Tom Hanks beware: typewriters spawned rubbish as well as great novels

Yes, they sound workmanlike, and their keys are more satisfying to pound than a computer. But merely using a typewriter cannot magic anyone even a Hollywood great into an author

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I am delighted to hear that Tom Hanks is writing a collection of stories inspired by his love of and obsession with typewriters; and that he has released an app for iPads which somehow recreates the sound and motion (?) of writing on a typewriter.

Actually, Im not delighted, because Ive read his first published fiction, a short story called Alan Bean Plus Four, and it is painfully clear that Mr Hankss talents belong on the screen, or maybe the stage, but certainly not the page (I doubt the New Yorker has published a worse story in its history). Also, Im not particularly delighted that he has created (or had the idea for) the pseudo-typewriter app, for about the only good thing that I can think of about an iPad is that it is not a typewriter.

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