Of course, there are other ways, other methods, of delimiting
people's attention besides merely commercial ones. Like aesthetic
and cultural means of limiting attention. Librarians used to be
very big on this kind of public-spirited filtering. Conceivably,
librarians could get this way again with another turn of the
cultural wheel. Librarians could become very correct. Holdings must
be thinned, and even in electronic media the good old *delete* key
is never far from hand.
Try reading what librarians used to say a hundred years ago Your
ancestral librarians were really upset about popular novels. They
carried on about novels in a way which would sound very familiar to
Dan Quayle. Here's a gentleman named Dr. Isaac Ray in the 1870s. I
quote him: "The specific doctrine I would inculcate is, that the
excessive indulgence in novel- reading, which is a characteristic
of our times, is chargeable with many of the mental irregularities
that prevail upon us to a degree unknown at any former period."
Here's the superintendent of the State of Michigan in 1869. "The
state swarms with peddlers of the sensational novels of all ages,
tales of piracy, murders, and love intrigues -- the yellow-covered
literature of the world." Librarian James Angell in 1904: "I think
it must be confessed that a great deal of the fiction which is
deluging the market is the veriest trash, or worse than trash. Much
of it is positively bad in its influence. It awakens morbid
passions. It deals in the most exaggerated representations of life.
It is vicious in style."
These worthies are talking about authors who corrupt the values of
youth, authors who write about crime and lowlife, authors who drive
people nuts, authors who themselves are degraded and untrustworthy
and quite possibly insane. I think I know who they're talking
about. Basically they're talking about *me.*
Here's the President of the United States speaking at a library in
1890.
"The boy who greedily devours the vicious tales of imaginary daring
and blood-curdling adventure which in these days are far too
accessible will have his brain filled with notions of life and
standards of manliness which, if they do not make him a menace to
peace and good order, will certainly not make him a useful member
of society." Grover Cleveland hit the nail on the head. I feel very
strongly, I feel instinctively, I feel passionately that *I* am one
of those nails. Not only did I start out in libraries as that
greedy devouring boy, but thanks to mindwarping science fictional
yellow-covered literature, I have become a menace to Grover
Cleveland's idea of peace and good order.
