California Typewriter

As I sit down at my laptop to write this response paper about California Typewriter, a small part of me feels ashamed it’s not on a typewriter. After viewing the film it’s hard not to feel that way, even just a little bit. Leaving the theater I envisioned writing this response paper on a typewriter, scanning it into the computer, and submitting it that way. That on creative hopeful idea quickly died, though a bit faster than the demise of the typewriter itself.

Before realizing the papers had to be turned into Turnitin.com, I was at a complete loss as to where I was going to find a typewriter that worked and that I could use. I fell short much like how Martin Howard fell short in his long journey to acquire the “Holy Grail” of all vintage typewriters—a Sholes & Glidden model from the late 19th century. Had I found a friend or neighbor with a usable typewriter I wonder how long I would have had to sit down and that typewriter and work before I created a final piece of work that was flowed nicely and was free from spelling and grammar mistakes.

Surviving those eight hours without smashing a few keys in frustration or contemplating dropping the 10lb machine off my 3rd story balcony would have been highly unlikely. Needless to say, I make a lot of typing errors and would struggle living without my red and green squiggly lines Word gifts me with each mistake. The final sentence of Owen Gleiberman’s film review is one that resonates loudly and accurately in time where society appears more run by autopilot than the individual mind we each possess. He states, “The machine it got you to heed was yourself.” With industrialization, modernization, and the rapid advances in technology, future generations will loose the ability to heed themselves, unable to see the forest for the