The Invisible Library

When I was in high school, I wrote a short story about a superhero named Bedlam who had tentacles in his arms and killed a criminal by impaling him on an iron fence. Not my best effort, but my creative writing teacher really liked it, because it was descriptive and imaginative.

I sure am glad I don’t go to high school these days, where they arrest kids for writing stories about their schools being attacked by zombies. Apparently no one got the irony.

“Mmm… Must punish creativity… Must eat brain….”

Link via Flea at One Good Thing.

Because we elect bugeyed twits like Michael Gorman to head the ALA. From Library Journal:

It is obvious that the Blog People read what they want to read rather than what is in front of them and judge me to be wrong on the basis of what they think rather than what I actually wrote. Given the quality of the writing in the blogs I have seen, I doubt that many of the Blog People are in the habit of sustained reading of complex texts. It is entirely possible that their intellectual needs are met by an accumulation of random facts and paragraphs. In that case, their rejection of my view is quite understandable.

At least two of the blog excerpts sent to me (each written under pseudonyms) come from self-proclaimed “conservatives,” which I find odd because many of the others come from people who call me a Luddite and are, presumably, technology-obsessed progressives. The Luddite label is because my mild remarks have been portrayed as those of someone worried about the job security of librarians (I am not) rather than one who has a different point of view on the usefulness of this latest expression of Google hubris and vast expenditure of money involved.

It’s good to See President-Elect Gorman knows his audience. Perhaps this librarian/blog person will give him a few cents worth of information when I see him at the next ALA conference. Really, is it too much to ask of my fellow librarians to find someone with half a brain to run the only professional library organization with any credibility? I’d do it myself but I’m just a novice who has yet to endure the all-important “Google or Card catalog” Death by a Thousand Papercuts initiation.

George at It’s All Good puts things in perspective for Abbot Gorman. Blame Micheal Schaub at Bookslut for the links.

As a follow up to my post on UU and science fiction, here’s a sermon from Rev. Bruce Clear of All Souls Unitarian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana about the most unlikely Cradle of Unitarianism, Transylvania:

Unitarianism we celebrate today began nearly 450 years ago in Transylvania. The story I tell about the commitment to freedom and reason in religion has continued unbroken through the centuries, making Unitarians older than Methodists or Baptists, Pentecostals or fundamentalists.

Most Unitarians seem surprised when this centuries-old heritage is identified. It is a surprise to discover that our roots go as deep as they do. The fact is, of course, that the central principle which brought together Unitarians in 16th century Transylvania is the same principle which brought together Unitarians in 18th century New England, and is the same principle which brings people into the doors of All Souls Unitarian Church in 2001. It is the principle of freedom in religion. This is our roots, and our roots go deep.

Everyone understands something about the idea of freedom. And most people do not associate freedom of belief with relig?ions. And to me it is our commitment to freedom that most distinguishes Unitarians from other religions I know. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that, in the context of our current world crisis, religious freedom, and particularly religious tolerance, are among the values this world could most benefit from today.

This principle of freedom leads us to a conviction that many other religions would repudiate: that it is far more important for our beliefs to be freely affirmed than it is for our beliefs to be correct. And further?more, it is far more likely that beliefs will be correct if they are allowed to be freely reached.

This is the underlying justification for the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: freedom of speech and press and religion. Why? The First Amendment is an expression of a faith — a faith that truth is more likely to prevail in an environment of freedom, and not coercion.

Our commitment to religious freedom parallels, therefore, our commitment to political and social freedom. Where there is repression, you are likely to find Unitarians and Universalists in battle against it.

Who knew? Ken Macleod, apparently. What a strange and beautiful thing it is to discover that one of the few genuinely tolerant and progressive expressions of faith in the world has it’s roots in the land of Vlad Tepis, the model for Dracula? Of course, Old Vlad is a hero in Transylvania, their equivalent of George Washington. But it’s still an ironic and odd confluence, atheists finding god in th epages of fantasy and science fiction novels and an outlet for that spirituality in a faith that has its roots in the land of Dracula.

If this keeps up, I may just find religion, after all.

I’ve made a few minor changes in the last few days. The biggy is that I’ve activated the Invisible Library’s Atom feed so I’m all RSS capable, which means if you’re even lazier than usual, you can read my titles and the first paragraphs without ever even coming to the website.

Edited to delete a rant. Who cares?