I was happy when my brother called and asked what I was doing one day. I just happened to be finishing up Typewriter Assignment #2 and was telling him how it worked. He expressed an interest and I quickly seized upon it to try and convince him to get involved.
It just so happened that when we had last been together, I bought a trio of Olympia typewriters (a 4, 5 and 9) and could only take one home on the plane, the rest he was generous enough to drive home and we would connect later on to get them back.
Although he wanted to use the SM5 with its smooth white painted finish, the ribbon was dead and he didn't have any replacements. The SM9, a more restrained (and less exciting) grey keyed unit was accessible and still had some ribbon life. I encouraged him to use it and talked him through releasing the carriage lock over the phone. He figured out the rest.
Now although he wasn't able to do #3 and #4, I was surprised last week when he sent me #5. So I am happy posting this on his behalf.
Good work bro! And I look forward to seeing more.
Here is Pat (Patty) Bohanga's Typewriter Assignment #5, typed on an Olympia SM9.
Well its time to complete and submit Typewriter Assignment 5 for Joe Van Cleave's awesome typewriter program. I unfortunately missed the last two, and while I still plan to complete and post them, its been a busy summer so far and I was unable to get time to bear down and focus on completing them within the timeline.
So far I have enjoyed the variety of assignments which we have been given, its a nice balance between fiction and non, allowing the ol' brain to flex a bit. Writing is fine, I have always enjoyed it, but doing it on a typewriter adds a certain amount of joy again and adds a touch of artistry.
Anyhow, this weeks assignment was to write something with the oft-used (over-used?) 'It was a dark and stormy night', originally penned (unfortunately not on a typewriter) by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in his 1830 novel Paul Clifford. Over the last couple centuries, it has been parodied to the point where now you could never use it if you wanted any sort of seriousness given to your writings.
As with all of Joe's assignments, how to write on something with so much potential and possibility and do it on one page? Aha! Such is the joy of planning and thought. On a computer you can cheat by closing up your spacing, shrinking the font and generally using legitimate tools to maximize your content. Not so on a typewriter!
Well thats not quite true. No one ever said you had to use a standard 8 1/2 x 11 page. With a typewriter, if you are lucky enough to have some to choose from, you can choose a typewriter with a smaller font, and utilize a larger paper format. And voila! You have more room to stuff all of your wild ramblings.
I tried using my 1936 Corona Standard, which has the smallest type of any of my collection, and while it strikes the paper well, there is a problem with the escapement somewhere which I haven't had time to resolve prior to this assignment.
The escapement doesn't always allow the little floating 'dog' out, holding it in place. The resultant situation on the page is like a car crash, the letters all type into the same spot as if they hit an invisible wall on the page, and you end up with a black blob where an eloquent and flowery word should have gone. Its too nice of a typewriter NOT to use, I have to get it fixed, but this problem outstrips my knowledge at this point.
So I went the other way and pulled out my 1959 Smith-Corona Galaxie II in Driftwood Grey.
It types with a chunky echo like you are typing inside a tank. And its a tank too so....anyhow. It works well though and gets the job done.
I decided to really go old-school and typed this assignment on some old Southwood 8 1/2x13 RACERASE onion skin, an excellent albeit light paper which the SCM couldn't properly advance through the roller, requiring me to tug at it each new line to make sure it lined up.
Anyhow, here is my Assignment which I will submit today. Because it was put on a cockle finish onion skin (maybe not the best option for typecasting) but I wanted to try it once.
Any comments are welcome!
