the Mark Pike

Stories about typewriters seem to be popping up all over the place this December. I thought I’d collect them here.

• Cormac McCarthy, author extraordinaire, put his Olivetti Lettera 32 up for auction at Christie’s to benefit charity. It sold for over $250,000 after he had knocked out more than 5 million words on it over 50 years. His friend bought him a replacement typewriter for less than $20. In the letter of authenticity, McCarthy typed that the machine “has never been serviced or cleaned other than blowing out the dust with a service station hose…”
• Robert Caro, biographer extraordinaire, recently wrote his own quick bio for Esquire. Caro wrote, “Every time one of my books comes out, profiles mention that I write on a typewriter that hasn’t been manufactured in twenty-five years. And people send me their old Smith-Corona 210’s for free. I used to have seventeen spares to cannibalize the parts. I’m down to eleven.”
• In Tampa, Florida, a writer chronicled the demise of the county library’s last working typewriter. “[T]he downtown library’s last typewriter sits alone behind a locked door, shrouded with a paper sign, which in big, bold letters reads: OUT OF ORDER. Typed on a computer.”

After reading all these articles, I ran across this great typewriter illustration by Robert Samuel Hanson, whose work in Monocle is fantastic.

Reminds me of a picture I took with my lovely Olivetti Valentine.

In conclusion, I need to type more.

The man who designed the Olivetti Valentine has passed away.

He worked as a design consultant for Olivetti from 1958 to 1980, creating the Elea 9003 calculator and the popular portable red typewriter, released on Valentine’s Day in 1969. Sottsass referred to his typewriter as the “anti-machine machine.” Its features included a carriage that dropped to the level of the keyboard and a storage case, though it was the color that made it memorable.

“Every color has a history,” Sottsass said two years ago. “Red is the color of the Communist flag, the color that makes a surgeon move faster and the color of passion.”

Ettore Sottsass, designer, RIP.

In midst of exams. Current assignment is a 2,500 word take home test. Writing about Constitutional Law.

My printer ran out of ink because I’ve spit out too many drafts. I have considered using my typewriter. I just printed out a test page. I think I type faster when wearing the powerglove. It’s so bad.

I spent the weekend in Memphis.

My grandpa and I decided to buy my grandma a manual typewriter, since she’s decided computers just aren’t her thing. Grandaddy and I found her a beautiful Olivetti typewriter on eBay (it’s a surprise, so don’t tell her if you see her in the next few days). I’m hoping we correspond, old skool style.

After the online antique acquisition, we had some time to kill before an evening movie, so I convinced everybody to head down to the casinos floating on the muddy waters of the Mississippi. We synchronized watches, since there are none on the walls of a casino. “Let’s all meet back here in one hour and head back to town. Here’s some money. Don’t spend it all in once place,” Grandaddy said. I dropped my cash in a half hour at the roulette table, paying homage to birthdays, classes of ” “, and anniversaries. Wandering around emptyhanded (except for a slippery glass of vodka and soda) I found Grandaddy at the craps table.

“You know how to play Craps, Grandaddy?” I asked.
“Nope. But I’m pretty sure if I put this chip down here and I don’t roll a 7, we win.”

When it was his turn, he didn’t roll a 7 for a very long time. This is the same man who took 3 quarters and turned it into nearly $1,000 with a couple of pulls of a lever last year.

Several hundred tucked deep in his Members Only jacket XXXL, we were rollin’ back to the Memph. Grammy and my Moms in the backseat. Mission accomplished.

I don’t really have a Valentine, so I’m buying one in an auction.

It’s on European ebay. She’s beautiful.

She was born 37 years ago to the date. Her name is “Olivetti.”

Her beauty is put on pedestals in museums of design. People make websites showing off the time they’ve spent with her. She’s a muse. She oozes poetry. Her creativity is unparalleled. She’s vintage. Old school, even. She was born in Barcelona with a rosy complexion on Valentine’s Day 1969. I’m in love with her.

Olivetti Valentine, I love you. Will you be mine?

X YES ___ NO

XOXO,
Mark

P.S. The first thing I’ll do with you is write a romantic comedy.

My computer and I are going to take some time away from each other. She’s been acting up lately. It’s been making me mad. She’ll turn the screen on and off while I’m trying to type law school essays, like my ambition is something to play a practical joke on. She’s probably thinking of doing something right now while I’m typing this. She quit talking to me yesterday, her speakers just stopped working. The iPod gets tired after 45 minutes. Oh, and I don’t even want to talk about the time last month when the computer just blew up on me. Literally. Her powercord nearly caught my apartment on fire. I guess we lost our spark.

She’s got her reasons. She sees me checking out my other options. I was looking for an antique typewriter on ebay the other day, and she probably got jealous. I saw this beautiful Olivetti Valentine model, and I was reading about how they were only made for two years starting on Valentine’s Day 1969 (how poetically romantic is that?) and this particular typewriter I saw has a petite funky francophiliac “ç” on it (how romantic is that?!). I wrote the owner a few questions, to see if I could set something up. My computer somehow found out and flipped her lid. How dare I look at this sexy anachronistic technology!

Whatever. Just last week, I was about to kick my soviet-era LOMO out to the curb in favor of a new digital camera. I wanted to show my computer that I’m committed to this high-tech thing we’ve got going on. I was going to get her one of those shiny, cute Canon cameras. I decided to have one last fling with the LOMO (she hadn’t been working for me for about a year). But last week, things were better than ever. Picture perfect.

So, I’m going to take some time off from technology this week. I’m sending my computer to a spa, where they will rejuvenate her. And me, I need to sort things out in my head. I’m going to try and write on paper and really focus on saying exactly what I mean. I’m going to try and read books instead of blogs and I might even buy some postage stamps. I’m going to take a bunch of pictures with my Polaroid and my LOMO. I’m going to listen to some cassette tapes, maybe even some vinyl. I’m going to be an analog dude in a digital world—- for a few days, just to remember how things used to be.