So, being underemployed as I am, I’ve taken up a number of resolution-y hobbies this month. They involve things like researching mortgages for first-time homebuyers and figuring out the difference between whey and soy protein for delicious post-workout smoothies. But I won’t lie, I’ve been watching my fair share of tv-on-dvd in between discussion board postings for my many classes. Most recently I’ve ripped through both seasons of the Tudors, and approximately 2.5 episodes of the atrociously campy BBC teen romcom Merlin. And yeah, I had to give up after those 2.5 episodes.
So why am I bringing this up? What do they have in common? Well, nothing, really. One occasionally stretches historical dates to accommodate storytelling conceits; the other commits indignities to Arthurian legend that I would blush to recount. One has gorgeous atmosphere, lavish costumes and period-perfect set pieces (i.e. the taxidermied male wood duck sitting on top of a pie served to the French ambassador); the other has costumes made out of my old bedsheets and a cinderblock castle. One has beheadings, sex scenes and Peter O’Toole as Pope Paul III, and the other has a CGI dragon that can only fly up and down in the same way because the show could only afford to pay the graphic contractors once.
All well and good, but what they really have in common is - oh yes - librarians!
Observe:
Here’s our young wizard Merlin making a magical photocopy (with magic!) of a coat of arms so that he can fraudulently get his new best friend Lancelot into some sort of fancy knight tournament. I will admit, I didn’t watch this entire episode, just the first five minutes so I could see if the Lancelot character was going to be as badly butchered as the rest of them. Short answer: yes. So basically, what we have here is the medieval equivalent of identity theft. Observe the suspicious, berobed librarian sneaking up in the background. He doesn’t shush Merlin, but he certainly does seem like he’d prefer that Camelot Library operate under a closed-stack policy. There are some bad stereotypes being propagated here, but obviously the librarian has good reason to be suspicious! Merlin is performing some serious copyright infringement! If only they’d conducted an Access Copyright workshop, or better yet, implemented some youth services programs to save this enterprising young man from a life of white-collar fraud.
Next up: John Leland, King Henry VIII’s antiquary-cum-librarian.
Here, we see His Majesty’s Librarian smugly informing a Catholic monk, circa 1536-1541, that he’s arrived to “peruse and dilligently search” through the monastery’s manuscripts and texts and remove certain items to the Royal Library. There are a few implications here: one, John is going to take what he likes; two, he’s not going to like anything that doesn’t fall in with Reformation politics; and three, probably the rest will be burned. Or maybe not. But he certainly looks like the kind of librarian that classifies books two ways: “good” and “burn.” Look at that hat! Look at that fancy gold chain! Look at that well-groomed facial hair! Let’s just call him John “Censorship” Leland, and revoke his CLA membership.
Post a Comment