Those Thoroughly Modern Libraries

Borders is going out of business-why emulate it?
I was in my sole remaining bookstore in the city yesterday. The new library is directly across the street, and now, after managing heretofore to weather all the slow implodes of the declining book world, The owner has to compete with this government-run, tax-supported entity that is positioning itself as a bookstore-with free books.

He was incredibly upset as we discussed this. He mentioned having been to the State Library the day before, where the clerk assured him the old, fusty statehouse library was about to undergo a complete transformation into the most happenin’ hoppin’ hep cat hub of hollerin wowness ever seen. He could have wrung her neck.

I told him that the library idea (you remember, Jeffersonian enlightment of the citizenry, and all that) was hijacked by two factions of the Boomers, the star-techies and the bohemians. You end up with lots of computers/videogames/digital everything and a really good coffee bar. Not to mention your toddler gets to find out all about Heather’s two mommies in story hour.

He’s just one little bookstore, catching the remaining people in town who still think and live in the manner of Western Civilization, who still read and cogitate in an involved and linear fashion, but his influence is small, and the bookstore is not creating many new readers.

That was the library’s job, and the Boomers abandoned it. We gave away out heritage of sustained thought and argumentation based on factual knowledge. We gave away the library as a forum for art and ideas, for the preservation of the printed word which raised us above ourselves. Nobody took it from us. It wasn’t the eeevil Karl Rove and that nasty patriot act, dudes and dudettes.

We gave our birthright away for a mess of dvds and arabica house blend.

Today’s bumper sticker is sponsored by Fahrenheit 451: RAY WAS RIGHT!