At the Atlantic, for its How Genius Works issue, TC Boyle talks about writing his 1995 book The Tortilla Curtain, just before he began using a computer, losing his careful revisions in the synaptical fire of the brain/computer matrix:In the old days, the days of this artifact, I would have retyped this page during the following day's work, incorporating the changes you see here and feeling my way. When the novel was completed, I would make additional notes and then type a clean final draft. In the case of The Tortilla Curtain, which weighs in at 355 finished pages, this process would have occupied the better part of a month (producing, along the way, countless eraser shreds and dribbles of Wite-Out). Now I'm able to accomplish the same thing in three or four days.
Still, there was a pleasant rhythm to those hard-typing times, during which I would neatly stack up 10 to 12 finished pages daily, the whole business accumulating in a very satisfying way before I headed off to stroll through the woods or quaff a drink or two at the local bar. It was restful. Contemplative. Deeply satisfying. And let me tell you—and this is no small consideration—back then, I had the strongest fingers in the world.Also see Obsolete: One of Florida’s Last Typewriter Repairmenh/tAtlantic Tech