Now, something cheaper and clearly not as reliable, I can understand. But these machines were quite bulletproof, easily on-par with Olympia or Hermes in terms of build quality and usability. They were meant to take a pounding on the daily and keep on ticking. About the only way these things broke down is either via benign neglect or intentional malice.
And they were also built like tanks, with heavy steel and iron… there would be a non-trivial chance of injury or even death via ricochet or shrapnel where an IBM Selectric is concerned. That makes me think this was staged… you don’t want to close-fire on a Selectric without body armour and face/neck protection.
An IBM Selectric??
Now, something cheaper and clearly not as reliable, I can understand. But these machines were quite bulletproof, easily on-par with Olympia or Hermes in terms of build quality and usability. They were meant to take a pounding on the daily and keep on ticking. About the only way these things broke down is either via benign neglect or intentional malice.
And they were also built like tanks, with heavy steel and iron… there would be a non-trivial chance of injury or even death via ricochet or shrapnel where an IBM Selectric is concerned. That makes me think this was staged… you don’t want to close-fire on a Selectric without body armour and face/neck protection.
I mean this seems like a Hunter S Thompson thing to do, that guy was fucking balls-to-the-wall insane, in the best way.
When will at go to war riding on IBM Selectric?
Well, let’s see