The Hemingwrite — described as an "over-engineered typewriter for the 21st century" — should bother me. It's not just the pretentious yet bland reference to the Young Male Writer's favorite inspiration right in the name. It's not just the exhortation to use its long battery life and "pull a Thoreau," the time-honored practice of self-righteously rejecting civilization by making other people interact with it on your behalf. It's not just the shots fired at "tiresome and outdated" typewriters. It's the entire gestalt of nostalgia, self-help, and conspicuous, generic literary fandom that it evokes. It makes me want to be elitist and anti-intellectual at the same time.
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