Why I don’t own a computer (Berry)
March 16th, 2008 | Published in Writing, Education, Quotes, Technology | 3 Comments
My final and perhaps my best reason for not owning a computer is that I do not wish to fool myself. 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 computers 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” in What Are People For? (1990), p. 171.
March 16th, 2008 at 12:07 pm (#)
Sounds like a case of “get off my lawn” to me. I mean, why invent the pencil when a piece of charcoal or a stick and mud would work just as readily?
Ironically enough, I don’t think Dante wrote with a pencil, either.
March 16th, 2008 at 1:14 pm (#)
That was written in 1990. How much of what was written about computers in 1990 still applies today?
I love writing with a pencil too. Not because it’s more convenient (it usually isn’t) nor because it’s easier (again, it’s not), but because I like the feeling of a pencil on paper – something tangible. I don’t fault Mr. Berry for preferring to write that way, but I don’t think he’s in much of a position to criticize the use of computers. He said himself he doesn’t even own one.
Beside, everything he writes ends up typed up eventually.
March 16th, 2008 at 1:21 pm (#)
I think there is truth in this quote. Obviously I own a computer and think most people should, too. (How else can they read my blog?) But computers don’t make people better writers, and in fact in can make people worse writers. (For examples of this, see the comments in popular blogs.)
I also find the quote a bit humorous, especially the “though I still will not buy one”!