Technology and me
Mar. 3rd, 2007 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ksmithIt hit me today as I jogged that without an iPod, I might never have gotten started. Walking, yes--walking is easier. I usually don't feel it in my knees, and the sweat usually never soaks my hair and drips. Jogging is several steps along the exertion gradient, and I need something to hang onto to get me through minutes 20-30 of the half-hour torture session that I really like honest except that Stabbing Westward really, really helps.
A portable CD player wouldn't have done it, because of the skips and the size and the lack of song variety. I've had this iPod for a little over a year, and have gotten very used to toting my entire music collection with me at all times. Scaling back to a tape or a portable CD player would strike me now as only two steps removed from humming to myself.
Which brings me to the matter of writing, and whether I could have become a writer if PCs/Macs hadn't been invented. The very first inklings of CODE were typed on a huge electric typewriter that didn't type capitals properly, so that the first letter of every sentence was dropped below the level of the line, like the first letter in some old books and parchment manuscripts. I tried writing longhand, but given the way I write--snatches of dialogue and action smeared down the page, then descriptions and business and such spread over and between like filling in a sandwich or decors on a cake--a sheet of paper comes out looking like a dog's breakfast in pretty short order. Typing wasn't much better. My first word processor, a Brother glorified typewriter with a tiny display that held about 10-12 lines at a time--and a game of Tetris--was an improvement, thanks to the autoerase function. But the Tandy 386 I bought in the mid-90s was a revelation. The ability to move entire paragraphs around, like the iPod, flipped from luxury to necessity in pretty short order. The ability to rename characters globally. To always look at clean copy, with no corrections or cross-outs.
Would I have somehow worked it all out, say, 40 years ago? Would I have found a way to figure out how to construct a book with typing paper and scissors and erasable bond and those little stick erasers with the brushes on the end?
We won't even discuss the revision method that Mr. Earbrass uses in The Unstrung Harp, because I get sick just thinking about it.
A portable CD player wouldn't have done it, because of the skips and the size and the lack of song variety. I've had this iPod for a little over a year, and have gotten very used to toting my entire music collection with me at all times. Scaling back to a tape or a portable CD player would strike me now as only two steps removed from humming to myself.
Which brings me to the matter of writing, and whether I could have become a writer if PCs/Macs hadn't been invented. The very first inklings of CODE were typed on a huge electric typewriter that didn't type capitals properly, so that the first letter of every sentence was dropped below the level of the line, like the first letter in some old books and parchment manuscripts. I tried writing longhand, but given the way I write--snatches of dialogue and action smeared down the page, then descriptions and business and such spread over and between like filling in a sandwich or decors on a cake--a sheet of paper comes out looking like a dog's breakfast in pretty short order. Typing wasn't much better. My first word processor, a Brother glorified typewriter with a tiny display that held about 10-12 lines at a time--and a game of Tetris--was an improvement, thanks to the autoerase function. But the Tandy 386 I bought in the mid-90s was a revelation. The ability to move entire paragraphs around, like the iPod, flipped from luxury to necessity in pretty short order. The ability to rename characters globally. To always look at clean copy, with no corrections or cross-outs.
Would I have somehow worked it all out, say, 40 years ago? Would I have found a way to figure out how to construct a book with typing paper and scissors and erasable bond and those little stick erasers with the brushes on the end?
We won't even discuss the revision method that Mr. Earbrass uses in The Unstrung Harp, because I get sick just thinking about it.
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 06:28 pm (UTC)Way back in the dark ages, I wrote short stories by hand and then typed them up. The mind boggles.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-04 08:31 pm (UTC)Then again, I wouldn't have known what I was missing. I think the worst thing would be if you'd developed as a writer while using a PC/Mac, and then for whatever reason had to go back to paper and pen.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-05 12:15 am (UTC)And white out. Don't forget white out and waiting for the paper to dry. I averaged 6 white-outs per page. I remember literally cutting and pasting, and then re-typing the result.
I killed an electric Smith-Corona with the first 100,000 words. Sounded like a B-52 powering up. Still finished the first version of FS on it. Then switched to an Apple2e.
But I did write the first draft in longhand. Probably would have continued, but would have learned to touch-type, and would have gotten colored ink pens for corrections.
And needed the fountain pen earlier...