Monday, October 29, 2007

DOAEN 1: Pictograph

I think writing with a typewriter or a pencil was a different kind of writing, more physical, while writing with a computer eliminates a tactile energy that goes into forming words by pressing a pen to paper or by striking the hammer of a keyboard; with the computer I hear the sound of words in my head, which makes laptop writing a more private affair happening within a small theater that sits a half foot away from me with fewer mechanical interruptions having to do with inserting paper and rolling it on a platen; it's more about the flow of words on a screen, which in some ways makes the creation of meaning more direct, faster, but how has that changed anything, a question from an empty nester at a time when I can indulge in such thoughts listening to jazz playing after midnight rather than deciding to make a sandwich for lunch tomorrow, not that I was ever a sandwich maker. I got as far as peanut butter and jelly and then stopped. But on the other hand, writing letters was always easy, and I can remember learning language, which is what took me to forming letters like some iconography of my soul.