Olivetti

In a very brief introduction, a typewriter named Olivetti explains that his name is a reference to his manufacturer. He comments sardonically that other typewriters like him also have the name Olivetti and do not require individual names, unlike “those attention hogs” (2): books.

Olivetti explains that humans tell typewriters their stories; he has “stored” all the stories that people have used him to type out. Olivetti introduces the members of the Brindle family by discussing their individual quirks as they type on his keyboard. He first describes Beatrice, the mother, who uses her “featherlike fingers” to write stories on Olivetti. He then introduces her four children: Ezra, whose touch is “clobbering”; Adalynn, who types sharply and rapidly; Ernest, who types in a hesitant, questioning way; and young Arlo, who is sloppy and “always misspelling” (5). Olivetti recalls that the children learned their letters on his keys years ago. He comments that human bodies are “full of flaws” and that growing up is the “worst” of them (6).

Olivetti recalls that books gradually crowded around him on Beatrice’s desk. Even worse was the day when Beatrice’s husband, Felix, bought her a laptop computer. Olivetti thinks that his own memory is much better than any computer’s file-based storage.