Sheryl Oring, who lived in Berlin in the years after the fall of the Soviet Bloc, says typewriters make her a better writer − even as she spends time transcribing what other people think.

Sheryl Oring, who lived in Berlin in the years after the fall of the Soviet Bloc, says typewriters make her a better writer − even as she spends time transcribing what other people think.

The typewriter’s keystrokes were once stolen in silence; now, the buttons we press willingly record our lives in plain sight. And that data - our thoughts, habits, desires - isn’t just collected.

Sheryl Oring, who lived in Berlin in the years after the fall of the Soviet Bloc, says typewriters make her a better writer − even as she spends time transcribing what other people think.