In my role as the front desk of my library I must employ my deep cultural knowledge, my decades of library experience, and all the tools of my trade to answer the questions that library patrons bring to me.
For instance, a man just asked me:
"Are the books on the cart that says "free books" free?"
"Yes." I replied.
That may sound pretty simple to a layperson, but it's harder than it looks.
Lately at the library I have accumulated a list of various co-workers I am mad at. And I have noticed that in occasionally complaining to the (much larger, but probably not as large as it should be list of) colleagues who I'm not particularly mad at, they also appear to have a list of people they are unhappy with.
Unfortunately, nobody's list entirely matches with my list.
This gives me a lonely feeling at work, and puts me in mind of a quote.
The quote is by Treebeard the Ent, an important treeman character that Pippin and Merry meet in The Two Towers book of The Lord of the Rings.
Treebeard is asked which side he is on in a conflict and he replies:
"I am not altogether on anybody's side, because nobody is altogether on my side"
Another day in library town, where I've worked most of my adult life. My days here runnin' herd on library books for my ruthless County bosses are winding down. I'd like to say some days get pretty rough now that the end of my career is only a year or four away, but there have always been rough days working library town. Mean patrons, capricious bosses, grinding workloads, clueless co-workers, and loads of human vomit, I have seen it all.
Well, maybe not all, just most of it.
Today an old colleague turned manager unceremoniously bumped my little art show and forgot most of what we agreed to about it. So I am now showing some stuff for the first few weeks of April, and then again in July, and it's neither what I wanted, how I wanted it, nor what we talked about. It's very disappointing.
But then, I'm not here to make art. I may have wanted a career at the library being the library jester, the entertainer, and the freelancer, but my job, my real job, is...
It's...
In struggling to write up the notes for the first part of my upcoming photography show at the library, I decided I would to work on them here. This is my third take. It starts the same as yesterday, and the day before, but then it travels in a different direction than either of them.
Library Fictions
The tiny stories that take place in these pictures never happened.
This might be obvious when one of them shows a character from a Dr. Seuss book haughtily wandering through this library, or a dinosaur crashing down our staircase. But it may be less obvious when it realistically looks like a lion wandered into our teen room for an afternoon nap.
But stories are a funny thing.
Here you are, right at this moment standing in a library. It is both true, and it is also a story I am writing down before you ever knew you would read this. And even setting aside the stories of these pictures, you are at this moment surrounded by countless thousands of stories. The books and movies and songs and games are full of them. But so is the person walking by you as you read this. You, dear library reader, are full of stories yourself! Some are true, some are partly true, some are trying to be true, and some are true somewhere.
Some are going to be true.
I have taken some pictures of this library. They are real pictures. Maybe crazy things happen in them that have never happened and never will.
But in this library Frodo has walked to the cracks of doom and Darcy confessed his love for Elizabeth. Ice cream was made from scratch, dogs were trained, diseases diagnosed, and Scout was saved by Boo Radley.
You dear reader have probably believed six impossible things before breakfast.
So these pictures ought to be no problem for you at all.
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In writing up the notes for the first part of my upcoming show I decided to work on them here. This is my second take. It starts the same as yesterday, but then it travels in a different direction.
Library Fictions
The tiny stories that take place in these pictures never happened.
This might be obvious when one of them shows a character from a Dr. Seuss book haughtily wandering through this library, or a dinosaur crashing down our staircase. But it may be less obvious when it realistically looks like a lion wandered into our teen room for an afternoon nap.
But stories are a funny thing.
Here you are right this moment standing in a library. Let alone the stories of these pictures, you are surrounded by countless thousands of stories. The books and movies and songs and games are full of them. But so is the person walking by you as you read this. You, dear library reader, are full of stories yourself! Some are true, some are partly true, some are trying to be true, and some are true somewhere.
I have been working in this library for almost 30 years.
I thought it would be nice to show you some pictures of what that's been like.
I'm thinking I might try working out my show notes here for my upcoming art display at the library. Here is a first attempt.
Library Fictions
The tiny stories that take place in these pictures never happened.
This might be obvious when one of them shows a character from a Dr. Seuss book haughtily wandering through this library, or a dinosaur crashing down our staircase. But it may be less obvious when it realistically looks like a lion wandered into our teen room for an afternoon nap.
But fiction is a funny thing.
How about some definitions?
Fiction is when things are made up to seem real.
Reality is what we think we're seeing.
Six of one, half a dozen of the other.
Having an art show in a little over a week at my library is feeling unreal to me now. This is maybe because I'm long finished with making all the pictures, and I'm a little uncertain about the hanging and the availability of the displays my pictures will be going on. There is a great deal of informality about this art show, which is somehow more like permission for an art display. And yet at the same time I have fifty plexiglass frames to prepare for hanging all while I'm at the library- somewhere in-between doing my job. These frames all come covered in a protective film that's a challenge to peel off, and I've barely begun that process. Plus, halfway through the show I'm going to be switching out all 50+ of the first photographs.
I realize that I have been showing you here all my revised Library Fiction pictures, but I only started showing here my Library Co-workers' Daemon pictures towards the end of that project. Most of them I haven't shared on clerkmanifesto yet. So here is a selection of some. I'm not a hundred percent clear on what has and what hasn't been shown in this space, so please forgive me if you see one of these pictures and it's your second time. All I can say is: if that happens, just shut your eyes quick.
