3-16-09 Freewrite

In prompt #4, Jason B. Jones discusses the iconography and process of the use of typewriting as described by Darren Wershler-Henry in The Iron Whim. Working of this and the reading of the book, one of the things that struck a chord with me during my reading was the idea of the process of using the typewriter as an enterprise that involves the work of multiple people or things. This is something that I had never considered prior to my reading of this book but also something that is very true. It is clear that multiple thought processes and actions, taken by both humans and machines, must take place in order for a typewritten document to be produced. It truly is, as Wershler-Henry writes, a "collective enterprise." Additionally, I think that this "collective enterprise" process is analagous in many ways the process seen in the use of computers and even the use of pen and paper.

However, I think, throughout the book that too much power within this process is assigned to the typewriting machine itself. Wershler-Henry and others that he cites in the book make it seem as if the typewriter and typist or dicator have almost an equal role. In one instance, he even discusses the idea that the typewriter in some way may even be "pulling the strings" of the typist in a puppet and puppetmaster type relationship. I think that this is crediting the typewriter itself with more of the substance of the "collective" process than is accurate. Without the fingers and brain of the typist, the message, style, and organization of a piece of writing would not exist. While it is true that the typewriter itself plays a crucial role in the creation of these aforementioned parts of writing, its role could easily be replaced with a pen and paper in past times or a computer in modern times. Thus, I think that the idea put forth in The Iron Whim that the typewriter in a large way controls the writer is a false notion when applied to the larger picture of creating a piece of writing. However, I can see how it is responsible, in a more minor sense, for dictating the the format of a particular document or piece of writing.

On the other hand, the book's description of the relationship between the typist and the dictator of words in the "collective enterprise" of writing is somewhat more accurate. This relationship involves the interaction of actual human brains which can create true friction in this writing process.