Jonas Mekas
Requiem for a Manual Typewriter
Author(s) Jonas Mekas
Format paperback book
Year 2022
Language(s) English
Pages 48 pages
Description
On March 25, 1997, Jonas Mekas discovered under his desk a roll of computer paper covered in dust. It had been there for some time and he had forgotten about it. He installed the paper in his beloved Olympia De Luxe, on which he had typed for years, with his two index fingers, all kinds of texts: his diaries, his poems, his "Movie Journal" columns, his interviews, his manifestos, and his letters to friends. The roll of paper had to be used, and Mekas began writing a text quite unusual for him: a novel. "Requiem for a Manual Typewriter" is a hymn to his Olympia De Luxe, which he uses to practice writing in the moment, describing the present on a machine already considered technologically obsolete. This text is published here for the first time.