This Writer's Changed World

Is it too late?
Is the WRITTEN word doomed?
(I ALL CAPPED "written" for a reason.  Keep reading.)

I was late coming to computers.
July 2009, to be exact.
At age 65.
(I was also late coming to other "modern" techno products, but that's another story.)

Before entering (Quite reluctantly, I might add!  Call me a Luddite!) the "computer age", I was a WRITER!
Yes, that means I used a BIC pen to place words & commas and such on pieces of lined notebook paper.
After a revision or two, I would then TYPE the final copy---on a TYPEWRITER, using 20 lb bond paper.

My favorite writer's quotation speaks to this.
Truman Capote was said to remark on Jack Kerouac's "On the Road"--"That's not writing!  That's typing!".
And how close to the truth he was!
For Kerouac actually DID type his signature novel!
It's well known he typed the book in just a few days on a scroll of paper!

My Hero Bob Dylan also used a typewriter---a MANUAL one, no less!!--to write his "memoir" (Chronicles: Volume 1) a few years ago!

But I digress.

Isn't writing---writing---no matter the tools used?
A typewriter.
Pen or pencil.
Computer.

NO!

For over four decades, I wrote my poems, song lyrics, novels, essays, autobiographies, reviews and critiques using that aforementioned BIC and that cheap lined paper.

Only a few times---and then only as an experiment!---did I TYPE my first draft of whatever I was writing.
However, I found typing a first draft to make editing and revision difficult---and in a sense, redundant.
After all, my TYPED copies were normally my FINAL copies!

So I went back to my paper & pen.

Until July 2009.

Then I began putting words on my computer's screen---or monitor.
(Sort of ironic---IMO---that the computer keyboard is the same as the typewriter's!)

I had a printer, which later broke, so I removed it.
But I'm glad it broke, because I didn't like how my words looked on the paper.

Maybe it was my inability (or refusal!) to learn "computer technique"--meaning ways of making your words appear the same as they would coming off a typewriter.
Maybe it was just being used to how those words looked coming out of my Smith-Corona XL1900, a machine I'd been using for DECADES!

I just couldn't see computer-"written" words as WRITING!

The words didn't translate from mind to screen the same way they did from mind to pen & paper.
There seemed to be a deflector that caused my words to veer off course.
They'd not only LOOK different---they WERE different!
As Capote inferred about Kerouac, I was TYPING (but on a computer's keyboard, NOT a typewriter's!), not writing!
The "sound" was wrong.
The "flow" seemed dammed up!
The "rhythm" was off-key, atonal.

There also emerged a problem with continuity of theme or idea.
My concentration, my focus was off kilter.

For the past 6 years, I've "written" most (about 99%!!) of my works using my computer.
But unsatisfied with the appearance of my words on a monitor, I knew I couldn't leave them there.
(For one thing, what if my computer crashed?  What if ALL computers crashed?)
Yes, I feared losing my (self-)valued "works of art"!
(Forget my refusal to learn ways to "save" computerized "writings!"  See Luddite note above!)

One other misnomer when attempting to define words on a computer screen.
When are those words nothing more than the manic scribblings of a child who has yet to learn the alphabet, let alone any rules of grammar?
(Check out most blogs and Tweets---or writings on Facebook---and you'll find NUMEROUS spelling and grammatical errors!  The use of "to" in place of "too", or "their" instead of "there", for example!  It's rampant, like a PLAGUE!!)

Before beginning my blogs (Aaron K's Track and Field Record Book and this one, My Cultural World), most of my "writings" were merely comments on various websites, whether of a political, cultural, or sports-oriented nature.
I'd "post" my comments, or reply to another person's "post".
(That---"post"---is another word that was redefined in the Computer Age.)

Most of what I "posted" was drivel!
(Do NOT say a WORD!!  I realize and accept that you might believe THIS is drivel!!)
Sometimes, it was one word.
Not to mention a whole other language--especially when I started on Twitter in April 2013.
(One example of how Twitter has messed up meanings is the use of "LOL".  I've learned it means "laugh out loud"---OR---"lots of love".  How the Hell is your recipient to know which one you meant??)

But I've found a solution!
Since I see MOST of what I "post" as being NOT-writing, I decided to NOT save most of it!
(Wait until the monkey types the Encyclopedia Britannica before copying anything he/she "writes"  It's called "discretion"---or "taste".)

That which I deem "art"---or something RESEMBLING art!!--is copied (using my trusty----and CHEAP!!---BIC pens and CHEAP college-ruled lined notebook paper!) onto paper, THEN, after doing my needed revisions, is TYPED---using my refurbished Smith-Corona XL1900---onto my typing paper!

Then---and ONLY then!!---do I see my words as WRITING!!

(Same difference---sort of!---between reading a book that you hold in your hands---made of paper & such---and "reading" a book using "kindle" or listening to an "audio-book".  If I were Capote, I'd probably say--"That's not READING!  That's HEARING!")

I hope this "Computer Generation" realizes the difference between using a MACHINE to "write", and letting the words flow from your heart and brain using a simple instrument like a pen or pencil.

Imagine a painter trying to paint his landscapes or her portraits on a computer!
Van Gogh might have cut off BOTH ears if he'd lived in this era!!

Even with my strong editing process---and my strict rules of selection---I'm still dis-satisfied with my choice of what I've saved---and count as part of my oeuvre, my "collected works".

I compare my "pre-computer" writing to what came after, and they're two (almost!) entirely different animals!
It's like my writing entered a black hole, and coming out the other side, found itself in a whole different universe, with a whole different form of communication!

I wonder if any other "elders"--especially you fellow Luddites!---understand what I'm saying!

One probable result from this is that I haven't written any poems or song lyrics for many months--in fact, YEARS!!
(And I'd written a couple of THOUSAND of them prior to 2009!!  The only ones I "wrote" since were on Skype, during my "cyber-relationship" with an Italian woman living in Texas (!!).  They were just part of an on-going conversation we were having.)

Will kindle and computers and "text messaging" and such mark the end of libraries and archives where WRITTEN works are kept?

Not in MY world!
Not in MY apartment!
(Look around, and about HALF of what you see here are BOOKS and a 4-drawer file cabinet FILLED with my WRITTEN works!!)

You know what they say about money?
That it's not worth "the paper it's written on"?

Same with the SHIT that passes as "writing" in the Computer Age!

Alas.