Found this, thought you might be interested:
A Physical Archive of the World's Books
For what it's worth, I think we should archive them. All of them. Well, except Twilight, that doesn't have to be included... Ok, I guess if we are collecting all books ever published, we would have to. But it would have to be made example of: a large sign saying "write anything but shit like this, if you want anyone else to read it."
This has brought up another issue in my mind - would there (could there) be censorship in this archive? In any future archive? Maybe the curator just didn't like the book, or more dangerously, did not agree with it's message? Do we (can we) save all literature? How much is enough for preservation purposes?
No answers. Just questions I hope we don't have to answer. At least not soon.
Those are tough questions. I mean, I know that I wouldn't want Twilight to be archived (and, omg, I was cleaning out boxes of my books yesterday, and I found the first two volumes of the Twilight series in there--SINCE WHEN DID I OWN THEM BECAUSE I KNOW I'VE NEVER BOUGHT THEM BEFORE; this is where all three of you kill me and leave me to rot out by the Black Angel for the black birds to peck at. AND CHECK FOR ADA), but really, what is worth preserving and what isn't? I know that there are books that are "classics" and "everyone should read," but who decides that? I've read plenty of books that are never on a reading list, but I think that they're far more interesting than, say, Ben Jonson's plays (sorry, Jeff Doty...), but that doesn't mean that Ben Jonson didn't have something important to say.
ReplyDeleteAs a packrat speaking (as proven by the massive piles of junk I'm currently sorting through this summer), I can't bear to throw anything away, which includes books, even though I'm quite sure I haven't read at least 40% of the books that I'm giving away, but I'm sure you all get my drift.
I'm just rambling now because I, too, do not have the answers to those questions. Every author is different. The message could be the same, but then there's something else worth reading and saving. Subject matter gets recycled over and over, and once in a while, a new one crops up, but then it gets used over and over, so then we find creative ways to talk about the same things in a different way. I guess what I'm trying to rationalize is that all works are worth saving--but there are so many books getting published every year, and they just keep accumulating--so how do we keep them all alive?
I guess the better question is: what are we preserving these works for?
As for censorship...I have very, very mixed feelings about that. I'm not sure why yet. If I ever get that figured out, I'm sure we'll discuss it again sooner or later :3
This is really interesting. As far as censorship goes, I don't think it's appropriate. As much as I would like Twilight to have been erased from the annuls of history, the fact of the matter is that it says something about our culture and our youth. Even shit literature has something to say about the world, even if it only makes us cry, "WHY IS THE WORLD THIS WAY THAT TWILIGHT EXISTS?"
ReplyDeleteI'm up for Twilight going in the "shit literature" section. It would only have Twilight in it, btw. With a sign saying, "Just no. Stop it right now."
Xyueguangx brings up a good point, what are we preserving these works for? You know, even though it doesn't make any logical sense, I feel like having the physical copy of the thing is important. One thing I worry about, especially with children growing up in the information age, is that locations, places, things we can hold in our hand, won't have as much meaning as before.
I can still remember the layout of the children's section in my public library at home. I could still tell you where the Animorphs books were located along the back wall. Actually holding a book in your hand engages you so much deeper. I feel like it makes you think more. The internet has a tendency to encourage shallow thinking sometimes.
Don't hold me anything I just said in this message. They're all just kind of musings. I am in favor of this project, for sure.