(no subject)

[skygiants]

So I am done! DONE WITH EVERYTHING, or at least everything that isn't optional extras like conference applications and so forth which I am not worrying about at this time. The point is: ONE YEAR DOWN, one to go.

In celebration of having turned in my archiving-apocalypse paper I guess it is only fitting that I take today to talk about the magical gift that fell into my lap courtesy of genarti: Tomes and Talismans, otherwise known as AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA OKAY.

So Tomes and Talismans is an educational TV series from 1986. It is meant to teach children about the value of LIBRARIES!

But because the nice people at the Mississippi Broadcasting Corporation don't want the kids to be bored, the story has a plot, and the plot is: ALIENS CAME TO EARTH AND SCARED AWAY ALL THE PEOPLE AND RAN AROUND DESTROYING EVERYTHING.





The aliens, called Wipers, are distinguishable from humans by the fact that they . . . are bad hillbilly stereotypes? I don't know, guys, the nice people at MBC had a budget of three dollars.

Anyway, Our Heroine is Ms. Bookhart, the head of the Last Human Library. Everybody is getting ready to evacuate, but . . . OH NO! A BOOK IS MISSHELVED!

Ms. Bookhart cannot be having with that, so after giving her staff a reminder of the Dewey Decimal System, she sends them off to evacuate and goes to hunt for the book in the barren post-apocalyptic landscape.



Or, you know, the mailbox, whatever. Anyway the point is that she MISSES THE EVACUATION and is abandoned on Earth, and couldn't even find the book! OH NOES.

Fortunately for Ms. Bookhart, at this point mystic forces decide to take a hand.



"I am a universal being, riding on a zephyr, weaving time and space," this gentleman helpfully explains. "From this moment you shall begin, passing the years ten times ten." (Universal beings apparently enjoy showing off their ability to do basic math.) Then he sprinkles some glitter on Ms. Bookhart and she falls asleep in the Bookmobile for a a hundred years.

Eventually she is found by another variety of alien known as . . . Users! Those of you who are library-and-information-science-trained will recognize this BA-DUM-CHING.



These are the four User kids. You can tell they are aliens because of their orange jumpsuits. I can't tell you much about their personalities except for this one, who is a hilarious tool.



WORDS PRINTED ON PAPER? WHAT IS THIS PREPOSTEROUS MADNESS.

It's okay though because with the guidance of Ms. Bookhart he and his buddies are going to go through an ARC of learning to APPRECIATE BOOKS!



Ms. Bookhart is slightly taken aback by the fact that she is the last human left on Earth and all of her friends have been dead for decades, but it's okay, she's pretty happy as long as she has someone to explain about card catalogs to.



Also she gets to have a romance with the kids' dad after rescuing him from peril with the power of cross-cataloging, so I guess all's well that ends well.



Our plucky heroes do spend most of the thirteen-episode series trapped in the library by Wipers, but the Universal Being keeps popping up to give them hints, and eventually -- spoilers! -- they are able to defeat the evil aliens with ARCHIVAL PRINCIPLES and summon humanity back to Earth, so that's all right.

My favorite part is when the Universal Being shows up at the end to give them the sacred bibliography.



For any of you library-minded individuals who may be interested in investigating this gem of a series, or feel that you need a refresher on the proper use of microfiche in preventing the apocalypse, it is all up on YouTube for your viewing pleasure.

Comments

[kd7sov]

...What.

Every once in a while, I get the feeling that some people are silly.

I am somewhat curious about this Power of Cross-Cataloging thing. (Probably the mundane variety of which it is writ large was taught me at some point, but it's been years since I saw a card catalog with cards, let alone tried to use one.)

[skygiants]

The Power of Cross-Cataloging is basically a lot of "your father is surrounded by enemy Wipers? Let's look up 'Enemy Wipers' in the card catalog! NOW let's cross-reference to 'things that scare Wipers . . .'"

It's all SURPRISINGLY EFFECTIVE.

[pedanther]

I may be overthinking this, but if the only librarian on Earth has been asleep ever since the Wipers took over, who researched and catalogued "things that scare Wipers"?

[skygiants]

I think it's implied that there were at least a few decades of Wiper battles going on before the decisive victory? Enough time to write, compile and index both fiction and nonfiction books related to Wipers! As the episode on 'fiction and nonfiction cataloging' would like to make very clear.

[bookblather]

I cannot even say how happy this whole thing makes me. OH WOW. I JUST.

brb watching the whole thing

[skygiants]

YOU'RE WELCOME

[ceitfianna]

Boggles, I wouldn't have believed this was real either. You have a gift for finding stuff, Becca.

[skygiants]

All the credit for this one goes to genarti! I just have a gift for knowing people who are good at finding things . . .

[agonistes]

........AT SOME POINT YOU NEGLECTED TO MENTION THAT THIS WAS A MPB EFFORT, BECCA.

FIVE BUCKS SAYS I KNOW SOMEONE WHO KNOWS SOMEONE WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS.

[skygiants]

. . . . I WISH I HAD KNOWN THAT LAST WEEK

BECAUSE THEN I COULD HAVE INTERVIEWED THEM

AND FOUND OUT WHAT THE HELL THEY WERE THINKING


scratch that I still want to know what the hell they were thinking

[wakuchan]

...I REMEMBER this show. I think our librarian showed it to us in grade school, wow.

(hi, I don't remember how I found your journal, but I had to comment on this, because wow)

[skygiants]

And was your tiny self enthralled? Inquiring minds want to know!

(And hello!)

[batyatoon]

AHAHAHAHAHAHA WHAT

SERIOUSLY

WHAT

[skygiants]

I HAVE NO EXPLANATIONS

I ONLY REPORT THE FACTS

[cursor_mundi]

OMG, I REMEMBER THIS SHOW. It was profoundly boring, and I recall sitting in my middle school library on the rugs, looking longingly over at the books (imagine the books standing gloriously in a pool of light, and wee!Mundi confined to the shadows of the video area) and wishing I could be reading rather that watching the madness.

I do remember that it taught me that "tome" was a synonym for "book," though, that was helpful for the PSATs.

[genarti]

That is basically EXACTLY MY EXPERIENCE! So when Becca said she was doing a paper on post-apocalyptic archiving, I went WAIT WAIT WAIT MY CHILDHOOD.

[skygiants]

I still don't know whether to feel smug or horrified that it ended up being the perfect tool to prove that Derrida was right all along. ;_____;

[skygiants]

I have to confess that I did not actually manage to make it through all the episodes. >.> I watched enough to pick up some salient points! I still don't know what the heck the actual talismans were, unless that was the sacred bibliography . . .

[cursor_mundi]

Heh, as I managed to block the entire experience from my memory until you jogged it loose (THANKS FOR THAT), I'm afraid I couldn't help you there.

But personally, I'm going to file this one under "Childhood" and cross reference with "things I am so glad other people endured, for it reduces my trauma."

[jinian]

defeat the evil aliens with ARCHIVAL PRINCIPLES

<3 <3 <3 !

Also YOU ARE AWESOME, GO GO GRAD SCHOOL ROCKING.

[skygiants]

THEY CAN NEVER WITHSTAND A PROPERLY RESEARCHED REPORT WITH SOURCES!

I, on the other hand, am super excited to withstand any more reports with sources for the next three months. \o/ THANK YOU! :D

[surexit]

YOU ARE DONE. WELL DONE YOU.

[skygiants]

THANK YOU! \o/ \o/ One of these days it will actually sink in . . .

[emilly]

Hi! i was just trawling friends of friends - saw your review of Legend, with which i totes agree - then saw this, and now i would like to subscribe to your newsletter, because, mostly,
OMG WHAT.

[skygiants]

Hee! Hello, and welcome! I . . . would like to promise that my newsletter is not OMG WHAT all the time, but . . . well, at least there is some balancing factor, I promise!