"I disbelieve, and therefore strongly resent, the assertion that I or anybody else could write better or more easily with a computer than with a pencil. I do not see why I should not be as scientific about this as the next fellow: when somebody has used a computer to write work that is demonstrably better than Dante's, and when this better is demonstrably attributable to the use of a computer, then I will speak of the computer with a more respectful tone of voice, though I still will not buy one."
--Wendell Berry, "Why I am Not Going to Buy a Computer," 1987
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4 comments:
See, now that's a Luddite.
If I could write faster with my hand to get all my ideas down, I might take a shot at it.
(Not that he might not be right, and the poetry might not be better for my forgetting half of it, and having to wrestle and struggle to come up with something else instead.)
::chuckle:: I think Dr. Mitchell actually went to visit him...he and a friend of his drafted a letter asking for a visit. They sent it back and forth through email, then someone handwrote it, scanned it, and emailed it again. Of course they mailed it to Wendell Berry and visited him...
I thought that was quite the story. Rather ironic, don't you think? :-)
~Twynkletoes
I like Wendell Berry. And I like Dr. Mitchell. And I don't like a lot of things about technology. But it sure is a whole lot easier for some things...can you imagine hand-writing papers--and books--and newspapers? =)Or handwriting "hi-I-hope-your-day-is-going-well-and-I-enjoy-reading-your-blog" notes?
I'm with Gratia Domini! Computers are very good for some things and not so good for others--like a national health information database. I'm not at all convinced computers are good for that.
As for you, Jonathan, I like your poetry and hope you don't forget too much of it. And I haven't read any of it for quite a long time--not since that piece in Stylus, actually, I think.
And Twynkletoes, that's a great story. :-) I bet I can use that sometime.
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