For this analog assignment, I wrote a (very meta) reflection on using a typewriting to write about…writing the assignment. It was much more difficult than I thought it would be, at first. Typing this now seems so much easier than it usually does to type on a keyboard and while there are certainly some advantages I noticed about using a typewriter, I definitely missed having this ease, speed, and changeability in typing.

At first, I couldn’t even get the typewriter box open! There is a latch with a keyhole, so I was sure that the Circulation desk had forgotten to give me the key, but no. One must press the sides of the latch together to open it and it hurt a lot. I actually had to Google how to insert the paper and use the typewriter, which I find hilarious: using a digital technology to look up how to use an analog technology. Perhaps that just proves our point in class that digital and analog technologies go together and complement each other.

The other thing that wasn’t amazing about using the typewriter was that the ink is so light. Each time I tried to scan a good, readable copy, it looked completely white. Instead, I took a regular picture and have copied it out word for word (even including all my awful mistakes) below:

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Brianna Best
Analog E xperiment
4/27/xx x 17

This is very strange and very hard, first of all. However, I am also no xxxxxx       *noticing that I am interact [sic] in  away that I havent bef – ore with writing. Of course with actual handwriting, one is aa also interacting with the page, butathis is quite different. I absolutely do not like having complete control over my spacing an d margins. Also I keep messing up and I do not llike that. I actually do enjoy theprocess, though. This page, as I;m writing it has that sort of aesthetiic vintage quality that reminds me of Paul Varjek in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, or the idea of Modern- ist writers typing their novels v e r y slowly in Paris. X I am actually finding that the typewriter is slowing down my wr- iting process in anice way. I can’t imagine writing academic papers like this all the time, but I am actually enjoying the extra time the machine is giving me to compose my thoughts as I write. Usually I find that, when usingx a computer, after about one–or even a half–sentence, I have to stop to gath- er myx next thoughts. This process is so slow that I find it quite easy to keep writing continuously. This could also have to do with the nature of what I’m writing. I am not writing a theory-laden paper on a novel, so perhaps I would still need to gather my thoughts in that case, I still find this remarkably xxxx calming. While I don’t think I have the pat- ience or time to write rough drafts x of a thesis or dissert- ation on one of these, I actually like the idea of typing out first drafts of stories or papers on a typewriter. The process itself is such a nice break from the usually go-go-go pace of writing that I think this is actually encouragingxxxx more creativity. I am seriously considering seeing if I can get my ornamental typewriter at home in working condition so that I can use it to write shorter things. Which is strange because I’M not sure I have ever heard anyone who grew up with a typewriter say that they would like to go back. I am running out of the only sideof blank paper I xxxxxx hapenned to have with me. 😦