50 pages • 1-hour read
Olivetti
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Background
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness.
Genre Context: A Blend of Elements
Olivetti incorporates elements from several genres to increase interest and suspense. While the book offers adventure and family drama, the two dominant blended genres are mystery and fantasy. From the very beginning, the narrative embraces many of the tropes of the mystery genre, as when protagonist Ernest’s mother, Beatrice, goes missing, he tries to find her by following clues and tracking down leads. Although the grim reality at the heart of the mystery—Beatrice’s fight with cancer—ties into Ernest’s deepest fears, the question of her whereabouts compels Ernest to take on the role of lead detective. Like a stereotypical detective, he relies on the help of a “girl Friday” in the form of Quinn, the pawn shop owner’s daughter, whose position at the shop and efforts on Ernest’s behalf often provide crucial information and propel the plot forward. Notably, however, the novel deviates from genre conventions once the mystery is solved, and from that point, the narrative focuses on the family-based concerns and life lessons that characterize typical middle grade literature. With these elements, Olivetti mirrors other middle grade works in which the protagonist seeks to solve a mystery related to family members, such as Michael Baker’s If You Find This and Varian Johnson’s The Parker Inheritance.
Interwoven with the novel’s mystery elements are distinctly fantastical details, as Beatrice’s vintage typewriter, Olivetti, proves to be sentient and communicates with humans and other typewriters by typing out his messages. By chatting with Ernest and other humans, Olivetti breaks the cardinal rule of his kind. In many ways, Olivetti himself stands as an anomaly in an otherwise realistic world, but because the magic of his sentience functions according to specific rules, this element of the story places the narrative within the fantasy genre. Other middle grade works that employ elements of fantasy include C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series (which is briefly referenced in the story) and Tae Keller’s When You Trap a Tiger.
Historical Context: The Impact of Typewriters and the Olivetti Brand
Modern laptop keyboards had mechanical beginnings. The earliest typewriters were invented as a way to eliminate the need for handwritten text, but they were large, unwieldy, and challenging to operate. Then, in 1867 and 1868, an inventor named Christopher Latham Sholes patented models with much more potential and usability. In 1873, he contracted with a gun company called E. Remington and Sons to make his typewriter. These early machines came to be called “Remingtons” (a fact that the novel references with the brand of Olivetti’s pawn shop friend, Remi). Early typewriters had a carriage for paper, a keyboard rigged to typebars with raised letters and numbers, and a ribbon soaked in ink that the typebars would strike through to leave the inked impression of letters on the page. The first typewriters had only capital letters, and the Remington 2 was the first typewriter to include an uppercase and a lowercase version of each letter. A typist could shift between the two by pressing a special key on the keyboard; mechanically, this function shifted the typebar just enough for the capital letter to strike the ribbon onto the paper instead of the lowercase letter. (Hence, the shift key was born.)
Typewriters significantly altered the workflow in office settings, as skilled typists could finally produce documents much more quickly and efficiently. In 1872, Thomas Edison joined this new realm of innovation and created an electric typewriter, and a later electric typewriter by James Smathers became popular in 1920. Some of the early computer models in the 1940s used the typewriter keyboard for data entry; by the 1970s, this keyboard’s use in computing was commonplace.
In 1896, electrical engineer Camillo Olivetti and the Ing C. Olivetti and Company built the Olivetti M1 typewriter. Olivetti typewriters gained a reputation for style and workmanship and became popular with artists, designers, writers, and other modernists. The factory began to produce calculators as well and eventually grew into a worldwide company. Today, the Olivetti name is known for programmable calculators, trustworthy typewriters, and new technology in computers and communications. In the novel, Callum Kino believes that Olivetti is a Lettera 22 and guesses that he was made in the 1950s. The Lettera 22 model was created by designers Giuseppe Beccio and Marcello Nizzoli and was considered portable, although it weighed over eight pounds.
In 1920, James Smathers created an electric typewriter that became very popular. Some of the early computer models in the 1940s used the typewriter keyboard for data entry, and by the 1970s, this keyboard’s use in computing was commonplace (“History of the Office and Office Equipment.” Library of Congress).
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