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Paradigm Shifts: Typewritten Tales of Digital Collapse
Digital technology is breaking down—and typewriters are back. Join storytellers, poets, and artists as they explore the collapse and its aftermath. Contributors include Linda M. Au, Wendell Berry, David G. Brechbiel, Valentine J. Brkich, Catalina Cariaga, Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, Frederic S. Durbin, Trinity Grau, Kristofferson Harris, Arkadiusz Hubczuk, Michael Kitchen, Steve Kuterescz, Jos Legrand, Bill Meissner, R. J. Montgomery, Vinny Negron, Robert Neuwirth, Erich J. Noack, Reine Nust, Carol Ochs, Christopher Ochs, Joey Patrickt, Cornelia Penner, Mark Petersen, Richard Polt, Aaron Schmidt, Nutthawut Siridejchai, Charles Sterrow, Istvan Takacs, Joe Van Cleave, Armando Warner, Matthew Weaver, and Brian Zimmerman.
272 pages, Paperback
Published May 28, 2019
2 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Richard Polt
55 books27 followersRichard F. H. Polt is a professor of philosophy at Xavier University. He holds a B.A. in philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago (1991). His main interests are the metaphysical and ethical problems of Greek and German philosophy. He has taught elective courses on a variety of topics, including Plato, Aristotle, Kant, German idealism, existentialism, slavery, time, and Heidegger.
Selected publications:
Heidegger: An Introduction. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999.
A Companion to Heidegger's "Introduction to Metaphysics." Edited by Richard Polt and Gregory Fried. New Haven: Yale Unversity Press, 2001.
Heidegger's "Being and Time": Critical Essays. Edited by Richard Polt. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.
The Emergency of Being: On Heidegger's "Contributions to Philosophy." Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006.
Selected publications:
Heidegger: An Introduction. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999.
A Companion to Heidegger's "Introduction to Metaphysics." Edited by Richard Polt and Gregory Fried. New Haven: Yale Unversity Press, 2001.
Heidegger's "Being and Time": Critical Essays. Edited by Richard Polt. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.
The Emergency of Being: On Heidegger's "Contributions to Philosophy." Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 9, 2020
As a typewriter collector, the theme of this collection was undeniably fun. The stories themselves had a bit of a range, from merely interesting to truly entertaining. I particularly enjoyed the stories by Cornelia Penner, Carol Ochs, Richard Polt, Joe Van Cleave, and Vinny Negron. The whole idea of the collection, things changing so significantly that what we've left behind suddenly becomes immensely valuable, is thought-provoking.
November 2, 2020
Slightly freaky read with what's going on in the world now
June 29, 2019
Full disclosure: I have a short story, "Hunting Season," in this collection of stories in which typewriters are featured. When I heard about this collection and the call for stories, I got to work on one and happily, it was accepted. Wendell Berry also has a poem here, as well as stories, and a few photographs, from around the world, all from writers a little bit (or a lot) obsessed with typewriters.
January 6, 2020
This is book is amazingly well written and worth the small cost (less than $9 CDN). The short stories are of a much higher standard than I was expecting.
Several have left me stunned, shocked (including “You’ll Be Needing This” by Richard Polt) - and wanting to give up my tech job simply because I feel like I am responsible for the future collapse of society!!
On the other hand “Cold Dead Hands” by Steve Kuterescz has got to be the funniest thing I’ve ever read - laugh out loud funny. I especially love his creative character names for the President, Vice-President and National Security Advisor: Truman P Dold, Spike Mence and Mitch Finn (who don’t sound familiar at all!!! ;)
Do yourself a favour and buy this book as quick as you can. I have already purchased Volume 2 “Escapements” and am eagerly awaiting Volume 3 which will be about time travel. If these live up to the quality of the 1st then I’m absolutely hooked.
Several have left me stunned, shocked (including “You’ll Be Needing This” by Richard Polt) - and wanting to give up my tech job simply because I feel like I am responsible for the future collapse of society!!
On the other hand “Cold Dead Hands” by Steve Kuterescz has got to be the funniest thing I’ve ever read - laugh out loud funny. I especially love his creative character names for the President, Vice-President and National Security Advisor: Truman P Dold, Spike Mence and Mitch Finn (who don’t sound familiar at all!!! ;)
Do yourself a favour and buy this book as quick as you can. I have already purchased Volume 2 “Escapements” and am eagerly awaiting Volume 3 which will be about time travel. If these live up to the quality of the 1st then I’m absolutely hooked.
January 25, 2025
Imagine the global demise of the internet aka 'digital apocalypse'. At first I thought, hey that's actually great! However, "Paradigm Shifts" posits that reverting to the good ol' days prior to email, social media, online banking etc may not be so simple or rosy (as I would've hoped). And who would've thought that one of the most valuable pieces of technology following a digital collapse is a typewriter? I swear this book reads more like one standalone novel or a series of vignettes instead of a collection of stories, with the typewriter as the protagonist:
"People don't want to go back to their 1980s typewriters any more than they wanna go back to their 1980s hairstyles... Are you nuts? Ask people to give up their computers and the Internet?"
"Your opinions on the Crash? Was it really techno-terrorists or foreign involvement? Or perhaps extraterrestrials? ...Personally my money's on the aliens."
"I took out my smartphone from my pocket and looked at it like a traitor. It could not provide answers anymore. So I treated it like a traitor, tossing it out."
"The few stories I've heard are the same: cars are disabled, cell phones and land lines are down, and the only power is coming from solar chargers and generators... What better way to deal with an enemy nation than to disable it and wait for its civilization to completely unravel."
"My online friends from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram were gone too. All those cohorts I never met face-to-face--how would we ever find each other again? ...I'm trying to figure out if life is simpler when you're on survival mode or is life dreadful because I can no longer sit on my ass and stare at my laptop?"
And finally, a typewritter itself has its own POV of the Event as it waits for the love of its life, the writer:
"Is it me, typing these words on my own, or is it her? Or is it both of us, typing at once? Yes, I decide--it's both of us, in perfect unison, finally saying exactly what we need to say."
A refreshing, relatable take on a cozy catastrophe we all secretly hope for, set in our (very?) near future that forces us to rethink our present state. A paradigm shift (that we need) indeed!
"People don't want to go back to their 1980s typewriters any more than they wanna go back to their 1980s hairstyles... Are you nuts? Ask people to give up their computers and the Internet?"
"Your opinions on the Crash? Was it really techno-terrorists or foreign involvement? Or perhaps extraterrestrials? ...Personally my money's on the aliens."
"I took out my smartphone from my pocket and looked at it like a traitor. It could not provide answers anymore. So I treated it like a traitor, tossing it out."
"The few stories I've heard are the same: cars are disabled, cell phones and land lines are down, and the only power is coming from solar chargers and generators... What better way to deal with an enemy nation than to disable it and wait for its civilization to completely unravel."
"My online friends from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram were gone too. All those cohorts I never met face-to-face--how would we ever find each other again? ...I'm trying to figure out if life is simpler when you're on survival mode or is life dreadful because I can no longer sit on my ass and stare at my laptop?"
And finally, a typewritter itself has its own POV of the Event as it waits for the love of its life, the writer:
"Is it me, typing these words on my own, or is it her? Or is it both of us, typing at once? Yes, I decide--it's both of us, in perfect unison, finally saying exactly what we need to say."
A refreshing, relatable take on a cozy catastrophe we all secretly hope for, set in our (very?) near future that forces us to rethink our present state. A paradigm shift (that we need) indeed!
October 30, 2020
Fun stuff. On to Volume 2!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews