Typewriters: Fixations and Fictions
Hey Bear, Mr. Hooch here. It's been a few days.
I don't have a whole lot to offer at the moment. I've found myself getting bizarrely interested in typewriters, manual ones. This seemed to appear out of nowhere over the holidays when I came across a typewriter in my parents home. It was salvaged from my grandparents basement and I hadn't given it much thought. But for some reason it grabbed me this time.
I went ahead and took our old electric typewriter home that we had during my childhood and began writing with it. It was great, to feel the physical sensation of the written page. I yearned for something even more physical though, it kind of bothered me that I needed electricity to type. So, I set out to find a typer on marketplace and sure enough I found one and got a pretty good deal on it.
I'm waiting to get a new ribbon in the mail, and it needs a good cleaning, but it appears to be in great shape. Then, just yesterday I picked up another typer, it's Remington Portable model 2. It's in rougher shape, but appears functional. The biggest issue I believe is the rubber platen has basically solidified into a hard hunk. There are services that will basically rerubberize your platen, but they are a bit pricey. I think it would be worth it though. I bought this recent one as more of a fixer upper, so I'm looking forward to taking it apart and getting it working well again.
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In other news, I have been trying my hand at fiction writing. The typewriters seem to inspire that spirit in me. I used to write fiction when I was much younger, but now it feels strange and alien. It feels awkward to come up with ideas, it's weird to try to express the idea in a way that sounds good. But it's been fun. Maybe I'll eventually edit one of these pieces and put it up here on the Bear.
Until next time, be safe Bear crew.