Tuesday, December 06, 2011
Printing, Cursive Script Longhand, Typewriter, Keyboard or Speech Recognition.
Most of my life I have printed whenever possible because my cursive script is so illegible. A few years ago I had to spend a period of time without Internet, so I carried a spiral notebook and blogged in cursive script, typing it once I had Internet access. I still have some of those notebooks. My choice of cursive was subconscious. I think I can write more quickly in cursive and since it is only for me to read I do not worry about legibility. I did learn to touch type 60 wpm at the age of 11 so for me the most natural way to think creatively is at a keyboard. In fact, I volunteered to help one seminarian who speaks English as a second language. When I want to write at length about some complex topic I find that not only must I type at a keyboard, but it must be a blog of some sort.
Gisela Berns , Tutor at SJC, told me that she cannot think creatively with a keyboard but must have the feeling of pen upon paper. I remember reading about some recent published author who submits written manuscripts in cursive script and is perhaps the very last to do so, but I cannot remember the name.
J.D. Salinger spent his days at some mechanical typewriter. In fact, I watched a documentary on Hitchens and it showed him at a mechanical typewriter typing with two fingers, hunt and peck. I suppose each of us becomes frozen in our ways.
