I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 4, 2023] “Librarians in the Branch Library of Babel”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my sixth time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Shaenon K. Garrity.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 4. Shaenon K. Garrity, author of Narbonic, doesn’t recommend Ishmael’s chowder recipe.

This story was bonkers and wonderful.  I mean, it opens by apologizing to Jorge Luis Borges, so you know it’s a little skewed.

The Library of Babel is of infinite size, containing all possible books (including ones full on gibberish and nonsense).

The narrator and Carol worked in the Branch Library of babel located in Dublin, Ohio.  The branch library is also infinite (all of them are).  It’s just smaller.  She cites as an example

it’s possible for an infinite library in which every other book is, say Stephen King’s Cujo to still contain all possible books…  It’s just that you stand a 50% chance of getting Cujo.

The Cujo branch is in El Paso. Her branch contains all the books but 72% of them are Moby Dick.  If you try not to wrap your head around this, it’s a very engaging and weird story.

The narrator talks about all of the interesting editions of Moby Dick that they have, including translations, ones with intentional misspellings to frustrate codebreakers and even one that is made entirely of hash marks that no one can understand.

But the Dublin City Council voted to cut off funding for the Branch Library of Babel.  The narrator found out when she was in the infinite stacks (a journey that can take from one to six weeks).  While there she met many squatters–some of whom were quite violent.

What could they do to prevent the closing of the library?  Should they get an angel investor and essentially sell the building?  Try to get it on the historical registry?

The fact that the story is told as a kind of speech at a town meeting hall just adds one more level of difficulty to this enjoyable but challenging story.