Brain Spew

me, who also has depression:

I think that’s why I like invertebrates so much. It is easy to empathize with another large mammal. We use the term “charismatic megafauna” to describe animals that have broad appeal to the general public because they have traits that easily align with our cultural values and instinctive proclivities. We can easily convince ourselves, often with disastrous results, that these animals think and feel as we do, and that’s why they’re important.

It is much harder to anthropomorphize a spider. We can praise the patience and delicate artistry of a golden orb-weaver, and see the fragile beauty in a ghost-green Luna moth. We can sing the virtues of the industrious honey bee—self-sacrificing, hard-working, bold and dedicated to her hive.

But we know that a beetle is not as we are. We do not look for secret dreams in the black poppyseed eyes of a scorpion. We realize that whatever we might find locked away in the mind of a centipede will not be a reflection of our own humanity. Centipede thoughts are not human thoughts.

I work at a public library and book culture there is nauseating. Not really among the other employees (though we’ve had a few come through over the years), but the patrons?

Oh god the patrons. Most of the people who check out books are just regular people who like reading. I even have patrons who L O V E to read, and who spend a majority of their free time reading or discussing books, they’re part of multiple book clubs, they always bring a big bag and leave with it full. They aren’t the Book Culture People.

Book Culture People loudly announce that they’re so surprised that there are children who know what books are!

They act affronted when I mention our ebook service, and scoff at the idea that anyone could enjoy reading from a screen instead of off the page!

They are personally offended that publishers hire actors to read the books for audio versions, because they feel that “audio books cheapen the experience of reading” and “audio books are cheating”!

They have to proclaim their fetish for ‘real’ books, whether through tacky tote bags, weird quote filled pinterest boards and social media posts, or awkwardly shoehorning unimpressive humblebrags about all the classics that they’re reading into unrelated conversations with tired library assistants.

Hating accessible books and shunning technology is basically the antithesis of modern librarianship.

I don’t get the ebook hate, ebooks are literally just books. You cite ebooks the same way, and depending on the format, you don’t even say they’re ebooks.

It’s a performative, self important approach to something that I genuinely enjoy, and I think it bothers me more than, say, fandom antics, just because it’s so much more common. People get offended when I tell them I don’t read a lot in my down time, that I genuinely prefer audio books, that I’ll skip their recommendations because I don’t share their tastes.

My dude

The thing that they are looking at

“audio books are cheating”!