tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post6611574852398400451..comments2024-03-26T23:41:10.319+00:00Comments on Authors Electric: It's All in the Fingers - Umberto TosiKatherine Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17196712319655603442noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-83929031853596111612018-05-03T18:20:28.853+01:002018-05-03T18:20:28.853+01:00Thank you Dipika, Bill, Rosalie, Marsha and Andrew...Thank you Dipika, Bill, Rosalie, Marsha and Andrew for your kind words and for sharing your own typewriter memories here. I'm delighted that my post struck a chord - or maybe the shift key of remembrances for a few moments. (@Marsha, fun idea about the typewriter cafe - particularly in a university town. I'd go!) Umberto Tosihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04939504157464234443noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-46352045700307383962018-05-03T17:59:31.001+01:002018-05-03T17:59:31.001+01:00Ah, now you've made me nostalgic for my brothe...Ah, now you've made me nostalgic for my brother typewriter which predated my first computer and gave me my first byline. What a wonderful post to mark three years at AE! We are lucky to have you here.Dipika Mukherjeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17734481154069467025noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-22736893471692327922018-05-03T13:53:19.259+01:002018-05-03T13:53:19.259+01:00Great post, Umberto, and one which awakened a diff...Great post, Umberto, and one which awakened a different type of nostalgia in me. I miss using a fountain pen, and writing as if there were two columns on a page, the right hand one left empty for subsequent edits, additions, etc. That's the way I wrote all my plays and my earliest novels. I then typed up the final draft on a portable. But I hated having to make carbon copies (which are all I have left of those early manuscripts). Also, I was never able to 'write' using a typewriter. I don't know if it was the clacking of the keys or the manual labour involved in bashing at them, but 'creation' was impossible for me, so I stuck with the pen. And yet I manage easily enough nowadays with keyboards.<br />But I'm with you on the writerly image conveyed simply by owning a portable. I got my first one when I was writing revue songs and sketches for our Edinburgh Festival Fringe show. We realised we were actually making a profit from the shows and the rest of the revue company - i.e. my wife - agreed that I could spend some of it on a typewriter. I think it cost around thirty quid.Bill Kirtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16345949773423764808noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-4991507852548868112018-05-03T12:45:57.487+01:002018-05-03T12:45:57.487+01:00Umberto, thank for this interesting piece and cong...Umberto, thank for this interesting piece and congratulations on your first three years with AE! I'm reminded, reading your post, of my dear mum, who trained to be a shorthand typist in the late 1930s and worked as a secretary for many years of her life. She would have been the first to admit that her general motor skills were not great (neither are mine), but unlike mine her fingers flew with great speed and accuracy across a keyboard. I'd start one of my childhood stories on her Smith Corona and get all upset after my 59th mistake (no correction fluid in those days). I'd write the rest by hand and Mum would type it up for me (this was still going on in my university days). Thanks Mum, and thanks again, Umberto, for this and all your posts.<br />Rosalie Warrenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10790708661647164052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-77534383774066409022018-05-03T10:41:49.005+01:002018-05-03T10:41:49.005+01:00Terrific story, Umberto. Like you, I lack the typi...Terrific story, Umberto. Like you, I lack the typing gene and am grateful I have never had to write on a typewriter for my daily bread, though I had a few before the first Apple Computer changed everything. <br /><br />Typewriters are, as you point out, very trendy st the moment. There is a thriving London Typewriter shop getting a lot of attention from the media. <br /><br />Antoinette had the idea of starting a typewriter cafe, where hipsters can sip an expresso while typing a letter on watermarked, cotton bond paper. Marsha Coupéhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04231252789789817205noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2429560125838989988.post-80477107948635137312018-05-03T09:51:40.947+01:002018-05-03T09:51:40.947+01:00My first typewriter was my mother's pre-world ...My first typewriter was my mother's pre-world war upright - which, of course, I now very much regret not keeping.My main memory is of regularly having to use a pin to prick the ribbon-gunk out of the centres of closed letters like "e", "o" and "a", in order to restore their definition on the page. Fond memories, Umberto, but I doubt the joints in my hands would have stood up to fifty years of that sort of heavy-duty typing. Andrew Croftshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16101696875255886422noreply@blogger.com