The brilliant, often baffling Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector (1920-1977) had a love affair with typewriters: specifically, an Underwood Finger-Flite Champion, an Olympia SF, and an Underwood Dora. I’ve found some photos and videos of her typing, and a couple of wonderful texts in which she reflects on her typewriters. These are a good opportunity for me to practice my Portuguese (I know Spanish, but I needed some machine help with these translations). I don’t currently have a Portuguese typewriter, but my Swissa Junior has some of the necessary accents.
Clarice in a trance state with her Underwood
Olympia SF at left
Photo by Cláudia Andujar, 1961
This YouTube video includes a reading of the second text, if you’d like to hear what it sounds like in Portuguese. The video was produced in connection with an exhibit of what is purported to be Clarice’s Olympia and Olivetti, but the Olympia Monica in the exhibit certainly isn’t the little SF in these photos. The Olivetti in the exhibit is a Lettera 22, but in this 1976 film, she’s using what looks like a Dora—still in the “laptop” position that she described as “a strange habit.”
Gratitude to my Swissa Junior for typing these texts.
your first blog post on the new site using wordpress! hope it was painless. had enough of that in the lead-up.
now the first comment! how exciting.
I actually created the post on Blogger, then copy-and-pasted it into WordPress. Not how you’re supposed to do it, but it works. The WordPress way is going to take some more practice.
Comment *Então leio “Atualmente não tenho uma máquina de escrever portuguesa” e fico pensando na riqueza da minha língua. Poderia estar falando de uma máquina de escrever fabricada em Portugal, mas está se referindo, por óbvio, a uma máquina de escrever com teclado em português (ou brasileiro…). Ah, mas precisamos resolver essa questão o quanto antes… e já me pergunto como farei para despachar uma máquina desde terras tupiniquins para os EUA… vou me informar, e ver a forma menos dolorosa dessa viagem acontecer… Tenho certeza de que os lindos textos de Lispector serão novamente datilografados, e poderá treinar o seu português com sotaques legítimos, ainda melhores do que os praticados na linda Swissa Junior… (aliás, pelo tamanho, uma candidata à viagem seria uma linda Swissa Piccola, abrasileirada !)… Amplexos !