Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Typewriters and handwriting

A headline, seen by chance: “Could handwriting be going the way of typewriters?” The writer is wondering, of course, if handwriting is moving toward extinction. But it’s just as possible to hear the question as suggesting the rediscovery of a neglected (and perhaps beautiful) means of self-expression and communication.

It is unlikely, though, that there will be newspaper articles about the last handwriting repairmen, or repairers.

Related reading
All OCA handwriting and typewriter posts (Pinboard)

comments: 5

Geo-B said...

Not quite the same thing, but I found myself a bunch of times at the shop in the Jewelry District on Wabash of Samuel Himoto, the Fountain Pen Hospital.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2007-12-07/news/0712060972_1_pen-repair-ballpoint-fountain-pen

Michael Leddy said...

I wish I’d gotten to that place.

Sean said...

"It is unlikely, though, that there will be newspaper articles about the last handwriting repairmen."

Gender bias notwithstanding, I think we may have already seen some: the remaining educators teaching cursive in class.

Michael Leddy said...

Yes. I was thinking of something loopier — taking your handwriting into the shop so that someone can fix the Q or j or x , something like that.

I think the move away from writing by hand is one of the great mistakes in current education. Last night our daughter was rereading diaries that she kept when she was eight and twelve. I hope that her (hypothetical) children will enjoy writing by hand.

Michael Leddy said...

PS: I added the word repairers and wrote a post about repairmen .