But how do I blog with a Selectric?

I recently sent my IBM Selectric out to be repaired. It will cost a considerable sum to transfer me back to the pre-computer age. So why do it? Honestly, I miss the machine terribly. I miss the sounds and the smells of the Selectric. I miss being able to type entire documents using only my index fingers (I have severe carpal tunnel in my right hand, so this is actually the most comfortable position for me). I miss the feel of the 20 pound bond paper as I slide it into the machine. Mostly, I just miss typing.

You miss typing? What do you call what you're doing right now?

Uh...computing? It's just not the same.

It appears that I am not alone.

They're clunky, dirty and can't access the internet, yet every year thousands of people buy typewriters when they could probably afford a computer. Why?

Frankly, it has been more than ten years since I thought I had to make a choice between the two. I currently own the Mac on which I am typing this semi-literate quasi-essay, and a PC laptop. Both are useful to the point of being essential. My Selectric is meant to enhance, not replace.

But according to the linked article from the BBC, typewriters sales are falling at a rate of ten percent per year. Hardly surprising, but this does seem to fly in the face of the purpose of the article: to highlight the ongoing popularity of typewriters among older persons, as well as hint at new life for the low-tech devices. Still, the article is well-worth the read, if only to read about novelist Fredrick Forsyth's bullet-scarred manual typewriter, or the journalist who still writes her news dispatches on a typewriter after her computer "blew up."

I fervently hope for a resurgence in the popularity of typewriters, if only to keep the costs of ribbons and repairs down. The market can be very punitive to those who buck the technological wave, even if their reasons are nostalgic and somewhat fetishistic.