Comments on: 03/07/14 – Librarian Address

By: ronald

ronald — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 20:00:03 +0000

Well, even if they only didn’t want to loan out the books, that was their prerogative, too. Who’s Vachel to loan out books that aren’t even his, that belonged to the (for lack of a better word) people who were doing him a FAVOR by letting him hide out from the Wool Pirates? That’s not entirely unlike a houseguest giving away your food. It’s YOUR food, not your houseguest’s.

But whatever. ;-)

By: christopher

christopher — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 17:10:37 +0000

@Ronald, interesting. When writing it I was thinking, it’s a loan library, not even thinking that it was a preservation library. And that the animals there simply didn’t WANT to loan out the books, in order to protect them, not that there were specific rules as such. But a lot of that probably just happened in my head on not on the page, didn’t it? :-/

By: Muzhik

Muzhik — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 16:41:04 +0000

@War Pig, The problem with the Library at Alexandria was how they developed their collection. They bought the collections of others, at what we would call estate sales. Then they’d go through what they’d bought. Whatever they already had, they literally burned. THAT’s how they wound up having so many “only copy of so-and-so” — they destroyed all the remaining copies. Not out of spite, mind you, just because they literally didn’t think about keeping multiple copies in multiple locations.

If you’ve never read “Inferno” by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, I highly recommend it. It’s a modern retelling of Dante’s “Inferno” written so modern readers can understand it. In it, there is a guy that was notorious in the Science Fiction world at that time. He was in the section of hell as both a hoarder AND a waster. He had spent his family’s fortune amassing a truly marvelous collection of first editions. He then stored them in a barn, allowing them to rot, because he could not decide which ones to sell so he could preserve the rest.

By: ronald

ronald — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 13:44:43 +0000

Wow, gratuitous slam on waterfowl….

You’ve ironically given Vachel the opposite viewpoint of yourself. If HE saw value in collectors and collecting, he wouldn’t have disregarded the Furtovians’ standards. I mean, hey, it’s THEIR library, they gave HIM sanctuary, the least he could’ve done was follow their rules. But he didn’t, so, as is any librarian’s prerogative, they threw him out.

Even when we’re supposed to sympathize with Vachel, he won’t quite allow us to do it. ;-)

By: christopher

christopher — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 07:22:33 +0000

I am very happy collectors are out there, and I do think there is value in collectors and collecting, but I’m just not someone who does. I’m glad you do. :)

By: War Pig

War Pig — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 07:15:29 +0000

It’s a good thing there are collectors, else we’d not have Gutenberg bibles, etc. A great loss was the Library of Alexandria. I will sometimes buy two copies of a book. One to keep as a treasure, one to read and reread. I have read and archived your Little Dee books, so that I may pass them on to my great grandkids (my grandson has already enjoyed them). I have some very nice first editions of books with great illustrations and illumination, which are works of art in themselves. I grew up reading my dad’s comics collections. Mamaw and Papaw sold it in a box for twenty dollars when they retired and we grandkids were grown. If I still had them, Id be rather well off. Detective Comics #1, Captain Marvel #2-10, etc. Also they had a bunch of Big Little Books. Phantom, Man and the Marines, Mighty Midget Comics, Chandu the Magician, Air Fighters of America, Chief Wahoo, Pirate Silver, Buck Rogers, you name it, I read them.