The title actually says it all, I’ve got a typewriter. Yes, the one that types. With ink, bell, loud clacking sound. The real typewriter from the times when the internet was still part of sci-fi novels and even computer wasn’t on the table yet (and I’m not kidding, according to the internet, the first computer was invented back in 1945 and it weighted 30 tons and took rooms if not floors, so yeah, computer wasn’t on the table yet).
I bought Olympia SM2. Made in 1953 in West Germany, olive green (even though where I bought it, it was claimed to be some sort of pencil color… perhaps gray; I don’t know) and it comes with a bullet case. A piece of history.
Why did I do this? Well, I always loved typewriters. Only I never had a chance to use one. And now, when I’m an irresponsible adult who slaves away on a corporate job, I can afford a little treatment. And also those things surprisingly aren’t too expensive. Now, Mercedes typewriters. Those are expensive. Olympia, on the other hand, ain’t something special. If I’m not mistaken, it is considered to be a workhorse among the writers. Simple, straightforward and reliable. Hard to break. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why they survived through all those years (besides the rapid evolution of the typing devices).
But back to Olympia SM2. What is funny about this particular typewriter is that it has a QWERTY layout, but it is not the one we used to. I mean, the keys are predominantly similar to what we have on the modern keyboard, however, when it comes to punctuation like commas and dots, it is swapped. On the bottom, where comma and dot are usually position you have a German letters and above them, where you have semi-colon and quotation marks you have actually you comma and dot. It also doesn’t have 1 (apparently you’re supposed to use l instead of 1) and other symbols positioned differently than on the keyboard. Oh, and also it has pound symbol (like the British currency), I was told it is quite a rare thing out there. I don’t know. I’m not a big specialist on typewriters and Olympias to know for sure.
What I do know, though, is that it is a somewhat legendary typewriter. It was used by lots of famous writers. Well, either SM2 or SM3. SM3, the more modern version in the line-up, was much-much-much more popular than SM2 (at least I found a website where they keep a list of famous writers and their typewriters and SM3 was owned by almost every European writer, can’t say the same about American writers, they had their own thing going). Which is understandable, considering that it is a cool vintage artifact from the times long gone for me, while for those famous writers it was just Tuesday and they had to write. And if you were to have a choice between SM2 and SM3, I bet your ass you would go with SM3. It’s like choosing a CPU, chances are you would prefer to go with something modern if you could afford it.
Now, there’s a question. What am I going to do with it? Truth to be told, I have a crazy idea. I want to write a novel using this typewriter. You know, the hardboiled noir with tough as nails character who doesn’t talk much but does a lot of damage (am I inspired by Drive a little too much?), and obligatory tongue in a cheek final comment from the main hero before he leaves the scene of a showdown once and for all. Noir.
And yes, I know, I know, I’m coming up with another crazy challenge no one even asked me to do, but hear me out (or rather, read me out). This is an opportunity to go back in time. To do the job the way the old masters did. No ctrl+s, no editing on the spot, no grammar check, no even correcting on the spot. Just ink, paper, and your own creativity or lack of thereof. I bet I’ll appreciate all the technological advances we had with a new perspective in mind.
Besides, if I’m going to finish this project, I’ll have something to remember. A freaking manuscript, the first version, typed on the typewriter from the times when even my parents weren’t born yet (and my grandparents were still young). I don’t know about you, but for me, it sounds just awesome.
Oh, and as a cherry on the top, enjoy this shot of my first attempt to type something.
Doesn’t look all this nice. Right? I had a wild idea to write this entry on the typewriter, but surprisingly it’s not as easy as I thought. My brain caught a brain freeze there for a moment trying to navigate the ancient keyboard, the new completely different feeling of typing. I would say physical. Yes, it is physical, ladies and gentlemen, mechanical keyboard can’t translate into the effort you have to apply in order to leave a good crisp letter on the sheet of paper (I think it has something to do with the typewriter being old).
I have to be frank here (hi, Frank… sorry, I’ll show myself out), I felt like an idiot trying to do so. All of a sudden whatever English I knew just flew out of the window (or should I rather say my ear) and I was left with an absolute basic vocabulary and weak attempts to weave a sentence. Also, as you can see on the picture, I do a lot of typos and inability to delete and fix it on the spot just really twisted my brain there for a moment (in fact, I did try to correct a few words here and there, and I think you can see it there, too). Don’t even get me started on punctuation, margins, and other stuff. It’s practically not there.
But I’m not ashamed. It’s not the first time I’m making an idiot out of myself and if something, it only motivates me to go further and try again and again. I think I need to do some practice before I’ll try to write a novel, learn the typewriter and its whims, so to speak. Maybe get used to typing slower than I’m used to, and embrace typos, errors, and bad grammar. Yep, sounds like a plan.
Spoiler: I actually wrote a novel on the typewriter. And not just that. I also recorded the entire process from start to finish on my iPhone, to prove a point no one asked me to prove. Now I’m trying to come up with a plan on how to release the footage. I have a doubt someone’s going to watch 70+ hours of hardcore two-finger typing and my heavy breathing in the microphone. On the other hand…