...with whoever the crazy motherfucker who designed the Olympia SG3 is.

<sup>Okay, so this calls for some backstory. I've had one desktop typewriter for a while, a Royal KMM which I absolutely hate. It's tall, the touch adjustment is terrible (IMO) and I could just go on and on about how much I loathe it for being so goddamned huge. That aside, I've always liked the idea of having an absolutely huge desktop machine... mostly because they're badass, but it's also true that they have some pretty cool functions you just can't get on a portable.

Additionally, I'm an Olympia fan to the max, and everybody seems to love the SM1 and SM3 (Schreibmaschine Grosse, or Big Typewriter in English - hahaha), so when I saw one come up on Craigslist for $20 I jumped on it. Seemed like a pittance. I did the Blues Brothers thing and drove down to Joliet, picked it up, and took it home.</sup>

THE THING IS BLOODY HUGE. And that part didn't really shock me too much, though it's actually a thing of majesty to look at - it's bigger in every dimension than the KMM, which I thought was pretty impractically huge. That said, it's really an excellent machine. Since it's so huge, it's easy to clean, easy to work on, and the only thing that could really stop it would be a nuclear war... and that's only because it would kill off the humans that use them.

The surreal thing is that it bears a striking similarity to the SM9 - in fact, you could say it's just an SM9... but three times as big. Sure, there's no chrome on the carriage, but the coloration is the same, the hood is the same... it's just huge. It's surreal, though, when you look at the SG3 next to the SM9. The SG looks sort of comical, like the token fat kid or something.

^{Maybe, the better thing to say would be that it's just a caricature of the SM9. Was there supposed to be an element of postmodern humor in this?}

But I worked on it a bit last night after I took it home, with the usual brushes and compressed air and sewing machine oil on a few keys that had started to slow, and it's really very nice. Most interesting, perhaps, is the "paper injector", this big lever... you just sit the paper in the carriage, give it a yank, and it rolls it right up to the right place. I think this is incredibly cool, though I don't know why.

But yeah, having a geekasm here. I'll put up some comparison photos this weekend. Right now I'm busy writing... I'd offer some more details, but that'd be time that I'm not writing anything of consequence... y'know?

Barn sale was mostly a bust - got a SCM Corsair Deluxe of late 70s manufacture (I think) in its original box, which is pretty neat, but it takes proprietary ribbons and it's not exactly the best machine. In fact, it's actually pretty shitty. Weak strikes abound - but it's light, and it's small... though it's in no place to displace my Royal or Olympia ultraportables. Can't argue with $5, though. If anything, it's an interesting display piece.

So, a while ago I was really into postmodernism, and I recall one person saying that humans, for all intents and purposes, are cyborgs. Fair enough - many of our vital functions are carried out or otherwise enhanced by machines. Modern society wouldn't work without the integrated circuit.

So, I moved on from postmodernism and the idea basically went dormant until I started reading egalitarian biocentricism the other day, which I think is a crock of shit, but I mounted a counter-argument that stated that, since typewriters and other machines have "interests", in that certain actions enhance their intended function, while other actions could be considered "pains" for the machines - like if I were to jump on one of my typewriters. That would frustrate its desires in that it would impair its ability to function.

So, I presented this in order to torpedo the argument, which I managed to do pretty well, but then that old idea struck me: maybe it's not all bad to be considerate of our machines? At least, we should be mindful of them. Like how language determines the parameters in which we can think, our machines determine how we perceive the world. In essence, the printing press and the television, the radio and the automobile, affect tremendously the nature and amount of information that we ever take in, in the first place. All these machines form a sort of exoskeleton around us, you could say. The human experience of the 21st Century is fundamentally different from the human experience of the 19th Century because of the extension of our senses provided by the new machines of the Industrial Revolution, and so on and so forth.

So, FFS, Marshall McLuhan was right!

From that, I suppose you could extrapolate that changing the machines we interact with thus changes what kind of ideas propagate within us.

Okay, so I bought a typewriter (well imagine that) on Craigslist today. First time I've ever done that, but hell, I saw a Galaxie 12 in turd brown right inside city limits, so I picked it up. Not bad at all - but next to it was a 1950s Quiet Deluxe, which I also swooped down upon - lucky I'd extra cash on me - in pretty outstanding condition, and since I'd heard nothing but good about the Quiet DX, I bought it.

Lucky me, actually - there's a piece of paper wrapped around the platen that looks to be nearly as old as the machine itself, and it's covered with handwriting and notes from the period, which is very cool. At first I was a bit wary, because I wondered if it was there to cover up a damaged platen, which could very well be the case... but it's actually really, really quiet! And with the paper... well, it's nowhere as noisy as the Olympia, and worlds away from the deafening noise the Smith-Coronas make. So far I've been very impressed. The rubber of the feet is shot to shit, but that's easy enough to replace...

There were five machines there when I dropped by, but the guy said he was going to get 10 more - his father-in-law had died recently - but the guy was practically swimming in them, and they had all been taken care of very well. There was a postwar Skywriter there as well... lots of nice machines from the early 40s to the late 50s.

So I've got two of those 15 machines, and I suppose I've got to take care of them now - I'd very much like to give them another long and productive lifetime.

That brings me to the next matter: I've got too damn many typewriters. The ones I love, I really love to bits. But the ones I don't particularly care for... well, I'd love to get them to somebody who isn't fortunate enough to hoard typewriters like me. So, if you're around Chicago and you want a typewriter, take your pick. If you live around the country, give me a holler - I can send you one for no charge, though I'd have to have you cover shipping, because I'm poor... but I'd only charge the exact price. Here's what I'd be willing to part with:

Electrics:

Sears Electric 12
Smith-Corona Electra 12

Manuals
SCM Galaxie in sexy beige (kinda rusty, really loud, but it works)
Sears Citation II (pretty ugly, but it works)
Royal Royalite (almost entirely plastic, and very small)
Royal KMM (It works, but it's huge, so I probably couldn't mail it for less than $50)

If you're gonna cut the keys off them and throw it in a dumpster, don't bother asking for one... but if you're a writer, by all means, take one.

^{(seriously, having 25 typewriters takes up a lot of space)}

Got the new Beatles remasters the other day, and it's really a pleasant change. Lots of things that you used to have to listen for just come right out now. Overall I'd say it's worth the cash, particularly if you're into their Merseybeat stuff, since this is (I think) the first time it's been in stereo. It's good to listen through their discography every once in a while, too. I think my favorite album is Sgt. Pepper's right now, with Revolver a close second.

Been trying my hand at some first-person writing, which I've never really done in any quantity until now, and I must say I'm pleasantly surprised. I think it's because I've been reading a lot of Murakami and Auster recently, which has really made me want to give it a go. It feels, as I'm writing, a lot more direct, you know? I sort of like it, like there's a definite release of emotions as I go along. My usual third-person subjective feels a bit cold, honestly, as I come back to it.

But I don't think I'll give it up - I might start doing some stuff in different perspective now, but really I adore all the tiny details you can stick in with third person.

Speaking of writing, I think I've got a title for the book. I was thinking, The Political Economy of Our Love, which is sort of taken from/inspired by Baudrillard's For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign. It just showed up as I was typing, but it feels more approrpriate. I think I'll go with that for a while.

Finished my novel. The big one, that is. Now it's (roughly) contiguous from start to finish, although I've still got a pile of revisions to make.

With 12-point TNR and the standard 0.79" margins all around, it's 94,079 words in 146 pages of A4 paper. Still no sure title, though.

Right now it's On Madness & Social Interaction, but I think that sounds too officious, and it's not really a good indication of the contents.

I'm wondering if anybody would like a copy to read and review, despite its unrevised state. If you like, I could just e-mail to the interested parties.