The Soul of a Library

I'll be releasing a full-length video "Director's Commentary" on my patreon for this vid, including lots of ideas that didn't make it in the final cut AND many ramblings on Animorphs. www.patreon.com/JacobGeller

Another point I’d like to make: you can go to a public library with no intention of checking out a book, you can go without a library card, you can just go there and read as much as you want, and it’s free. You can use that service or just use the space without any guilt or judgement and without paying a penny. I can’t think of another public space in the modern day where it’s acceptable to simply exist without spending money.

I love how every single video essay ever made by anyone ever eventually morphs into a dark souls video

A recent version of a burning up the scale of Alexandria - but as a total burnout -, while not a library, is the burning of Brazil's National Museum. Which housed 200 years worth of Brazil's history. It burned because there was no more budget for the maintenance of the hydrants, so it was a victim of Brazil's long term austerity politics. While the whole thing is disastrous for everybody, the museum also housed many objects which were once stolen from Brazil's indigenious peoples, including cultures which are no longer around. There were also audio recordings of indigenious languages which are no longer in use, as writings and physical remains. Basically: we lost 200 years of cultural memory of a country that is only ~500 years old, and the proof of existence, culture and languages of peoples that have been made extinct through colonialism.

when my anxiety first got really bad, the thing that blew me away about libraries the most was that... they don't have any loitering rules. it's the only public place where you are allowed to exist without serving a purpose, spending money, being a customer, etc. for someone who was convinced that they could not serve a purpose, that's the most comforting concept in the world.

One of the most interesting things to me about libraries is just how inspiring the aesthetic of them is. In college, I would go to the library to study, write, and read, but I don't think I ever once actually checked out a book from my college library. I just liked sitting at the desks in the dimly lit room, surrounded by more books than I could feasibly count. It felt cozy and infinite. The kind of place that you'd want to stay for hundreds of years because of the promise of knowledge.


In regards to the Library of Babel, that place would drive me insane because there would be millions of versions of my scripts that are written better than the ones I made. A true nightmare.

I was lucky enough to live within a mile of a Copyright Library for a few years - a facility which seeks to have a copy of every book published in that country. It wasn't a normal library - you could get a tour, but to read a book, you had to request it and then wait around for about 45 mins for it to be retrieved from the vast stacks. Then you have to read the book there - you can't take it away. Obviously, this was massively useful for certain things - research, old maps, art, you name it.

Once however, I really did get them to retrieve a trashy sci-fi novel that I wanted to read but couldn't find elsewhere. The professional archivist who handed it to me laughed with joy that someone was using the Library for such things.

One of my favorite quotes: "When my father died, it was as if an entire library burned down."
- Laurie Anderson, live in concert, circa 1990
This quote has changed the way I think about death.

Librarian here-

Thank you, so, so much. This needs to be said, shouted, screamed from the heavens, and with your audience, I pray someone will hear it.

The absolute density of this man's beard is truly distracting

I can confirm our library system does indeed have Animorphs In the Time of Dinosaurs Part 2

"The attack was predictable, at least to one man named Abdel Kader Haidara; pictured here wearing a Legend of Zelda scarf like the absolute boss that he is."

In the 70's-90's my grandma was an author. All her books are out of print now, but she has well over 30 different novels. You can't find them in libraries or in bookstores; only on ebay listings which are few and far between. She gifted me copies of most of them, which I wish I had been more careful with over the years since many I'll be unlikely to find again. It's crazy to me that this story isn't even that uncommon. So many books, out of print, never popular enough to be reinstated. Sometimes I read goodreads reviews of the books for fun, just happy to think that some stranger out there decades ago bought something my grandma wrote for 20 cents as a paperback at a thrift store and had that become a huge part of their life. And I'll never meet them and they'll probably never know I exist.

18:10 my man rocking the zelda scarf

That's why I am so fascinated by archives.
They are absurd structures in many ways. They are bound to grow indefinitely to conserve every single trace of our pasts. Most of those documents will never see the light of the day again (because it would be armful for them.).
And most of those are MUSTY by definition.
It's the closest we have to a Library of Babel in real life.

Am I crying over the efforts of people trying to save very old books? Yes, most certainly. Being a classicist, saving very old text is quite touching. Literally any old text.

I'm so glad you talked about Google scanning all of those books, more people need to know about this. Yes, what Google did was illegal, and they also scanned recent books without the author or publishers permission, but I don't think what Google were doing was completely corrupt.

Scanning all the books in every library in the world, and putting all that knowledge onto the internet where everyone can access it, allowing the knowledge to live on forever... even if all we got were old and out of print releases, I'd have loved to see this be a reality, allowing old works to live on with easy access to what those pages hold.
Perhaps some things are worth breaking the law for.

My Boy!!!!!!!

The best narrator in the game!!!!!!

The KING of video essays

I knew I knew that voice. Simone over here in the infinite library searching endlessly for the auto-generated future works of Hemingway

I am a library employee and I approve this message. ^-^ The only reason I didn't get laid off was because I learned how to repair and preserve old books at my job. This allowed me to take them home to work on when the shelter in place orders started. If I had lost my job, I wouldn't be able to afford my medications. In other words, a library saved my life.