Talk of a Typewriter Revival

Over on his YouTube channel, my friend Joe Van Cleave was just recently pondering whether or not a typewriter revival is taking place. Joe was comparing the rise in interest that typewriters have been experiencing with the rise in interest that film photography has been enjoying. Joe pointed out that film photographers now have multiple options when considering the purchase of a new film camera (something that very few could have imagined just a few years ago). The interest in such cameras is very high and manufacturers are having a hard time keeping up with demand. On the other hand, Joe pointed out that while new typewriters are available for purchase today, there is very little interest in these machines among those in the typewriter community. Hence Joe’s question of whether or not a typewriter revival is actually happening.

I would add to the points raised by Joe that in addition to typewriters and film cameras, other “products from the past” are enjoying newfound interest. It is no secret these days that vinyl records are selling at an ever increasing rate. In addition, there is no shortage of new turntables to choose from when it comes to playing those records. Similarly, older cars, motorcycles, and bicycles have all been enjoying heightened interest among younger people for some time now.  Oh, I forgot to include cassette tapes. Yes even the lowly cassette is now more popular than it has been for decades. I’m not sure if the renewed interest in these older technologies is due to a rejection of all things digital or not (though I know that this is the case for some people).

Rather than trying to understand why, I have simply been enjoying watching all of these developments playing out in the world that surrounds me. After listening to countless old geezers whine about the so called hipsters for many years, I slowly began to realize that the old geezers (I count myself among them these days) had it all wrong. These young people (“hipsters” aren’t even a thing any more) were definitely interested in more than just appearances.  The city that I live in is a great example of this. In so many cases it is the young people who are leading the way here when it comes to all things retro.

But I am beginning to stray from the reason that I sat down to write this blog post, my first in quite a while. Sadly I don’t really have an answer to Joe’s question of whether or not a typewriter revival is underway. However, I do not believe that such a question can be answered by whether or not new typewriters are being purchased by the community we all enjoy being a part of. After all, no one is knocking down the door to purchase new cars and motorcycles with carburetors — but this sure has not deterred the demand for numerous vintage machines enjoyed by the young and the old alike.  The beauty of these older vehicles is that they can still be repaired with basic tools.

So it goes with typewriters. One of the reasons that new film cameras are attractive to many today is because those who repair such cameras are few and far between. Typewriters are more like old cars and motorcycles or even bicycles. in that they are pretty straightforward devices and not terribly complicated. Sure, things are a bit more complex when you start talking about something like an IBM Selectric or various electronic typewriters but this isn’ t all that different than how cars have evolved. A big part of the attraction of the older machines in all cases is that those of us who are so inclined can generally understand them, which allows us to work on them.

With all of the above in mind, I would say that whether or not we are enjoying a typewriter revival likely has to do with whether or not plenty of young people are involved. While a bunch of us old geezers can raise the bar of interest for a while, it takes a growing number of younger people to grow and sustain such activity. That is really more of what a revival is about in my mind at least. But however things might play out I will be watching with interest, just as I have been for some time.

AFTERTHOUGHTS: While I have been watching the interest in film photography continue to rise over the past few years, even I was surprised to learn that Pentax was overwhelmed by the demand for their new film camera. I’m really happy that their gamble (or rather the gamble of their parent company Ricoh) is paying off. Ricoh/Pentax actually rolled out their roadmasp before even committing to building their first new film camera. They said that if the first film camera sold well then other more capable models would follow. Now I’m really curious to see what might come next.

Special thanks to Joe for inspiring me to write this post. I’ve actually written many blog posts over the past few months but wasn’t happy enough with any of them to actually post them. I’m not all that happy with this post if the truth be told. But as I’ve now gone to the effort to scan my typed writing, take a photo, and format this post, I figure I might as well publish this content. In Joe’s video, he noted a drop in blogging among typewriter enthusiasts. While my blogging has certainly fallen by the wayside for longer than I was planning, here I am, still proudly typecasting my content. Check out the Typosphere Blog Roll for more typewriter-related blogs (though a number of the blogs listed seemingly have nothing at all to do with typewriters).