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|Eº ^0Diskussion|E º    ^1 I Didn't Know You Could Do That |E     º ^0Diskussion|E º
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^CHIP TO BE SQUARE

^CBy Dan Gutman

"I don't use a computer anymore," a writer friend told me recently.  
"I've gone back to using my old electric typewriter."

It was at that moment that I realized that high tech was out and low 
tech was in.

Up until recently, the more high tech toys you had, the cooler you 
were.  But suddenly, everybody's giving up the excesses of the 
Eighties and going back to the simple life.

Gardening.  Spending time with the family.  Charity work.  
Typewriters.  It has become fashionable to be associated with 
primitive, non-electronic technology.

My writer friend informed me that using a computer had "distanced 
him" from the act of writing.  Reading words off a glowing screen 
took something away from the process.  When he used his old electric 
typewriter, he claimed, the words would flow almost sensually from 
his brain to his fingertips.

Nobody outlow-techs me.  A week later, I called my friend and 
casually mentioned that I too was giving up my computer--for a MANUAL 
typewriter.

"Electric typewriters are dehumanizing," I explained.  "With a 
manual, I can virtually see a thought go from my brain, push the key 
and feel it smack against the paper.  There's no other feeling like 
it in the world."

That ought to hold him for awhile, I thought.

It couldn't have been a week later when my friend called again.  At 
the end of our conversation he informed me that he stopped using a 
typewriter altogether and would be writing his upcoming book on 
yellow legal pads.

"Writing was meant to be done by hand," he told me, "machines only
get in the way of the true expression of ideas."

He went on to explain how moving a pen across a sheet of paper was 
the most sensual experience a person could have with clothes on.  The 
ink, apparently, has a consistency that is remarkably like the blood 
coursing through our veins.  They both even clot.

"You use a ball-point, I assume?" I asked timidly.

"What do you take me for, some kind of barbarian?!" he exploded.  "I 
do all my writing with a fountain pen now."

It was obvious that he had decided to play hardball.

Our next conversation took place at his house.  I dropped by, I 
explained, because I was no longer using the telephone--a dangerous 
instrument designed and encouraged by totalitarian bureaucrats whose 
only interest is to take away our personal freedoms.  I would be 
writing my upcoming book, I gloated, with a pencil on brown paper 
bags.

"I've just finished MY latest book," my friend told me.  "Would you 
like to come in and see it?"

I went inside, psychologically prepared to "Ooh!" and "Ah!" over his 
stupid collection of fountain pens in his office.  Instead, he led me 
to the garage.

"Oh, I gave up on fountain pens.  The ink kept running all over 
everything," he said.  "I wrote this book on a shovel with a piece of 
chalk, by candlelight.  If it was good enough for Abraham Lincoln, 
it's good enough for me."

Sure enough, the garage was filled with hundreds of shovels, 
carefully lined up by chapter and page number.

My friend and I aren't talking anymore, though we do grunt at one 
another and communicate by drawing pictures on rocks.  I, for one, 
have decided to give up writing entirely and wander the countryside 
reciting stories to all who will listen.  It's the coolest.

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HOTLINE: If you love your Tandy 102 laptop computer like I love mine, 
check out Club 100, the largest user group for owners of that 
computer.  The address is: P.O. Box 23438, Pleasant Hill CA 94523...

Data East has a new game called "Werewolf: The Last Warrior." You get 
to play the role of a Werewolf who "fearlessly tries to save the 
world from destruction."  It's about time werewolves get the respect 
they so richly deserve, I say.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH: "I believe that in the early 21st century we'll 
see a totally cellular personal computer--the power of a mainframe on 
a laptop computer that doesn't need recharging."

--Philippe Kahn, Borland Int. CEO