesto comes from a correspondent who has rendered it beautifully into Catalan.

Romance languages that have expressed the Manifesto now include Catalan, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish ... and the original Romance language, Latin.

Presentation: The Revolution Continues

The video of my keynote address at Virtual Herman's is now available on the website. I talk for about 45 minutes about developments in typewriter culture since The Typewriter Revolution was published, and answer a few questions.

Manifestul mașinii de scris

 The latest translation of the Typewriter Manifesto comes from a Romanian insurgent.

Onward! The revolution is global!

The insurgency strikes

 These images from an anonymous sender appeared in my inbox. 

Yes, the Typewriter Insurgency Manifesto is still making the rounds of our overdigitized world ... even shopping malls. Thank you, brave insurgent!

O manifesto da máquina de escrever

I appreciate this translation of the Typewriter Manifesto into Portuguese by a new insurgent.

There's one improvement on the original: where I wrote "we strike a blow," the translation has "we strike the keys." I like it!

Revolution in the mailbox: Ink will be spilled

Typewriter Revolution dance

Here's a wonderful choreographic dramatization of The Typewriter Manifesto by On Stage Dance Studio of Stratford, Ontario!

My first ribbon — but not my last!

Insurgent: Jennine of Toronto
Poster artist: Ted Munk
Revolution slogan: Boston Typewriter Orchestra

The revolution is global

It's gratifying to see my book and Manifesto crop up here and there, at moments when typists choose to resist the Paradigm. I get wind of some of these insurgent activities on Instagram (as I've said, the typosphere is in the Internet, but not of it).

At the Barrington, Rhode Island public library, teenagers can try colorful portables.



This event was made possible by dedicated typist Alayne White.



In Mexico City, poet Javier Tinajero (nuberrante or "wandering cloud" on Instagram) also embraces the Manifesto as he works on his Remington portable.



And in Toronto, Jennine celebrates a triumph: "This was my first ribbon, it will not be my last. Viva the revolution!"

Le réel et la représentation

Stills from California Typewriter

Translation of the Manifesto by Paul Sath

Revolution in the mailbox: Ken sent me (Pssssssst ... DC-area typists!)

For those who need digital ...

Manifiesto Mexicano

Here's the new manifesto from Armando Warner of Californication Typewriter in Mexico. (English translation follows.)

Armando

Guest post: Top ways to promote the Typewriter Insurgency

Thanks to Linda Smith for this guest post that's full of great ideas!