Teh Tiperighter Revlooshun

This is a poem from 1920 written by D.J. Enright. It comes from a book called The Typewriter Revolution & Other Poems. I actually came across this poem in another book called Grammophon Film Typewriter (which turned out to be all in German... blast!). It seems like it really has a lot of potential though so I am going to try and track down an English version. Anyway, here is the poem. I found it quite humorous, especially when taking into consideration that it comes from 1920.


I think that this poem is a very relevant commentary even today. Not necessarily related to typewriters anymore, but more-so in word processing technologies and software. I am also reading a book right now called The Electric Language by Michael Heim. One part that I recall that comes to mind talks about how, traditionally, intelligence was largely dependent on your level of literacy - you were considered less intelligent if you possessed a poor ability to spell and write. Word processing - which spurred on in part by the evolution of the typewriter - has eliminated the need for people to know how to spell correctly and properly.

With this being said, I find it interesting - and partly humorous - that because I am completely used to typing on screen through a word processor of some sort, I find the typewriter forces me to become much more conscious of every letter that I type. In this way, I become much more aware of any mistakes in grammar and spelling. They become much more offensive and troublesome as I cannot simply hit backspace, backspace, backspace... then re-type.