Buck’s former owner!
Posted by Jessica | Filed under Typewriters
As I was cleaning Buck, my newly acquired Hermes Standard 8, I noticed a faded label on the underside of the key cover. A non-technical name, I’m sure. Bear with me, I only recently discovered what a platen was. I was right, the former owner was in a math department at a university! The label reads:
Slack, Stephen SLSTXK
Dept of Math
Kenyon C
Gambier, OH 43022
How funny! I wonder if Doctor Slack still teaching… I bet Buck has had wonderful things run through his platen, theorems and proofs. The really surprising thing is that I once lived in Novelty, Ohio. It’s possible that Dr. Slack was typing away on buck at the very time I lived not two hours away! It really is a small world, after all.
Well, Dr. Stephen Slack, if you ever stumble upon this page, you’ll be happy to know that your old typewriter is in good hands. Hands that, if it matters, belong to a person who got an A in both semesters of calculus. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten nearly all of it. But it was a very interesting class, especially the second semester. If I ever manage to product a novel worthy of publication, I’ll be sure to add you in the acknowledgments section.
Buck and Dandy
Posted by Jessica | Filed under Typewriters
My, my, this little collection of typewriters is certainly growing. I won a Hermes Standard 8 on eBay last week and found him waiting for me on my back porch when I got home yesterday. He’s beautiful, and special too. He must have been used in a university math or science department because he has alpha, beta, integration and other sciency keys. His name is Buck, in keeping with the “playboy” theme of Dandy. Also, he looks like a Buck, all big and heavy on my little desk. Look at him, he practically swaggers:
Now to get a new ribbon and write up my first typecast. I had hoped to write it on Dandy, but even though I paid for him ten days ago, he hasn’t arrived.
Douglas Adams had Taste
Posted by Jessica | Filed under Typewriters
I think I’d like collect one of every Hermes ever made. They’re cute like pokemon- gotta have ‘em all! Just look at this little Hermes Rocket. It was especially made for travel, light as a feather and very sleek.
Photo courtesy of JCKole on Flickr
And, did you know Douglas Adams wrote the Hitchhiker’s Guide on a Hermes Standard 8? He had good taste, that one. Not long ago, this venerable machine, signed by Adams himself was sold. It was given as a bonus with a first edition copy of The Highhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by of N.V. Books in Great Wolford, Warwickshire. The price for the book- over 25,000 dollars. Well worth it, if you ask me.
Adams donated the typewriter to a charity auction to benifit rhinos. Somehow, it must have made it’s way to N.V. Books. Here also, is a picture of Adams holding his beloved Hermes.
Themes and Updates
Posted by Jessica | Filed under Uncategorized
I’m working on making a new theme for this website, but it’s slow going. Until it’s updated, please enjoy this theme I found which goes perfectly with the Hermes’ colors. The thing I really hate about 90% of wordpress themes out there is that there’s so much wasted space. The 10% that actually make good use of space are usually stark-white and boring. I’m going to have to design my own, I think.
My New Mint and Blue Dandy: Hermes 3000
Posted by Jessica | Filed under Typewriters
I didn’t win the Corsair. I’m not sad though, I didn’t really chase after it. No, not when a typewriter such as this exists: The Hermes 3000. Just the name is wonderful.
You know every word you write on this machine is going to be incandescent. You could write Flarf on this bad boy and it would shine. And that’s what I love best about him- he isn’t a serious looking machine. No, the Hermes 3000 is that irresponsible guy you keep around because being with him is like taking too many trips down a water slide. Here’s the thing, even though he looks like he’s all pleasure, the Hermes 3000 is responsible and dependable. According to the interwebs, when you slap a Hermes 3000 on your desk, you get all the fun with none of drawbacks. What could be better?
So I won this bad boy last night. I paid too much, I know. I begged the buyer to pack him carefully and even offered to toss in an extra five bucks to cover packing. If I’m lucky, my beau will arrive unscathed and ready to rock.
You know what? I’ve already given him a name: Blue Dandy.
Addictions, new and old
Posted by Jessica | Filed under Library Sale, Typewriters
I’m obsessed with typewriters. Yes, obsessed. We had an old typewriter when I was a little girl that I used to hammer away stories and poems on. They were terrible of course, but it was a liberating experience nonetheless. I begrudgingly sold it at a garage sale when my parents assured me we couldn’t buy ribbon for it- lies! Until a few days ago I hadn’t thought about it again, then I saw a thread about typewriters on the absolutewriter.com forums. They were being discussed as a means for writing first drafts. I’d thought about using them before, but resigned myself to using a PC because you can’t buy ribbons for them. But no, I was wrong! Amazon.com, eBay, and a wonderful site called Scantracker.com all sell ribbons for nearly every model. The internet is a wonderful thing- a wonderful thing.
Typewriters are wonderful things for the easily distracted. Ever heard of emailing via typewriter, or checking twitter? Nope. It’s just you, the paper and your story. Kind of like pen and paper, but without the aching knuckles associated with writing longhand for extended periods. Of course, I haven’t used a typewriter in fifteen years, so it could be just as painful. I’m willing to take that chance.
So I’ve been trolling eBay for good looking models. I bid on an Underwood Model 5, but was outbid at the last second… curses. Now I’m bidding on three others: a Smith-Corona Corsair Deluxe in a brilliant shade of aqua blue, a 1928 Underwood portable with a green faux-marble finish and glass keys and a Smith-Corona Galaxie II which types in script. It’s a rapid onset addiction I tell you! Of all three, I most desperately want the Galaxie II. It’s also the one which finishes last, so if I spend all my money on the first two, I’ll have to let the last one go. But, if I let the first two go and the Galaxie turns out to be super rare and finishes at a hundred dollars or more, I’ll definitely loose it. Hmmmm, conundrums.
I’ll just bid what I can afford to pay for each and hope for the best. That’s all a poor addict can do really.
In other news, my book addiction is progressing well. I went to a book sale last month, spent fifty dollars and came home with: 41 hardcover fiction, 15 children’s books, 8 nonfiction and 28 paperbacks. Not including the children’s books, which Midori and I have already blown through, I’ve read about twenty percent thus far. It’s a long row to hoe but I can manage it, if I shuffle my priorities accordingly.
The grass is always greener…
Posted by Jessica | Filed under Slice of life
I bought Chilean grapes at Wal*Mart today and ate them on the way home. I didn’t wash them, but devoured them, pesticide jacket and all. They tasted like summer. And now at least, in twenty years when I’m stricken with cancer, of one kind or another, I’ll know why. In a chemotherapy induced haze I’ll whisper again and again: “It was the grapes; a stolen taste of summer. The price was too high. It was the grapes.”
Maybe I should leave summer’s delights to summer and savor the fruits of spring. Or maybe in early July I’ll buy some asparagus, smother it in morel cream sauce and drown in each unholy bite.
Review: The Gods Themselves
Posted by Jessica | Filed under Book Review
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
In The Gods Themselves, Asimov presents a tale of three cultures woven around a device which offers unlimited free energy. The Electron Pump offers two universes a way to feed their need for energy, but at what cost? As para-physicist Dr. Lamont delves into the pump’s past he uncovers a critical flaw that could endanger both universes. He is thwarted by the self-proclaimed Father of the Electron Pump, Dr. Hollam, who is loathe to believe his invention is anything but a panacea. Dr. Lamont and his associate, Dr. Bronowski, attempt to communicate with the beings of the paraverse in a final effort to end the pumping project. The messages they receive are cryptic and disturbing. The tale turns to the lives of the para-beings, a strange species divided into four classes and finally to the moon colony and Dr. Denison whose snide remark started it all.
Though the first two thirds of the book are plotted remarkably well, the entire work is plagued by poor writing. Reading the first few pages, I was struck by the relative poverty of Asimov’s writing style. How could such a revered writer produce such stumbling and cliché-ridden prose? As I pressed on, the excellent plot veiled the poor writing and I was utterly immersed in the story.
I was thoroughly enjoying myself until the end of part one. At the beginning of part two, I thought I would have done things differently. The book is divided into three parts each with different main characters and plots that hang together on the string of the Electron Pump and it’s dangers. The problem with this method of story telling is that readers are often irritated when asked to leave an interesting set of characters behind for a new set. I put the book down at this point and almost didn’t pick it back up. Obviously, anything that causes a reader to contemplate abandoning a book is something to avoid. So when I saw that the new section would not retain any of the characters from the previous, I was a bit annoyed. However, after reading the second section, I realized it was one of the strongest points of the book and was glad Asimov structured the book in this way.
I’m sorry to say I cannot be so generous of the third part. It was by far the weakest part of the book, which is unfortunate as the end should be at least the second strongest section. If I were Asimov’s editor, I would have suggested he begin the book with the development of the pump, rather than relying on long and distracting info-dumps throughout the narrative. Then the original part one would become part two and part two becomes part three, with the book ending on the combination of the Trit-Dua- Odeen triad into Estwald. This would have created an interesting and open ending and avoided the cliché “older scientist man gets younger girl” that plagues so many earlier sci-fi works. If Asimov wanted to end the book with a happy ending, he could have drug out the para-verse section a bit longer and shown Estwald to have a new consciousness thanks to Dua’s wanderings through the rocks- perhaps having absorbed some worldly wisdom from them.
All in all, I’m not sorry I read it, but I don’t think I’d recommend it unless you’re a fan of Asimov or parallel universe theory.
Magic for Beginners vs. Outlander
Posted by Jessica | Filed under Book Review
There are many traps in which a writer can fall. Being overly concerned with convention and therefore clumsily rewording a sentence so that it doesn’t end in a prepositional phrase is one. Another common problem is over-explaining. I know I have hung many a story on its own narrative. Kelly Link’s second book of short stories, Magic for Beginners, provides excellent instruction in the beauty of minimal explanation. A great story can jump from leaps and bounds- and be more lyrical for it.
In each story, Link creates a framework, a bare scaffold of events, and allows the reader to hang his/her own interpretations on it. She assumes the reader is intelligent, competent and creative. How novel. The result is haunting and thought provoking. After each story I continued the narrative myself, wondered through the framework and filled in the gaps to my satisfaction. The result, a true collaboration between writer and reader was brilliant. Read this book. Do it now.
All of the short stories are wonderful, but I particularly liked The Faery Handbag, The Hordak and Catskin. Magic for Beginners was great as well.
In contrast to Link’s great trust and faith in her reader is the bodice ripping romance Outlander. I was verra verra bad and it’s overwrought use of Scottish dialect such as ‘verra’ is not the primary culprit. No, not only was this book poorly written (and it was verra poorly written) it was illogical and unemotional. The author (so unmemorable I can’t even remember her name right now) wrote a narrative first person that honestly really should have been third. She wrote the book using first person perspective but the character’s voice is so flat it feels like third. In doing so, she lost the best of both perspectives. It utilized none of the originality in voice or insight into the character’s emotional state that first-person allows and she lost the ability to show us what other characters were doing when the main character was out of the room or even to see the situation from their perspective. The result is a story that is flat, uninteresting and incomparably dull. The main character is so uninterested in her own plight, so very remote from it, that it feels like she is telling us someone else’s story. There is no emotion in this book other than lust and rage- and even these are poorly portrayed.
And to rail about the writing for a minute. She uses adverbs constantly. Saidisms sprinkle the pages like salt on cake- and are equally distracting. I cannot tell you how many times she used the word “murmur.” The hero has sparkling white teeth which reflect the moon. Yes, you heard me. The 17th century Scotsman has sparkling white teeth. Yeah right.
This book was unmitigated crap and it boggles the mind that anyone would enjoy it. Honestly, I must be missing something because this book has 4.5 stars on amazon. Many of the reviews that are unfavorable say that the writing was good but the story was poorly executed. Are they serious? The writing IS bad AND the story is poorly executed. Did this lady have any beta-readers? Editors? Instruction in the literary arts whatsoever? Looking at this book, I would have to say no.
I know many would say I’m comparing apples and oranges here. And maybe I am. If all you want is an illogical and violent romp through the heather, Outlander is for you.
The Trouble with Physics…
Posted by Jessica | Filed under Book Review
It’s no secret that theoretical physics has been dominated by string theory for the last thirty years. Lee Smolin’s new book, The Trouble with Physics, questions whether physics will ever mount the brick wall that is string theory. His basic thesis seems to be that string theory is little more than philosophy, untestable by any means we currently or will likely posses. According to Smolin, Physics, that great bastion of falsifiability, womb in which the scientific method gestated, has devolved into a Ptolemaic discipline devoid of experimentation.
I have to say I’ve always been fascinated with string theory and I can’t wait to read this book. I don’t know if I agree, having only picked up the book yesterday. Even after I read it, I’m not sure I’ll know enough to form a qualified opinion on a field I know so little about. I don’t want to be that person who reads one book and suddenly thinks she’s an expert. Still, I’m very excited. I feel like a voyeur peeking over some poor scientist’s shoulder, judging him. What schadenfreude.
Look for a full review in the next week.
Flight of the Maidens
Posted by Jessica | Filed under Bibliomania
Jane Gardom’s Flight of the Maidens came from paperbackswap today. I haven’t ever read anything by Gardom, so I’m excited to see what she has to offer. I’ve heard good things- namely that she’s one of the best contemorary English authors and yet very few Americans have read her work. Several of her books have been so favorably reviewed on NPR that I decided I absolutely had to read something by her. We’ll see if she’s as good as they say.
Oh, oh, oh… and there’s a library sale this Saturday! I’m so excited!
You Might be a Bibliophile if…
Posted by Jessica | Filed under You Might Be A Bibliophile if...
- You think about purchases in terms of books, choosing to skip that night out on the town because it’d cost three books.
- Every deck of playing cards you own is missing a few cards, which you’ve siphoned off as bookmarks.
- When people ask you what your reading you take out a little notebook and chatter off a list of four or five books.
- You have no less than eight books out from the library at any time.
- When people talk about heaven, you imagine a library you never have to leave.
- You have more bookshelves than beds in your house.
- You put your clothes in a dresser so you can use your closet as a walk in bookshelf
- Your children, friends and family all know to expect book from you on holidays.
- You’ve posted more than ten reviews on amazon.com
- You’re a member of Librarything.com, goodreads or any other social site dedicated to book lovers.
- You own at least two books about books and reading.
- You’ve ever read Anne Fadiman’s “Ex Libris”
- You’ve ever referred to a word as “Sequedapadelicious”
- You’ve ever stayed up all night reading
- You regularly stay up all night reading
