>But some sort of historically-determined limits exist for all
>writers, and one simply
>can't divorce the work from these limits.
I've no problem with historically determined but I'd quibble on "limits" when you're talking about writing. At the limit, all you need to write is a pencil and paper. J.G. Ballard never used a computer, though he could have. As far as I know Genet never used a typewriter, though he could have.
Genet was born in the 20th century but somehow belonged to an earlier time. That's why I can't imagine him using a word processor,. Not because it wasn't available to him.