doctoral candidate in rhetoric and scientific and technical communication
the tools we use
In the same Harvey Keitel movie from the entry below, Keitel’s character tells another would-be writer that typewriters force writers to pay attention to each word carefully because the writer can’t backspace, highlight, and delete. The entire process is much more time-consuming with a typewriter.
So, this got me to thinking. When the typewriter was invented, did writers who wrote with ink, longhand, say the same thing to those kids who used that new technology?
“It’s not the same, kid, if you don’t get ink stains on your fingers and hands. There is more power in the word when you’re getting dirty.”
Is there validity to this? Were we more careful when we wrote with ink and a quill? Did we think about the words and choose them wisely? When we started using manufactured pens, did our words lose some of their meaning or impact? Did the typewriter allow some leniency in mastering the writer’s job? Do computers detract from the power of the written word?
Sure, there are times when I long for the simplicity of days gone by. When kids could ride their bikes after dark and parents wouldn’t have to worry that they would be abducted or assaulted. When life seemed safer. I do long for those times – sometimes.
But I’m a technology junkie. I like my digital camera (although I still have 2 manuals that I love just as much) and I love my iPod and my jump drive and my pda and my laptops and my desktops. I love technology. I like seeing the new and innovative things that arise out of someone’s need to make something work easier for him or herself.
I don’t think it’s the technology that hampers the writing. A good writer is a good writer no matter what tools are employed. It is the willingness to explore every avenue of the mind and create something worth reading that makes a good writer.
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I always worried about voice recognition software. Any asshole who could spin a yarn at a bar could publish a novel (some are good). But, I think the computer is the last end of technology as far as art goes. It’s nice to have misspelled words corrected, or poor grammar ponted out (which may or may not help a writer’s emphasis). But it is up to the wordsmith to, well, smith their words. I worry no more.
I used to write all my first drafts in longhand. I can’t now because my writing hand is screwd up with a cyst. And that has really screwed up my process. I’m learning to write my first drafts by typing, and slowly I’m getting used to it..
The quill? Gone. The pen? I miss it. Typing? Hell, Hemingway did it (on a manual). Spellcheck on a computer? A convenience. Voice recogintion? Useless because it’s just babbling and not creating.
However, someday that might be an art form: to speak as you write.
At this point it won’t work. When the Jetsons cruise by in their floating cars, I’ll be plunking away at an old IBM and take a pause to flip them the bird.
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#3 written by TomLA 6 years ago
Our tools don’t affect so much the final product, but is there something lost?
When writing with pens or pencils or typewriters there is usually a first draft. Corrections are made and more drafts ensue. Only when the words are in their best form is the final product created. In many cases these early drafts are destroyed, in some cases they are kept. This is what is lost with our current technology. No one gets to see the original concept. No one gets to see how words can be transformed from bland thoughts into a thing of beauty.
When Marquette University purchased manuscripts from JR Tolkien I don’t think they realized the breadth of what they were about to receive. Tolkien had numerous drafts for his stories. There were as many as 18 drafts for a single chapter in The Lord of the Rings.
We read his books not realizing the toil involved. Only when it is seen the effort that he put into each word is it realized that greatness doesn’t just happen. It takes years of work.
Now with our word processors there is no need for multiple drafts. We easily make changes in place. No one knows that we went back and edited that file 18 times. Maybe that is ok or maybe something is lost.
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#4 written by snowpeanut 6 years ago
i think we “think less”, in that it is too easy to hit the send or submit button on an email, when the meaning isn’t clear in the message. personally, i notice i write differently when i type versus longhand. but technology is simply a different approach for communication, not an indictment one way or another.
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The tools aren’t important. The human heart creates the poetry, not the tool. Typewriters and quill pens are just sentimentality – nice, but not necessary.