The Story of my Typewriter

storyIs there any meaningful object in your life you have had for a long time, you wouldn’t ever part from, you feel so attached to that you would suffer if it ever got lost, damaged or stolen?

Write about it.

 

“The story of my typewriter” is an essay about the author’s decades-long relationship with his typewriter, discussing his care for the machine and his growing affection for it through its years of diligent service. The typewriter is a manual Olympia, more than 25 years old, and has been the agent of transmission for the novels, stories, collaborations, and other writings Auster has produced since the 1970s.  It is also the story of a relationship. A relationship between Auster, his typewriter, and the artist Sam Messer, who, as Auster writes, "has turned an inanimate object into a being with a personality and a presence in the world."  This is also a collaboration: Auster’s story of his typewriter, and of Messer’s welcome intervention into that story, illustrated with Messer’s muscular, obsessive drawings and paintings of both author and machine.

Aspiring writers are often fascinated by the processes and the tools of the professional; in this elegant art book collaboration between writer Auster and painter Messer, they can get a detailed, expressionistic perspective on the old-fashioned machine Auster uses to get the words out of his head and onto the page: a vintage manual Olympia typewriter. "Since… 1974, every word I have written has been typed out on that machine," writes Auster in the essay that accompanies the drawings and paintings reproduced in this volume. Though very short, the text is revealing of the author’s unique sensibility: "Like it or not, I realized we [Auster and the Olympia] had the same past.  As time went on, I came to understand we had the same future." The starring attraction here is the art.  Primarily done in oils, the works reveal Messer’s obsession with Auster’s typewriter.  Most of the depictions are head-on, sometimes with backgrounds that reflect the writer and his New York milieu.  One version is backed by a shelf of Auster’s works, another by the Brooklyn Bridge, and one haunting image shows the lower Manhattan skyline as seen from Brooklyn, with the still-standing towers of the World Trade Center prominently featured. The novelist himself is portrayed in several works, the best of which shows Auster conjuring the keys off of the machine and into a swirl of floating letters. This is an undeniably odd but captivating book, in which Messer, in Auster’s words, turns "an inanimate object into a being with personality and a presence in the world."

the story of my typewriter

I found two short comments/personal opinions on the book.  Read the story in Italian (should I ever be able to get the version in English, you will certainly be given the opportunity to read it!) and say whether you agree with the positive or negative review herewith below.  Of course, it is not possible for you to appreciate the artistic side of the book, since there are not the works by Messer.  However, you will certainly appreciate the text by Auster:

 

If you’re a typewriter fetishist or Paul Auster devotee, this book is definitely worth it. I am a bit of both, so the book is quite an endearing eyecandy for me. This slim volume is really the work of Sam Messer, an artist who became enamored with Auster’s Olympia portable and decided to paint it everytime he visited. The paintings are quite good, as a matter of fact. Auster provides a quick, anecdotal history of his typewriter, and if you are a writer, you will empathize how he or anyone can grow so enamored with a writing tool.

 

 

I was really looking forward to this book. And, I have to admit it was not quite what I was expecting. I truly enjoyed the paintings and reading about Paul Auster and his strange and interesting typewriter. But, I expected more in the way of reading. I expected a nice long read.  The writer is such a creative and imaginative storyteller, full of surprises. I wanted him to reveal more, to tell more and weave this story into something I could really sink my teeth into. But, the real star of this book is Sam Messer and his wonderful paintings. Perhaps I would have enjoyed this more if it were presented like a *big* art book, with large pictures, and plenty more of them.

 

 

You are the “generation” of the computer era.  How could you convince Mr. Auster to have a go at the computer?

Do you think that not using a computer or other technological gadgets/devices means being an “enemy of progress”?

Is there anything you have not “surrendered to” that most of your friends have? For example I don’t have an i-pod and I don’t have any intention of getting one.  Perhaps I should write a short essay to reveal why.  The title could be "TO i-pod or not to i-pod?  This is the question"

I am sure you are not that prone to reading my essay.  SO, read Paul Auster’s!

La storia della mia macchina da scrivere

35 Replies to “The Story of my Typewriter”

  1. Why should I convince Mr Auster that a PC is better than a typewriter? He is a writer, not a printmaker, and writing is a personal thing! Maybe Paul Auster without his typewriter wouldn’t be such a good writer! so he has not to change his way of living and writing to update himself to a world that he does not like. This fact does not means that he is an enemy of progress, he would be an enemy if he would denigrate progress (and he does not, in Man In The Dark there is a little essay on the fact that there is more than a dimension, this is a very recent theory).

    You know that for me my mobile phone is the extension of my arm so I am in favour of progress and I think that technology make our life better, but I also do not have an I-pod.

    Why? because I think that an I-pod is useless if you have a mobile phone that is also an mp3 player; not buying an mp3 player I save money, space and I pollute less the environment.

    I think that the title of your next post could be something more general and not too linked to the “I-pod” because, for example, you also do not have a smart phone. I think that also the essay could be more general, it is not only an I-pod problem!

    MrLory1990

  2. The most meaningful object in my life is my Teddy Bear. He asked me to remain anonymous and it will be so.

    Teddy Bear was given me, by my uncle, the day of my baptism.

    He was really important for me when I was a child, and even now I sleep with him at night.

    We had lots of adventures together and it was hard to stay alone without him.

    Teddy Bear would be the only think I will take if I had to go away.

    I agree with the second commentary of Paul Auster’s short story on his typewriter. I was expecting a longer story, rich in details and anecdotes. If this Olympia was/is so important to him, I think a three-pages story is not enough to celebrate it.

    I do not want to convince Paul Auster to buy a PC, because I think personal computers are not useful for writers.

    It is know that if a writer uses the computer to write a book, he immediately print the pages he wrote. For a writer it is important to take the pages and to leaf through them. So I think it is easier to use a typewriter, because you write and you have immediately your pages printed.

    I do not think that not using a computer make us enemy of progress.

    We can appreciate the progresses that technology is carrying on even if we do not use them.

    Eugenia Minini

  3. Well, I suppose I don’t have Auster’s sensitivity, since I don’t have this kind of relationship with none of my objects. But it is not so strange in my opinion: according to his works, language and words have a huge meaning for him, therefore the object which creates these things should be really fascinating, magic, enigmatic. I agree with him when he asks why he should change it, when it works well and seems to be indestructible: it does not mean being an enemy of progress, because progress stands for something better, more useful and he has shown the weak points of modern technologies; until he will be satisfied with his typewriter, he’s right, why changing it? Of course I can’t imagine how he can do his job with a typewriter: I’ve rewritten parts of this text twenty times so far, with a computer it is very easy modifying things, whereas making a mistake with a typewriter is a big problem, and what if you change your mind? You have to write everything again…too much time! At this point I wonder whether Mr Auster modifies his novels or the first version is the one that will be published. (I have also another question: does his wife use the Olympia or does she have her own typewriter/computer? Just a curiosity) This could be a good point to convince him to have a go at the computer, less waste of time (I want to tell you a secret, Mr Auster: you can save the files, you can even programme the computer so that it saves automatically any adjustment after some minutes, and there is not any self-destruction key).

    About the thing that most of my friends have whereas I don’t feel the necessity of having, it could be a facebook or netlog page, let’s say also that I’m not a messenger addicted, even because my pc refuses to load that application…

    About the reviews, I don’t agree with the second one, I can’t understand what he should have written more, I found it one of the best texts by him I’ve read so far, he has written just the essential things, in a clear, plain way, with an irony I had never perceived before.

    fede zille

  4. I really have not got a particular object I would not part from, maybe a book, a fairy tale’s book, I have read it several times and I will keep it for my children… I found very funny the picture in which Paul Auster is portrayed in this way ( Saturday I took a photo to Paul Auster with the mobile phone and I took the precise moment in which he does this gesture with fingers, the same in the picture). Yes, I am the generation of the computer era but I would say, the generation of technological era… I cannot try to convince Paul Auster to use the computer because if it is not a necessity for him, he can not use it! When somebody is bound to something it is impossible to change his/her mind. I have written researches for school with the typewriter for 2 years because I did not have the computer, then I “forgot” about it and I started using the computer ( I do not know if I did the right thing but I think that in this case Paul Auster is better than me! I am not ashamed of myself because I used the typewriter and I think that Paul Auster should continue to use it….).

    He could be considered a man of “ancient times” but is not an enemy of progress, he has his idea and it is not correct to impose him other way of thinking…

    I really do not know if I do not have something that my friends have… Maybe I do not have the playstation, a mobile phone with everything inside, the one of last month, or a dress which costs lot of money but I do not feel the necessity of having it. I think that with this technological development but also progress, in the future will not exist simple thing as a diary, for example, and nowadays when you buy a technological thing that nobody has, the next week you will have more and more of today because you are not satisfied of what you have!!! Luckily I am not like this kind of person, I like what I have and I am not jealous if somebody has more than me…

    Santarossa Barbara

  5. Guarino Ilaria

    I know that may seem strange but I must say that I have not a particular meaningful object in my life, but, I must admit that I’d love to have one.In general i am very attached to my things and I am very jealous of them but in the meantime I will not miss any of these.I know that may seem absurd and contradictory but as far i am tied to the things around me i would not hesitate to leave them.Is probabely for this reason that i don t have a “favourite”object.

    I was personally really impressed by how Auster talks about his Olimpya. He personificated it, makes it seem alive and he gaves it a special meaning, Is as if the typewriter had a soul. It is his most faithful companion and has never dropped for all these years.

    Personally I have no intention of “converting” Paul Auster’s way of writing and convince him to use the computer for his work.Even if I belong to the “generation” of the computer era I (as a member of this generation) support Auster in his decision to continue writing with his typewriter.

    Personally I consider myself an “enemy of progress” or better everything belongs to tecnological field is my enemy!Despite the benefits, comfort, speed made by the computer,when we talk about WRITING i think it is a completely another thing.Writing is something that should be immediately impressed on a sheet and not on a screen, is something alive, animated and not something cold, detached, static, trapped into something very stiff.

    In my case i do not have any mp3 or i pod and i do not ever had a facebook page and i i don t feel the necessity of having this.

  6. I am bounded to all my objects because I think they help me to remember the situation I lived in the past. so it is very difficult to me to separate to every minimum object that remember me of something.

    I liked the most the first review because I simply perceive it as more involving and inviting to the reading of the short story and of the whole book.

    When P.A. went to Fazio’s he said he like feeling his words flowing from the pen while he writes. I find it a moving thing. I think all artists have their characteristics that made their works special for their singularity. So I can only suggest Auster to keep alive his typewriter as long as is it possible.

    Since I am a pessimistic person, I think that too much progress can be bad for us and probably man will be destroyed from his own intelligence. So I don’t think that who doesn’t use technological devices is an ‘enemy of progress’.

    erica turbian

  7. Since I was a little child I always felt attached to object, indipendently how meaningful they were for me; even nowadays I’m too possessive with things, and not only. I’m very fond even with persons, who are important for me and I’m anguished by the sense of losing them. Otherwise, there is an object that is too important because it reminds me of my childhood and of nice moments of the past, my “Corsara Gialla”, a small yellow car that works by battery and just by taking a look to it I remember how happy I was when I ran with it! I still have it and I hope I will never separate from it, even if now I drive a real car! Maybe my children could have fun with it too. My grandparents gave me the car when I was 3 years old and it has a deep meaning for me especially because it is their gift.

    Even if the first review focalizes the attention more on the beauty of the painting than the second one, I would also agree with it. The negative aspects that are mentioned in the second review are a little bit exaggerated. I cannot understand why he or she (I don’t know the reviewer) was expecting of reading a nice long read! I really think that a story should not necessarily be a long one, the beauty is not revealed by the length of the story, because a writer can write just few pages, but meaningful. In fact Paul Auster has written a short story but simple and clear, these pages well reveale how devoted Mr Auster is to his typewriter.

    Starting from my last thought about Auster’s devotion to the machine, I add that it is vain and useless try to convince him that a computer is better than a typewriter. If you know how to use it, you’ll find out that Pc is very useful; I’m an addected to it, I’ve my personal computer and I use it everyday, because of messenger, facebook or internet, and I must say that computer is very important for me because it is a way of relaxing and having a good time. According to my social life (that here in Pordenone is extremely sad), I could say that computer is such a “””friend”””, a tool that allows me to keep contacts with my real friends, who lives far away from me. Instead, according to Paul Auster, the typewriter is his main friend. I cannot say that he is an enemy of progress only because he prefers his typewriter to a personal computer. He also struggles for progress by writing challenging novels, which are useful means of progress!! I don’t need to have something that lots of my friends have, firstly because my parents have ever given me whatever I need and then because not necessarily I want to adapt myself to my friends, I prefer to be different so that I ‘m particular in my way of being.. =)

    Carla Cipolla

  8. I really liked “The story of my typewriter”, in my opinion it exemplifies once again the extraordinary sensibility,inner depth, and humanity of Paul Auster, which we experienced when we met him in Pordenone.

    My music teacher once told me that as soon as you feel that the instrument you play becomes literally the “prolungation” of your body, that means that you begin to feel and establish an intimate relationship with it, that will grow stronger and stronger as you nourish it, and as the instrument becomes part of you, and it becomes another mean to express your feelings; from that moment on you realize that you have been chosen by it and by the Music. The difficult, and the thing that makes the difference, is that there is a long and rough path that you have to undertake in order to reach that moment and there is no teacher that can teach you anything about it, there is not a rule you have to follow, it’s only inside you and you have to look for it within your heart and your soul.

    I think this has something to do with Paul Auster relationship with his typewriter. Obviously after having worked with it for almost 30 years it has became something more than an ordinary object for him, they have established an intimate relationship with one another, it’s like a new life that has born within them, something soo strong. I personally don’t want to convince Paul Auster to have a go at the computer because nothing can replace that sense of happiness,joy and satisfaction that he fells when he types in his typewriter.

    Unlike most of the people of my age, I didn’t surrender to cellphones, tv or i-pod. The only thing that I can’t part from is my computer, I’m definitely computer addicted, it has turn into something like an obsession, everyday if I don’t spend some time chatting with friends I literally feel sick…

    Chiara Pinardi

  9. As soon as I read “Olympia’s story”, I understood I have a similar relationship with some audio-and-video cassettes.. It could seem strange but they are important parts of my childhood, difficult to forget and difficult for me to associate to a CD. Those are songs I used to listen to with my mum on my way to school or on my way back home (and we listened to the same cassette continuously for at least six months!) ..and when the sixth month was over we knew every single note of those songs and I sang aloud, even inventing most of the words (my English wasn’t very good ten years ago..). I was happy (and I felt proud of my English) while I was singing and if I hear one of those songs now, I feel moved and happy again!

    For what video cassettes are concerned, well, they have always been my favourite pastime till a few yers ago. I still remember some speeches taken from “king lion” or from “Beauty and the Beast” and as it happened with audio cassettes, I put on the same cassette even twice a day or watched the same scene even three times or more and I never got bored. You could say yes, you were young and a bit crazy, but I don’t think to be that different now! 🙂 Today most of us has a DVD player and I start to appreciate an action I hated to do in the past: pressing “FF” and “REW” in order to jump some scary scenes or commercials or in order to watch your favourite scene many times. It could seem another one of my crazy aspects, but I hope my video and -audio-cassette-player will carry on working forever.

    Mr Auster, I absolutely can’t tell you anything about using a computer instead of your Olympia. I understand how much a loved object can fill your mind and your heart (I think this is very useful especially for a writer) and moreover it is better for your eyes!! 🙂

    –Maiutto Jessica–

  10. Sincerely I do not have any particular object that I feel so attached to that I would suffer if it ever got lost….i do not manage to find the same sensitivity and the same bond that Paul Auster has with his loyal work’s companion, in any of my objects…

    I agree with the first review where there is a sort of praise to Paul Auster’s typewriter. That of the Olympia’s is a myth not only for the American writer (P.A.) but also for one of his friends, Sam Messer who, as a painter, took the typewriter as the subject in most of his painting. This object is became somehow a source of inspiration and it has assumed a great worth…That’s why I would never convince Paul Auster to change it and have a go at the computer. It is quite singular the relationship between him and his faithful typewriter. They are linked by a close bond and I would never allow myself to convince the author to part from it only to follow the fashion of computer. Nowadays there is at least a computer in every single house and all men seem to be somehow homologated. I think that person as Paul Auster are important also because they maintain a sort of tie with the past and the uses of the time in which there was not the technological progress yet. So…I do not think that P. Auster is an “enemy of progress” but only that he is independent from it…he does not have the necessity of being abreast with the innovations that the today’s market offers.

    It is really interesting the importance that the typewriter embodies, it is even personified.

    As far as I am concerned I do not have “surrendered” to facebook, netlog, msn and things like that, I am not interest in this kind of things as a matter of fact I use internet only for school or when I need it for some personal researches. The only thing that now I would like to have is an ipod because my Mp3 is broken….i manage to relax only listening the music on my own!

    Marson Chiara

  11. Well, I want to start from the problem of technology, or better of the wrong use of technological progress. I, personally, own an i-pod, but I think the problem is not that of having a new pc, an i-pod, but that of the mania of technological gadgets. I mean: there are people that could not live without having the last mobile phone, or without having play station1, playstation2, the wii, or the x-box. This is the problem! Some people do not see in the progress only a way to facilitate our life, our communication, but they see in that a way to show off their wealth. I bought my mobile phone 4-5 years ago (I think…) and I do not feel the need of buying a new one. The task of a phone is that of phoning, not that of surfing the Net, playing with the most absurd games, or to function as a pc. In our time, the people have lost the aim of the progress. Now technology has becoming only a way of boast: this is the problem (I know that it is a repetition, but we do not notice it, or maybe we do not want to see it)!

    So, I do not want to convert Paul Auster. if he need only a typewriter, it’s ok, there is no problem. Maybe, when he notices that a computer can be more useful, he will change his ideas and he will buy a Pc. However, I think there is another cause of his refusal of pc. An artist has a particular “tie” with his objects: a painter with his pencil, his canvas; a player with his instrument; and a writer with his typewriter (in fact he gave a name to his typewriter, Olympia). So I think the typewriter is like a child for Paul Auster; he speaks about an “object turns into a being with personality and a presence in the world”.

    As regards my life, I believe that I don’t have any particular mania for some of my objects. I don’t have “strange” relationship with none of them. About the things that my friends have and I don’t have, I feel very peaceful because my parents give me all the necessary and the essential. Maybe some time happens that I say “oh, it’s beautiful, I want it”, but immediately I think that I am a lucky person because I have a family, friends, I can have an education and so on, and so I see that it is not a new object that can make me happy.

    In the end, about the two reviews, I must admit that I don’t agree with none of them. I mean that the first concentrates too much on the beauty of the painting than on the beautiful work of Paul Auster; the second one is too much negative and specially I disagree when (s)he criticizes the length of the work. The importance is not to write 500 pages, but what and how you write. The book is short, but it is so full of significances, so exhaustive that the length is not so important.

    Monica Santi

  12. It could seems silly… but there is a similar relationship between Mr Auster typewriter ,, and my volleyball uniform, my T-Shirt with my n.13 printed on it, I’m proud of that number, it makes me unique and makes me feel important and indispensable for my team! Maybe I appear as a quite, and maybe shy girl, but when I wear that T-shirt I am another person, I’m stronger and determined, ready to help my team to reach all our purpose for that we train so much!!.. I must say that this passion, volleyball, that is with me for almost 10 year helped me to forge my personality, I’m learning to use some behaviour that I have during matches even in my all day life, and this helps me to face better even difficult situation that I’m meeting day by day, year by year! So I convey on that T-shirt most of my personal success dealing with the growth of my character and personality and that’s why I’m so proud and jealous of it, in addition of all victories that it makes me remember!!!:-)

    –Martina Nadal—

  13. It’s stupid, I know, but I’m not able to leave my old ring. I have ever had it on my thumb. It’s 10 years that I have it and I cannot go anywhere without. My friends give me a new one for my 19th birthday, it’s beautiful and I have this one now on my thumb but I cannot live the old one: I have it on my necklace. Some months ago, I had a car accident; when I came home I realize that for the first time I had left my old ring in my pocket. In 10 years I had ever wear it and the day I hadn’t, I had the car accident. I’m not fatalist, nether superstitious, but this is a bizarre coincidence!

    I think it’s the same for Auster: he know that if he change his typewriter, or he buy a pc, his novels would results as the previous. My idea is that is a fact of affection: not superstition, just attachment for some things that were present in a large part of a person’s life. When I will go to the university, I will have to leave my bedroom, my bed, my closet, part of my books, DVDs, Cds…I will probably be sad, just for the affection that binds me to my things.

    In my opinion Auster will continue to write on this old typewriter and I will ever bring with me my old ring…For both it’s a mere question of attachment.

    I’m not opposing his choice to write in that way, I write not on the type writer but in sheets of blank paper too. It’s stupid to say but I really love the smell of the paper. I love go to the library and smell all the old books, it’s could sound strange but it’s amazing for me. Maybe he feels the same, he love smelling immediately his work, see it directly (not in digital, as you see in the computer). He wants to live his book, not just write it.

    For what concern the “modern” essay “To I-pod or not to I-pod”, I just want to say that I have the mp3-player but I prefer by far listen to my 17-years-old, broken, croaking car radio.

    Elena Poles

  14. Well, everything depends on what you want to do with technological devices and what they actually represent for you. I don’t own an I-pod, but an mp3-video player. You could object: “and so, what does it change?”. It seems i’m just beating about the bush, but I’m not: you know that “I-pod” is the word used all over the word just for the Apple mp3-player, which is so in fashion now that having one of them appears to be almost necessary, especially for young people. The fact is that I love music, in my opinion it is one of the most perfect things existing in the world, and i want to listen to it whenever i can. For many people like me it is a reason of life. But it’s normal, it has always been normal: in the past people felt the need to think, to relax or just to rest for a moment in the same way as we feel, and they had their own hobbies or activities to do in their free time; some of them wrote, others painted, and some others just slept or thought about their life.I usually do most of those things while listening to music,and my mp3-player is one of the most useful device i’ve ever had. Now music is more widespread than before and it can reaches your ears anytime and anywhere by radio or by any music player. If you like music why not keeping it with you everywhere you go? now you have the possibility to do that and it might seem nonsense not taking advantage of it. As i was pointing out above, I own a simply mp3-player (i don’t even remember which one brand it is) which is beautiful, easy to use, very strong and it cost very very less than a branded I-pod! Actually, I was given it by my classmates 3 years ago. So it has a further meaning for me ( and here there is the connection with the other question!):it represents the power and the beauty of friendships and the importance it has had and still has in my life; whenever i use it, it reminds me of all the moment my friends and I passed together and in particular to that party where i received it. I’m really attached to it and it’s one of the objects i hope i will never lose. Then, as always, there is the other side of the coin: people who spend a lot of money on buying Ipods and never use them, because they aren’t keen on music or they do not like listening to it, but they feel proud to own one of them, because everyone has.

    As regards the question about Paul Auster refusal of using computers i partly understand him but not at all. He said his typewriter is the only thing he still owns after 26 years of writing and he has always used it to write his novels. But i was wondering if the possibility to lose in a moment all your work (only in case you forget to save the document, dear Paul!) is really terribile compared to retyping all the sheets where some casual mistakes happen to be. And by means of computers you can surf the internet, which can help you in many ways during your writing work (i could think about looking for a special rather than strange argument, or looking up a synonymous in dictonaries on-line). Internet is the future, is the place where people can meet other people coming from all over the word and discuss about their work issues, their social and economic problems,or just about their hobbies. It is the place where everyone can find all kind of news for free, updated minute by minute, in any language. Sometimes you can also find complete books written by any writer, ready to be read after the downloading. People can write whatever on the net because no one could ever censor them, and in this sense it’s also the most democratic place you will ever find. Neverthless, although i’m a great supporter of internet and all the free sources it offers, i have no intention to surrender myself to Facebook. It will be difficult as now it seems that all the world passes through it, but i’ll try to resist as i consider it just a way to waste time and, at the same time, to be controlled by the system, which obviously could happen also on the net.

    Anyway, I understand Auster’s need to use the pen (or the typewriter) to jot down his impressions and then rewrite them to build a story. It’s certainly simpler and it comes more natural than switching on the computer and typing something you could have already forgotten.

    And i’m sorry for his typwriter, which is doomed to retire in a few years for the missing of ink tapes, it’s always sad to lose the company of a good friend 😀

    Simone (:

  15. If you think about it, you will realize that all masterpieces, the great protagonists of art and music, are always associated with a particular and miraculous object. Who has never seen the masterpiece Easy Rider? When you think of this film it immediately reminds you the motorcycles, the famous Harley Davidson that because of that film embody a message and a symbol of freedom, as well as an amulet of a generation and a movement that lasts still today. Or some rock star, chosen as worldwide generational myths, whose guitars and clothing have become relics, loved and venerated by their fans. The Moleskine notebook of Ernest Hemingway and other great artists: millions of it are still sold in the world. No one has not -even among common people- a thing particularly fond of. And often they are the most unusual items, both for their consistency as for their meaning. Like one of my car models, a 1993 gift; only observing it I remember, even today, many nuances, details, which are tiny fragments that reconstruct with still very vivid colours the picture of my childhood; the yellow colour of this car always reveals things that I did not remember anymore. The experience of common people is not less important than the famous people one: the famous one just gives to it more importance, more universality; but you realize, then, that sensations and impressions are basically the same, incredibly deep and full of the most different meanings.

    The case of Paul Auster is really emblematic, he translated his experience even in a book, written with a friend, the painter Sam Messer: The Story of My Typewriter. The story of an object, a life, an experience. This is the typewriter for the American novelist, the same as, for us, is a relic, a thing of our past, a personal amulet. A story that is not the usual Dystopian novel, the metaphysical detective story that Auster’s devotees are used to; this time he opens his house, his inner house, his soul: he explain how his thirty-year-old relationship with this thing has begun and continues today, an interminable and successful partnership, and how both parts still want to live together. The literary value of this script is that Auster speaks of that story as a love story. A casual encounter, a love that lasts forever. A moving and fascinating story: magic, pagan superstition, fetishism? Maybe. But who can keep out of this? Who does not have something that is particularly fond of? There must be something, also negative. Otherwise, you want to forget, or life have not achieved anything, there is still nothing in your life, you have not really lived. That must be not underestimated.

    Because you can easily hide yourself laughing, shaking your head perplexedly, saying that may seem absurd, surreal; but the message of the writer is deep, complex. Again, a lesson on Life, on the mechanisms of human existence. A philosophical criticism against the ephemeral of material things, that, we discover, they are the most full of meaning elements, especially after many years. The value of life, that can be understood also observing an object, realizing that it is not made of tin, or springs and gears, but of dreams and particles of ourselves that go by over the years and, detaching from us, fall apart and disintegrate. Here the importance of the Object: the magnet of existence, that catches the atoms of the past, incorporating them, without leaving them anymore. Only the good remains, and becomes, as the object to our eyes, a strong wire connected to life, a living proof of what we were, that the past really exists, that is not only a elusive and unreal remembrance.

    Anything that has this task is anachronistic or obsolete. It is unthinkable to deal with this intelligible matter as “enemy of progress”. Auster cannot change his typewriter, it cannot replace it. Our past will leave only with us.

    Raggiotto Francesco

  16. Auster’s typewriter will break ,or the spare will not be available anymore, and so he will have to think about buying a new typewriter or a computer: having a laptop, or a pc has lot of esteems but no one is obliged to use new technologies. Auster is so attached to his typewriter because it reminds him the good events of his life and his success: when objects are so connected with us we start to think that without them we would lose something. Being attached to something it’s normal, but being obsessed by something material is excessive: We have to believe more in us and not to think that our fortune depends on the instruments we use. Auster’s appear to be normally attached to his typewriter and he has personified it because it has become Auster himself: his thoughts were expressed through writng, so his mind is created this material friend. The lack of use of technologies does not mean being enemy of the progress: things like being adverse to human rights, or do not believe in scientific discovers only because of dogmas or without a motivation, make a man enemy of the progress.

    I have an i-pod because I love music and mp-3 players are just a great invention. I do not have nothing else which is common between men of my age, but buying something common does not mean you are homologated :it’s wrong to be against any mass product and we must be aware of not making judgments just because someone told us something ,but because we really believe in that judgments. I am attached to the objects of my childhood :they remember me the progress of my existence. We have to remember our past but not to fossilize in it because we live in the present.

    Perin Marco

  17. Some people may think that the hassle of having to use paper, not being able to use the Internet and e – mail and the risk of having to re-type the whole document if you make a mistake or damage the hard copy is just too much in our Age of Technology. I also know that on a typewriter you cannot use the Internet, that computers have spell checks and grammar checks and a memory in which you can save your work. I am also aware of the fact that this blog would not take place but for the plentiful amount of computers connected to the world wide web, but, despite of all this things, I am convinced, as Auster is (I hope), that typewriting has something special (and I am sure that typewriter’s lovers are not a minority, otherwise why there would be applications that you can install on your computer that simulates the sounds of typing on a typewriter?). Anyway, typewrites have also their practical advantages: they do not need power, they do not need batteries, they do not need recharging, you do not have to buy software updates, you cannot have accidents where pressing a button you will accidentally send your entire work into cyberspace, never to be seen again. So, why try to convince Mr. Auster to have a computer? Maybe it is only a silly image in my head, but I really hope that also in this fast driven world exists yet a shabby apartment with a frustrated writer inside, working on his typewriter with only his bottle and his cigarette as companions.

    I am sure that Mr. Auster is convinced that whatever he writes seems to come more easily on his old Olympia. Maybe there is something so much more satisfying about printing your work directly onto a blank sheet, rather than re-organising a few pixels on an empty electronic screen. There is something melancholic in all this stuff: the rhythmic ring of the typewriter has been replaced by the frenetic clicking of computers! Maybe Mr. Auster thinks that computers arrived to spoil the fun of tearing up pages and throwing them in the basket and, maybe, he is right.

    Alessandro Piccin

  18. Arnoldi Martina

    is really difficult for me to choose only one object that i feel attached to.i’m jealous about all my things.i always think a lot before throwing away something.now i am here,sitting in front of my computer and i’m looking around in my bedroom searching for something to speack about.i’m in difficulties.i am also attached to the little toys that i found in the snacks.for example i have a pink pen with lots of feather and strass.i love it because i bought it when i went for the first time in london.i never used it because i don’t want to finish the ink.another example is a little red wooden tortoise.my grandfather give it to me when i was very little,i think i were five years old.i have lots of things that my grandfather give to me but i feel attached to it because whenever i see it,i think amout my grandfather.

    i am part of the “generation” of computer era.but i am personally a little bit out of it.yes,i use the computer for the school,i have hundred of photo with my friends in it,i can be in touch with lots of people thanks of messenger and facebook.but i am able to do only simple and basic things.for example i am not able to create a powerpoint presentatio!and i’m not able to publish the photo on facebook!!it’s scandalous=)maybe i am the only one..I have never downloded films because i’m not able.now i am writing on a piece of paper,i am more involved when i write and not when i push some bottons!so i agree with Paul Auster.he is an excellent writer even if he doesn’t use the computer.i,as you teacher,don’t have an i-pod.all my friends have it.i think i would not have time and constance to put in it musik.when i would listen to it?never.when i am on the bus,i speack with my friends.when i drive,it’s better if i haven’t got anything in my ears=)and when i take a walk,i love hear feel and see what happen around me!

  19. Actually, I can understand Paul Auster’s point of view… I’m really affectionate to my first mobile phone, that my parents gave me a lot of time ago… It never abandoned me… During years I changed four cellphones at least, and every time they broke down, my first one was still there, waiting for me. Well, I have another cell phone now: it works very well and has a lot of functions… Despite that, I’ve never thrown away the first one: even if it’s really old and can only call and write sms, I can’t think to “abandon” it. So, I can understand Paul. 🙂

    I think Paul Auster can be convinced showing him the pros of having a pc: you can write a lot without printing (so you don’t need to waste paper), you can correct your words/sentences without writing again all the page, and you can save a lot of work in a little space. Furthermore, you don’t have any problem with assistance, in case of broke, and your dates can be saved also on a external hard disk…

    But perhaps it would be really difficult convincing him, because he is satisfied with his choice.

    I don’t think not using technological gadgets means being an “enemy of progress”, because some people feel comfortable with their choices… They live well in this way. In some cases, people prefer the “old versions” because they get informed and find out that technology is not good for health: this is the case also of the wireless ADSL, whose use was forbidden in many countries of Europe. But in some cases people do not conform because they are lazy or because they do not feel the needing to change…

    I don’t think there is something I’ve not “surrendered to”, because I really like technological innovation. I don’t know if it is only because I’m young, maybe. Anyway, I can’t renounce to some comforts: my cellphone is quite technological, I bought an mp3 player, and my computer has only two months of life… If there is a thing in which I did not surrendered, is the version of my operating system: I definitely prefer the old one. I also wanna tell you I don’t buy technological devices following the mass, but thinking with my head, because I believe I need them. There is a huge difference between the two conditions, in my opinion.

    Giulia Marcassa

  20. I have to say that more we continue to investigate Paul Auster’s way of living, more I feel to be sitting on a chair in his kitchen, looking at him while he is writing one of his book or speaking with his wife, because we are starting to know him in a lot of his different facets.

    Telling the truth, I have really appreciated this piece of Auster’s work because in some way, he seems to be less hung-up and more a common man. I am going to explain it better: in this written he tells part of his ordinary life, of his person and his experience, part of his heart; he doesn’t climb the mountain of his traditionally books, neither story within the story or old man with a lot of troubles  , nothing but his habits . I think he is not an enemy of the progress, but at the same time it is evident that, still using the typewriter, he prevents himself from making use of the advantages of the computer, like the quickness in the correction of the script, the convenience of sending it by e-mail etc.. In my opinion his attachment for the Olympia reflects also his affection for the past and embodies his fears of losing his memories, his youth, in a sort of escape from the present. He firmly want to keep his habits and maintain the balance in “his world”.

    I do not have a specifically special object which I am particularly attached. Actually, there are a lot of small and apparently insignificant objects which I really care in my house. If I had absolutely to choose something, I would bring my diaries and my photos, because I really love the memories and I think that, when I read them, I relive the moments narrated and it seems that time had never passed.

    Carolina Braghin

  21. We all have kissed something goodbye and we all have proved the feeling of sadness and melancholy. When I was a child, I used to feel attached to a teddy-bear, and I suffered when my brother broke it; I was only a snotty-nosed youth, but I will not forget the speed with which my happy vanished; however now, I stop to give so much importance to this kind of things. I have lots of objects which are linked to good memories and I am glad to have them, but I wouldn’t cry if I lost them. We live in an industrial society where hundred and hundred of the same objects exist, so if I lost an object that I care about I know I could buy a new one, to replace it. If it is possible I prefer refraining from creating bonds of affection (bonds that the carelessness or the angry can destroy them), and keeping in my mind all the thinks which are important to me.

    However Paul Auster is more nostalgic than me. Maybe, he thinks he can’t work without his typewriter. If this is right, nobody will be able to convince him to dump his Olympia and start to write on the computer. As writer it is normal that he wouldn’t replace the “friend” who helped him to write his better works. However, reading the text, Auster doesn’t want to take a computer because he fear the technology or he doesn’t wants to homologate himself in one of the many writer in this big world; he wants to show that he is an individual person that hasn’t the necessity to write as the mass.

    Or else, he hates the computer. In my opinion this is the main reason. He sees in the computer the symbol of something that hates in his life, so he can’t stand to use it. I do the same think too, I hate mobile telephone and I use it as the little is possible. Of course, sooner or later, he will finish the ribbons. Anyway (I don’t know how long a ribbon can be use) I think that Paul Auster will be worried about the cruel destiny that united we all, before the danger of the ending of the ribbons reaches him.

    Nicola Truant

  22. When I was a child I used to have objects important for me. I always watched the same videotapes and I heard the same things. The passing of time has changed this kind of behaviors, because I don’t have a particular thing I could not live without. Some year ago I thought I might need PC or mobile phone, but doing holidays or travels in general I also noticed that these things could be set aside, if you have friends with you. Being obsessed by a thing is the wrong way to conceive the use of it. Here’s why now I have nothing necessary for me outside my friends, my family, my sport.

    However I can’t judge Auster for his relationship with his Olympia, in fact it is the instrument he uses to create his own art. I don’t think he would be the man and the writer he is without his Typewriter, his past with it (or her maybe…) and their future adventures. Everything around us is part of us and our experience of life, so for Auster was crucial to have purchased the Olympia for $ 40 from his friend, because that buying has changed his professional live. So I think he is a man in favor of technology but that not practice it.

    I will never say to an artist “why don’t you change your way to write, your habits, your style, to walk with the progress?”, it is absolutely absurd, I’m no one in the field of art. If Mr. Auster believes that writing through Olympia is the best thing, then I will not certainly tell him to buy a PC with internet, wireless, adsl.

    Matteo Cervesato

  23. Two meaningful objects I have had for a long time are the first cd I received from my dad(it was by Lucio Battisti,in my opinion one of the best singers ever)and a ring that my grandmother gave me some time ago.

    Ifeel very attached to them even if I am not a feticist and even if they’re not precious objects.They remind me of unique moments of my life and I would suffer if they got lost,damaged or stolen.

    Yes,I belong to the computer era but I personally don’t like technology,I’m not keen on using computer or other electronic devices,so that sometimes i feel embarrassed …

    Although I must admit they are useful and make life easier…

    Because of my rejection of technology,Iwouldn’t convince PaulAuster to have a go at the computer.As he claimedin his insightful essay,the typewriter has become one of his best friends he is used to its metallic body he loves its rhytmic sound ,moreover it is a fundamental source of inspiration.Why does he have to change his way of writing he is just satisfied?Anyway I don’t think he is an enemy of progress,he just made a choice,everyone has his own habits and preferences,he keeps using his typewriter,i can’t spot the problem!

    On the contrary it is reassuring knowing that i’m not the only one on the face of the earth who hates technology.

    About something I have not surrendered to;I don’t have a web cam,I don’t like the idea of being watched through a camera and I don’t have a play station,I don’t like videogames,apart from singstar =)

    Montrasio Valentina

  24. I can’t think of anything I am particularly attached to. At least, nothing I have owned for a long time. There are just some t-shirts: today they are too short for me, but I still keep them in the wardrobe, behind the other clothes. I keep them because they are nice and they were taken me by my grandmother from her travels around the world. I remember of a beautiful baseball hat, but I left it in a cinema in France. Or a black and yellow t-shirt that made me seem a bee…but it was stolen in Torino. Then there are some toys that I don’t want to waste…but all these things are different from Auster’s typewriter because I don’t use them anymore.

    I liked the story. I think Auster’s relationship with his typewriter is something special. I admire his constancy in keeping it: it’s difficult to resist the temptation of a PC, and it’s difficult for an object to survive for 25 years, still working.

    Mr Auster does not use the PC to write his essays/novels, but I suppose he uses it to surf the internet or for other purposes. If so, I think he has to continue in using his typewriter, until it works. Of course typing-in with a computer is more easily, you can correct mistakes in a moment, you can make collages with different documents…but if he understands the advantages and he does not want to change, he must not be forced to. If he does not use computer at all, then he absolutely must try.

    Answering the last question, I don’t like those big, vintage sunglasses that everybody has. They are too big, it seems people want to hide their face behind them. I hope I won’t be convinced to buy them. For other items, anyway, I was bend to buy or to have them: I didn’t want the Eastpack bag. I didn’t like it so much because it is quite little. I didn’t need it and I didn’t want it, but it was given me by my uncle, it was a gift, so I began to use it. However, I don’t think Auster would begin to write with the PC if someone gave it to him, even if it’s a gift.

    Pietro Perin

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