Thoughts on the Good Literary Machines
Margot Mellet - Macerata - 9 avril 2024
Men and Modern Writing Machines
displacement and detachment, a three-ingredient formula
Out of hand1, Out of sight2 ...
... using the keys of anonymity3
A Typewriter For You - For Everybody
Neu erfundene Schreib-Maschine, mittelst welcher Jedermann ohne
Licht in jeder Sprache
und
Schriftmanier
sicher zu schreiben, Aufsätze und Rechnungen zu verfertigen vermag,
auch Blinde
besser
als mit
allen
bisher bekannten Schreibtafeln nicht nur leichter schreiben,
sondern auch das von
ihnen
Geschriebene
selbst lesen könner (Müller, 1823)
The typewriter, a new invention, by means of which
anyone can write safely,
without light,
in any language and in any style of writing, write essays and
invoices,
and by
means of which blind people can not only write more easily
than with any writing
tablet
yet
known,
but can also read what they have written themselves
(Müller, 1823)
Women and Typing Machines
a double-edged romance
Seit Lillian Sholes 1872 als »wahrscheinlich erste Schreibmaschinistin« der Geschichte
am
Prototyp ihres Vaters gesessen und posiert hatte, gab es zwar Maschinenfrauen zu
Vorführzwecken,
aber noch keine Stenotypistin als Berufsbild und Ausbildungsgang.
Das änderte die
Young Women’s
Christian Association, Central Branch, New York City,
die 1881 acht junge Frauen in
Maschinenschrift schulte und aus der Industrie
sofort hunderte von Nachfragen lauf 10
$-Wochenbasis) erntete.
(Kittler, 1986)
When Lillian Sholes, as “presumably” the “first type-writer” in history, sat and posed
in front
of
her father’s prototype in 1872, female typists came into existence for purposes of
demonstration,
but as a profession and career, the stenotypist had yet to come.
That was changed by
the central
branch of the Young Women’s Christian Association
in New York City, which trained
eight young
women
in 1881 to become typists and immediately received hundreds of inquiries (at $10 a week)
from
the
corporate world.
(Kittler, 1999)
Wives of the MPen
some flavours of the bureaucratic couples
a Good Decipher
I can always find plenty of women to sleep with,
but the kind of woman that is really hard for
me to
find
is a typist who can read my writing
(T. Wolfe in Nowell, 1960)
a Moveable Unit
The American novel of H. James written
by an operator1 on a
typewriter2... in the author's bedroom3
with Lightning Quick Fingers
Much younger than me, just under 30.
Not the least bit pretty in the sense of Elida and
Elisabeth
Arden.
Very good figure, but negroid face.
From a very good family. No money.
Profession similar to
Helga, well paid,
writes 200 syllables, perfect typist.
(G. Benn,
1966)
A Typewriter or A ... Typewriter ?
Doch mit der Mechanisierung von psychoanalytischen Sekretären oder Filmdeutern nicht genug,
veränderte die Maschine auch deren Geschlecht. […]
Typewriter heißt eben beides:
Maschine und Frau.
(Kittler, 1986)
Exceeding the mechanization of psychoanalytical secretaries and film interpreters,
the
machine also altered their sex; […]
“Typewriter,” after all, signifies both: machine
and woman.
(Kittler, 1999)
Guess on What/Who I'm writing to you
Dear Blanche, I have sold off all my office furniture, chairs, desks, etc., and I am writing
this letter under difficulties with my typewriter on my lap.
(A Businessman in bankruptcy to his wife, in Bliven, 1954)
Everything seems to increase my excitement: the air I breathe is full of voluptuousness; the
very table on which I am writing to you, consecrated for the first time for this purpose, is
becoming for me the sacred altar of love; how much more beautiful it will become in my
eyes!
(Letter XLVIII from Valmont to Tourvel, Laclos 1782)
The Future Eve (Villiers de L'Isle Adam) or the Modelling of the Woman for Tomorrow's Andreides
Edison's automaton is both the same and different, to the extent that he repeats the technical trick
of the painter Zeuxis, whose painted grapes even fooled the birds. Lord Ewald mistakes the
engineer's technological achievement for the foolish Alicia Clary, until the electric creature
speaks to him in the accent of one of the century's most sublime poets and Lord Ewald falls in love
with her, believing that he has finally rediscovered his love for Alicia
Clary.
(Beaulieu,
2005)
Secretaries 2.0
"Happy Wife" skill's recommandations from Alexa (See Fan,
2023):
- "Let her decorate the house as she likes it"
- "Give her money to play with"
Wives, Muses, Secretaries / VS / Warriors, Weapons, Authorities
The Cyborg, The Ontology
every border is political
The Patchwok Girl (Jackson, 1995)
body/text in pieces when frontier is a way of being
... do they ?
Threading, sewing, typing
Females are more relationally oriented than males, who are more agentic.
(Al-Moqbali and Al-Amrani,
2022)
Auto-engendering of computer scientist
women and machines allowed as soon as the job is meaningless
Das Los eines von feinen Fingerchen benutzten Philosophen war nicht Autorschaft, sondern Verweiblichung.
(Kittler, 1986)
The fate of the philosopher utilized by his fine fingers was not to become an author
but a woman.
(Kittler, 1999)
La sorte di un filosofo usato da esili ditini non era l'autore, ma la femminilizzazione.
Grazie
Material of this presentation: https://blank.blue/conf/macerata/Much more complete study of this topic: https://paume.page/3/#les-inventions-litteraires-de-la-machine