"Representation of Books and Libraries" by Katherine Pannevaria

Katherine Pennavaria’s article about the future and books was intensely interesting. One of the most interesting points she brought up was that the dystopia novels have all placed information and books prominently in the problems or sins of the future society. In reality, she says those are mostly the latent fears of librarians written into the future. But I am not so sure she is correct. True, there is a strong sense of fear and foreboding in the dystopia novels, and that is probably a commentary on the author’s own life and context. But it is not just librarians who fear the loss of information and books in particular. I think it is perfectly natural for humans to recognize and fear our own fallibility in remembering what we want to. I don’t think that it is a coincidence that Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are generally thought of as the hardest ways to die and the most mentally taxing on one’s family. It is painful, sometimes literally, to see information die in someone’s brain, and I think this is the exact same sentiment that was coming through in the novels of the future. Libraries and books are a simple physical manifestation of the original information storage system, our brain, and the fear of losing either are inevitably connected, because information and memory and reflection make us human. It is not only the librarian who fears the loss of knowledge and what the future has to bring, it is every one of us who fears death and disease, and above all the loss of our memory. It is completely human to fear that what matters now will not be cared for in the future or will be destroyed. That is arguably the reason why the first person started writing: they feared that the information written there would not be preserved in any other way.