Category: essay

Warhammer exploratory essay: Who gets to be human

~ SamRandom ~ Leave a comment

Introduction

I have alluded to the idea of personhood in earlier chapters, but in this text I will discuss it in more clear terms. All the playable factions are humanoid in one way or another. The non-human factions are either adjacent to humans like Elves or dwarves, or they are more inhuman like Lizardmen, Skaven and Goblins. All of them have humanoid characteristics and keep some sort of human culture.

What became clear when I started researching this topic is just how human centric the Old World is. Humans as humans, exist in Europe, Africa and Asia, with clear, if often tokenized versions of their real life counterparts cultures. There are humans in fantasy Arabia, even the undead of the setting version of Egypt are still decidedly human, despite their undead appearance. It is this prevalence of humans and human adjacent races like Elves that makes the less than human races stand out so much more.

The humanized

The humanised creatures are those that are clearly based on a real human culture, and also has humanizing features. Here you can find the Dwarves, and the Elves, both are staple of the fantasy genre when the setting was made, as they still are today. THe dwarves are proud and the Elves are arrogant, both see themselves as better than the short lived humans. Wood Elves are likewise seen as more wild but yet arrogant and in many ways superior to humans in most ways.

The lizardmen live in the south of the Old Worlds version of Africa, as well as the southern version of South america. The aesthetic of the Lizard men are hard to miss, living in large stone cities with grand temples to golden serpent gods, gods that require living sacrifices in large numbers. While still a sympathetic depiction, there are still some connotations to certain conspiracy theories that makes them a bit uncomfortable to consider. As part of being reptilian are to varying degrees been described as unemotional and mechanical, going from almost pure automata at their inception, to the strange and otherworldly, but yet fully sentient creatures in the later editions.

The second example of the use of human cultures for nonhuman creatures is less easy to explain away. The Ogres, the hungry, dumb and brutal race of giant humans, are both located where real life Mongolia is, as well as sharing some physical features and stereotypes of Mongolian men.

With thick eyebrows and rather characteristic mustaches, their connection to gluttony, violence and stupidity is a rather unfortunate one to say the least. But with this said, are they still considered moral in one way or another, and are often seen as neutral, if not good. Vampires and undead, are likewise seen as monsters but are still human when it comes down to it. This is in rather starch contrast to some of the other humanoid factions in the setting.

The inhuman

There are two factions that I wish to discuss when it comes to dehumanised, or monstrous versions of humans in the Warhammer fantasy universe, first of them are the Orks and Goblins, playing much the same role that they do in dungeons and dragons and similar fictions of the time. They are violent and aggressive, and live only for combat. They are the stereotype of a villain. They soely exist to fight, destroy and eat, but unlike their ogre counterparts do they have very few humanizing features, or seen as capable of any good. THis pigheaded and absurd evil is often played as a sort of comic relief, playing off the improbability of their civilizations to begin with.

Orks are strong, resilitand and sprout out of the ground, being grown from fungi.They have absolute faith in all that they do and can never be persuaded to leave their path of destruction for one simple reason, they are finding it all too fun. Goblins are ted tibet as the menial cast of the faction, working, carrying, farming and building, though the quality of these efforts are often described as subpar at best. They also trade and barter, giving the faciton their only hire non violent connection with the other factions.

The second faction to discuss is the Skaven, a fascinating society of half ratmen, that lives under the cities of all the world’s major factions and civilizations. The Skaven are depicted as man’s worst qualities, selfish, greedy and ambitious, each Skaven lives only for themselves, and will not hesitate for a second to sacrifice another of their kind if it meant gaining an upper hand in their competitive and cut throat society.

While some are vaguely human in their organisation and culture, are they not as closely tied to a certain culture or nationality. Both the Orks and the Skaven are clearly meant to be parodies or exaggerated versions of some of humans’ worst sides, and vices. Even more so then the followers are chaos are these races often used as dark or warped mirrors of humanity. Orcs are aggressive and ambitious in the extreme, while Skaven are greedy and cowardly in the extreme.

Conclusions

The question of who gets to be human and who doesn’t is not a question that is unique to warhammer, but is one that tends to turn up in many high fantasy settings. For example does the Elder scrolls make a clear distinction between, elves, humans and “the bestial races” of orcs, argonians and khajiit. The concept of having other or near human races is not a problem in and of itself.

It is a great way to add some variety and texture to the world. Likewise is it not a problem in itself to base these races on specific human cultures, Elder Scrolls argonians for example shares their mesoamerican inspiration with the Lizardmen of Warhammer fantasy. Problems can arise when certain races are tied to both a specific culture and a specific negative trope tied to that culture. For example the brainded hunger of the Ogres, or the cold and alien Lizardmen.

Furthermore can a non human race become rather flat and simplistic if it is only allowed to have one cultural expression. This is especially apparent, if like in the elder scrolls series, there are several human cultures but only one Argonian culture. The Warhammer examples are very good at making a varied and complex set of cultures, even amongst the more comedic races. There is a large difference between the plague worshipers of Clan Pestilence and the quirky engineers of Clan Skryre. Despite this do the races as whole have a uniforming feel and cohesion that makes them easily recognized.

The tokenization and alienation of real cultures is not a problem unique to Warhammer, but can be seen across many series and settings. The Kajiit of the Elder scrolls used to talk, and to some degree do in a stereotypical Romani coded voice, and are also depicted as being semi nomadic, and known for thievery. To take another example, the goblins in Harry Potter are only seen working in banks- They are long nosed, greedy and untrustworthy, a sadly still all too common anti semitic trope in fantasy.

It is only through nothing but biases and assumptions in writing that we can become better writers. If we wish to aim to write a more true and inclusive fantasy world, must we first explore what inspiration we draw from real life and why. That is why it is vital to listen to voices different from your own. I am not innocent of this as well, there are many times I have had to step back from my writing and re-evaluate, when I am getting too close to tokenizing or orientalising a culture or race in my writing. Tokens and stereotypes are powerful because they are easy to recognize to a reader, and a useful shorthand as a writer. This makes it even more important that we use them with respect and caution.

Worldbuilding and context: the existential questions of Pixar films

~ SamRandom ~ Leave a comment

Introduction

When creating a narrative, it is up to the author to make the world around the text itself. When it comes to real world stories is this a relatively straightforward task. The references exist to draw upon, and more importantly, there are already rules that the reader will understand. The more removed from this common ground, the more the text needs to explain how it works.

There is an interesting problem in writing, and movie making, where you have a set a specific time to explain how a narrative works, and how the fictional setting works. The more time spent on making a setting work, the less time you can spend on the narrative itself, but without explaining the narrative the story might not work as well. 

The less you explain the more holes are allowed to be filled in the text. There is less of a narrative background, and it is more difficult to explain and understand the text when thought about outside of the premise. The more the text is set in a world that is dissimilar to our own, the more things need to be explained, and the more space must be given for the audience to get used to how the world and narrative works.

Pixar movies

Pixar, the branch of Disney has made a large number of amazing 3D animations and narratives over the years, and are very much pioneers in the field. Their stories are heartfelt, complex and often focus on family, friendship and loyalty. Very much following the stories of older Disney filmed. The pixar films are often very good at putting effective visuals to the narrative they are presenting. often is the fact that most, if not all their main characters in the early movies are not human. This allows them to discuss hard questions via proxy- By using humanised robots, toys or cars can you tell stories of death, growing up and loss without having explicitly tying them to humans. THere also let’s be honest, it’s a lot easier to monetize.

 With that said, does many of their earlier films have things and settings that are very abstract, and can be downright strange if they are set under too much consideration. This is not a fault of these films, and not a criticism of the art, but rather an interesting analysis of how different stories are told,and what consequences the choices as well as restrictions are set on to a film.

A bug’s life: gender and sex in the insect world

A bug’s life is an interesting little film, and a grand example of early 3d. It is a classic pop cultural exploration of the time. One fascinating thing that seems to plague every animated film about swarming insects, is the concept of gender. In both bugs life, ants and in the bee movie are the main character, the downtrodden worker, a man, while all colones in reality are made out of almost exclusively women.

Cars: classism and racism

Cars is one of the most abstract films that the studio has made, while being the most straightforward on the surface. On a narrative level it is a simple tale of a popup superstar learning the joy of the little things, and the slow life. It is also a love letter to a certain american small town that may or may not have ever existed. It is nostalgic and feels like a good lesson in a simple but enjoyable tale.

The largest consist and the gimmick of the tale is the fact that every character is some sort of car or other kind of vehicle. There seems to be no humans in the setting, and they are never mentioned. With that said, do we later learn that cars are constructed, and it seems that most are made for a specific role in mind. Lighting Mcqueen is a race car so he races, his semi truck driver is made to transport cars, so he transports Lighting Mqueen.

There are some cars shown to not have a clear role to serve, and one school bus is working as a wrestler, or the car related version of wrestling. The general public seems to be made out of personal cars with no job related to them. In the later movies it is introduced that there are new models of cars being made and built explicitly. Before it was implicit since there are older and newer models of cars, especially in the racing circuit where old models are being retired for the newer faster cars to take their place.

Toy story: Rules with no consequences, eternal servitude

There is a rule in the toy story universe where the toys must never be seen to be alive by humans. This is clearly a reference to the raggedy ann movies where the toys die if the humans see a toy moving, that toy dies. This is initially set up as somewhat of a rule in the first movie, until the climactic finale where the toy tortures a struggling depressed from a poor family for the crime of taking out his aggression on inanimate objects. There can be argued that the scare helped ZId, as his behavior could be seen as early 

Later it is proven that the toys are not aware originally that they are toys and indeed believe that they are the person they are emptying. Making the rules about not being seen even more strange. In the third movie the implications of being a toe is being seen as a toy, ergo the craft comes to life. A concept that deepens the rabbit hole even further.

The rules are expanded and changed between the movies and does not entirely keep to the same internal logic. Something that is understandable since the goal is not to make a deep deconstruction on how toys work in the universe, but rather themes of growing up and family and aging.

Conclusions

Note that none of these critiques are meant to be critical of the texts, but rather how texts can be formed and presented when the goal is not to make a cohesive world but rather to present morals and a sense of a narrative. The early pixar movies are not meant to be deconstructed in this way. They are meant to present tales and lessons to kids, and in this way they are highly effective.

I write this text as a fun way to discuss and think about narratives, and the implications of what sections in storytelling can lead to. A way of peeling back the curtains and looking behind the walls of narrative writing. There are always limits for what you can tell in a story, there are boundaries for when a story starts and where it ends. You must choose what to tell and what to be left implied. The more fantastical a tale, the more things need to either be explained or left unsaid. For every sentence you lay on explaining a world or a narrative, is a sentence you can not use to drive the narrative forward.

This is why some fantasies can often either feel like they are giving you a lecture, or leaving you in the dark on how the world works. It is a delicate balance to tread, one that I myself struggle with a lot. 

The wonder with analysing texts is that it will inevitably tell you something about yourself in the process. Just like telling a story, is there a limit for how much you can say in one analysis before it gets too long, too complex and granular. In this text I have focused on the holes in the canvas of a tale, the places where the set stops. I have done this because it inevitably opens a lot of room for imagination and contemplation. 

I can not tell why these decisions were made, only that they were, and that me and many others have noticed them in one way or another.  everything we write and not write into a text will have a reaction from the  reader. the reader will understand it in one way or another. That is the joy of storytelling, you never have the entire picture, a story is always created in collaboration with the reader.

Altdorf misadventures: the comedic joy of warhammer fantasy writing

~ SamRandom ~ Leave a comment

Introduction

The reason that I started writing and researching warhammer again has been the joy reading materials for the roleplaying game Warhammer Fantasy, specifically the supplement Altdorf: Crown of the Empire, the supplement that allows you to play adventures in the capital of the Empire. There are large collections of descriptions of quest hooks, characters and storylines, as well as a large amount of descriptions of the streets, districts and institutions that are present in the town. I wish to discuss the setting, the characters as well as the tone and writing style of the supplement as well as the rest of the series.

Comedy and grounding

One thing that I have discussed earlier and that are very much part of this supplement is the tone of the writing. There is a reference to everything that is written in the supplement. The Altdorfer’s like to see themselves as master engineers, artists and aristocrats. but are in fact quite the opposite. The buildings of Altdorf are described both in drawings and in descriptions to be quickly built, hastily prepared and rickety. except for the buildings either built by Elves or by Dwarves.

The grand cultures enjoyed by all are theatre, in a deeply Shakesperian tone, that most pretends to enjoy for the visuals of it. On the streets are things like pig chasing and pie eating contests enjoyed by nobles, learned and peasants alike. The city itself is described as smelly and almost unbelievably so, with a reeking river going through the centre of the town. There are many strange districts of the city, from the warped magic district to the deep and dark slums. 

There are many organizations, from the high and mighty royal houses that pretends to care about the poor while taxing them deeply. There are also the revolutionary factions of P.L.A.N.T that despite their egalitarian and positive goals are sadly engaged in infighting and any official critical power. Despite this is it clear that the narrative is always with the poor, revolutionary and the downtrodden.

By now will the setting remind you of another setting, namely Ankh Morpork of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. This is indeed an apt comparison, and I found a lot of comparisons to the british writer as well, to the point where the supplement has their own version of Captain Sam Vimes in the setting, a gruff captain of the guard, forced in to leading a progressive new guard while he would rather drink and patrol all night.

The Pratchian comedy can be found in many places, as well as the target of the comedy, as in there are always the cruel, powerful and hypocritical that are the target of this derivement. All of this leads to a very enjoyable read, and is a breath of fresh air compared to a lot of the other things that the company has released, especially in the Warhammer 40k setting, see my earlier series.

Queerness and minorities (woke, actually)

Fantasy has sadly never been the most inclusive of genres, and I am afraid that warhammer fantasy in general has not been an exception to this. Warhammer fantasy has often fallen into a trope of writing that plagues many Games Workshop franchises. This would be the concept of the girls club. Where the women of a faction are truly and definitely a part of the faction’s army, it just happens that all of them are in their own little corner of the faction, put in a unit, army or group made out of all women. Not to mention other minorities or anyone that falls outside of the genre of straight, cis, and white. 

Warhammer RPG is a breath of fresh air in this regard. There are women, there are queer individuals, and most interestingly is there an open transman in the form of the ship’s architect Herr Arnold Spald. It is made clear in the text that his crew is fully on his side, and that anyone that has a problem is “politely made to remove themselves”. There are also openly gay and lesbian characters as well as individuals from outside of the empire described at the same level as the ones from inside the empire.

Justice and revolution

There is a clear political message in the Warhammer Fantasy setting regarding the Empire. The Empire itself is shown to be inefficient, somewhat corrupt and ruled by the inept elite and the zealous and cruel. There is one grand exception to this, the downtrodden and the poor, as well as those that fight for equal rights, while having jokes written about them are always seen in the right, and always having the sympathy and empathy of the narrative. It is always clear that the corrupt and lazy lords are always in the wrong.

 The rich are seen as dumb, cruel and simpleminded, partly by the Altdorf students organizations of the Karl Franzers. A bullying fraternity that makes fun and territories the so called Inkies, or students that have joined higher learning for learning itself. There’s a clear divide between those that are studying by birth and those that are studying by skill. Fans of Pratchett’s work will recognize the same dynamic in the Assassin’s Guild.

This class struggle is one that can be seen on many modern campuses, even more so when the money your parents had directly decided if you had the right to learn to read or not. The rich and powerful are often depicted as just as uneducated, and often dumber than the general public.

These are themes that very much echoes their inspiration of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld. And there are in fact many comparissons that can be found both in defense of queerness, and in the defense of those that are oppressed and abused on the socioeconomic ladder. Like terry pratchett are these not a black and white picture, and there are indeed those in a privileged position that tries and do go good.

Gods, magic and silliness

Magic is described in the Warhammer Fantasy world to be something truly amazingly dangerous, and mind bendingly evil. It has the power to turn you into a multiplied several mouthed monstrosity or break your mind beyond repair. What makes the text interesting is that it still keeps the comedic side to the much darker descriptions of magic that can be found elsewhere. 

It is true that magic is still very dangerous, and magic users are shunned and many factions would like to see them killed. With that said is the area where the arcane college is described with an air of dark comedy, the area is described as often being transformed in strange and mysterious ways. Entire streets have been transformed in wonderful and majestic ways, except for the streets of the pyromancy department, they were simply burnt down. 

The wizards themselves are described as strange and eccentric, and their personalities are to some degree exaggerated by the various forms of magic, so fire mages are easier to anger, and nature mages find towns and cities claustrophobic.

Peppered around the description of the pantheon of Sigmar are the mentions of the old gods, and their workshop. These are often given a lot more empathy than the very catholic coded Sigmarites. The aesthetics might be a bit condescending and tonification of the Celtic faith, but they are mostly treated with respect. At some parts they are seen as primitive and strange for wanting to bathe in sacred springs, but this is more seen as eccentricities than anything malicious.

Sigmarites, the followers of Sigmar are often seen as zealous, aggressive and brutal in their treatment of others. Witch hunters are a thing that exists within the universe and they do exactly what their name entails, as well as hunting vampires and demons. The Sigmarites are made up of several factions, one more jealous than the other, all looking at themselves as the true faith. I imagine I don’t need to point out the obvious allegories ast play here.

What makes the Sigmarites and Witch Hunters interesting in Warhammer Fantasy is that they are mostly right. That is to say, untrained and unsupervised magic users are objectively dangerous. If you cast a fireball spell wrong you might summon a horde of demons to your doorstep, or turn yourself inside out, or unleash a plague of blood boils on your neighborhood. This is a narrative point that Games Workshop loves using. The protagonist’s human factors often do incredibly heinous and repressible things, but they are often justified by the universe being so much worse.

Final thoughts

In this essay have I gone through the one text that made me inspired to go back to the Warhammer series again. The pure joy I had reading through this text made me inspired to once again get back into text analysis and discussion. The text itself is in my opinion well worth picking up even if you are not interested in Warhammer, but are a fan of fantasy, and especially if you are a fan of Terry Pratchett’s work.

The text is a grand example of the fact that Warhammer is not always grim and dark and can often be rather humorous. It is a setting that keeps its inspiration on its sleeves, and for its good I would say. There is darkness and horror, yes, but there is also space for levity and humor, as well as the sensation that the person that the thing happens to kind of had it coming in one way or another. It is an interesting dichotomy to the often serious and depressingly dark fiction that one finds in Games Workshop’s writing.

Warhammer exploratory essay: Humans in warhammer

~ SamRandom ~ Leave a comment

Introduction

This chapter will go trough and present some of the basics of the human factions in both Row and Aos. Being human ourselves it is easy to see how this faction, above even the other more humanoid fractions, had been the one that authors have found the easiest to relate to and write about. Fantasy, or at least in the way that is understood is highly focused on western experiences and western cultures. This is particularly true when it comes to what kind of people and factions that the audience is meant to relate to. 

WHen other cultures are used in western fantasy they are often used to describe the other or the strange na virgin. Orientalism is very much alive and well in western fantasy. In this essay will I discuss how the ways that warhammer talks about humanity has changed, and what has stayed the same. I will begin to discuss the various kinds of humans that exist in the old world, before going over to discuss those that can be found in Age of Sigmar, as one is a continuation of the other.

This is a way for the readers not familiar with the tone and setting of Warhammer to ease into the analysis, as well as a way for me to catch up on the many changes of the first since I last played myself. Understandably have the setting changed a lot during the many years it has been in production. I will do my best to point out what version of the game, and what edition of that game I am talking about in my essays. When no edition is mentioned, assume it is a topic that is overarching for all or most of the editions.

The Empire and its neighbors

The empire is highly based on germany and the holy roman empire, having german names, and being set roughly around the central northern part of europe. The architecture and the clothing style of the empire humans that we see are also clearly taken from this era and culture for inspiration and world building. It is interesting to note that a British company decided to place their fantasy world not in England, but in Germany, or rather the Holy Roman empire.

They are a parody of the late medieval and early renaissance confidence and sense of culture that was prevalent during that part of Europe’s history. The architecture, art and culture do not at all follow the high ideals of the empire which is where much of the humor comes from. The buildings of the empire for example are ramshackle and and shoddily built. Often they can easily be confused with goblin or orc settlements from other genres. To the north east lies Kislev, a clear example of the eastern European nations like Lithuania and Ukraine of the era, with stout and serious humans with cold magic and a warlike disposition.

The Border princes is another faction that is often tied to the empire and is a small collection of duchies and kingdoms that works as a bulwark between the Civilized empire and the rest of the world, to the east and south.

The empire is a land of many gods and folk traditions, with many faiths coexisting within the nation. The official faith is that of the godking Sigmar, who unified the land and drove off the hated greenskins. Mirroring many a germanic tale. The Sigmarian faith is clearly a parody of the catholic churches’ more warlike traditions under this era. With warrior priests and proclamations of doom and destruction being yelled from grand cathedrals and small churches alike.

Knights and peasants

To the east are the knightly bretton, the other major playable faction, they are knightley and popups to the extreme. they are a parody of the perceived early knightley medieval ages and the actual medieval age of feudalism and extreme class differences. The knights and church keep all but a tenth of all the income from each of the peasants under their protection, and the peasants are illiterate, weak and fearful, and under the total control of their knightley masters. They are highly devout to their lady of the lake, and are deeply built on the Arthurian legend.

The faith in the lady of the Lake is clearly an example of perhaps a more anglo saxon version of the christian faith, but a christian faith nonetheless. To the fact that there have been several crusades from Brittony to the Fantasy Middle East of Araby, One specific crusade drove the Arraby sultanates out of Estalia, the fantasy Sapin, clearly mimicking several specific historical events.

East and south

To he south are two non playable factions of Fantasy spain and italy, and while they are mentioned in the stores and lore are they not very present in the base WF game, but has had more of a presence in the smaller games, mostly as mercenaries or as a counterpoint of actual culture and art compared to the often face and uncivilised cultures of the Empire and Brettonia. It is here that the version of leonardo da vinci comes from, it is here that the renaissance inspirations spring from. 

Araby, or fantasy middle east has sadly gotten much of the treatment you would expect from a 1980s british publication written by middle aged white men. Orientalism, turbans, curved swords and a lot of piracy and slavery. They have mostly exist as an antagonist for Brettonia, as well as to add more flavor to the area’s beautiful skeletons and mummies. 

The far east

Likewise fantasy Japan and China are mentioned and many of the Empire’s more advanced inventions do come from Cathay or fantasy China, as a clear nod to the actual history of the period. Mostly is asia used as a way to allow asian stereotypes to be added to the game, often via the use of other factions such as the Ogres and the Skaven.

There is sadly little to say when it comes to the older versions of the franchise, other than tokenism and borderline racist depictions are as common as you would fear that they are. Ninjas, samurai, jade dragons and Kimonos are all part of the general repertoire. Later the franchise gave more respect to the cultures the area is so clearly based upon. I was for example glad to find that the warhammer roleplaying game very much treated chinese culture and traditions with a fair amount of respect.

In the tabletop game is their previously mentioned inspiration on the other races and nations. Gunpowder has for example originated in Chatay, as has the skill of rocketry. The Skaven and in some more comedic retellings, the Ogres have also learned the way of stealth from the “mysterious far east”. Clan Eshin of the Skavens has particularly adopted this stealthy way of warfare, using disguised positions and throwing stars.

The north

More interesting to this narrative deconstruction is the lands of the far north as well as the south lands of what would be real life Egypt. THe norse lands, sweden, norway and finland are in the fantasyworld a frozen hellscape controlled by demons and other monstrosities, it’s a land of violent men that worship dark gods, a reputation not dissimilar to what the real world norse lands had for a very long time. The norse and their dark gods make up one of the many antagonists of the old world.

The norselands are cold and unforgiving, and tied directly to the corrupted north pole that, depending on edition, might have been corrupted by strong magical forces, or a malfunctioning teleportation device built by a long dead alien race. The norse are described as wild, cruel and uncultured. They are brutal and violent and spend most of their time raiding or feasting. The gods too are cruel and unforgiving, and it is these gods that present the setting with its biggest threat, for if they ever manage to break free from their frozen prision will destroy the entire world.

There have been some attempts to humanise the Norsemen, claiming that only the most extreme and violent of the Norsemen follow the Chaos gods or go on raids and plunderings. A description that many modern historians would most likely agree with.  Only the rich and the influential were ever allowed to travel on the real life viking boats, and only they were allowed to share in the plunder.

Undead humans

To the south in the northern part of Africa lies the land of the undead, a land of mummies and skeletons, cursed by the evil warlock NAgash to forever exist in a parody of their former self. The connections to real life Egyptian aesthetics and to some form Egyptian mythology is easy to see. Though it is interesting to note that the motivation between the mummification of real life and magical Egypt are rather the opposite, while the real life pharaohs adored life, their warhammer counterparts instead fear death.

The undead are roughly separated into two distinct facets, the Tomb kings and the Vampire counts. Tie first was primarily seen as unwilling servants, and only the most powerful of their kind were ever able to gain any real sense of sentience and agency in death. This has changed somewhat in ToW. The tomb kings have also been given more goals than simply existing and protecting their tombs as was their goal in the older editions. The Tomb Kings of ToW have empires, kingdoms and their rules have plans and wishes of their own, even human and other mortal servants to do their bidding.

The second faction of undead, the Vampire counts are as the name suggests, humans that have turned into vampires. Now these vampires has their origins within the lands of the Tomb kings in the narrative. The vampires of warhammer fantasy follow a lot of the tropes that exist within other vampire lore and fiction, but still mostly manage to create their own niece within the genre. 

The Von Cerstenis being the most clear example of iteration with their obvious inspiration in Dracula as well as other gothic literature and art. being pale, handsome and dark haired, and ruling from crumbling castles decorated with gargoyles. The undead is something that I will return to later in this series, as they are worth their own spot when comparing them to their AoS counterparts.

Conclusions

Who gets to be a human, and who gets to be a monster is an interesting conundrum in many fantasy settings, Warhammer fantasy included, as while the warhammer world is filled with humanoid creatures, and most, if not all are inspired by real life human cultures. There are only a few of them that get to be humans in the setting.

As I mentioned before are there a clear that there is a western bias to the ones that gets to get to be human, but interestingly enough is the same true for the human cultures that has had a direct relationship to medical europe, China boeing a big trade partners, and the islamic middle east being a trade partner and foe during this time. While technically humans are part of the middle east turned into undead, but still defined as humans. The other factors are distinctly humanoid and still culturally compared and related to other human cultures. Next time we will look at how the humans in Aos have changed and become involved.

Propaganda and subtle bias

~ SamRandom ~ Leave a comment

No one is immune to propaganda, and all artistic expression is inherently political. These are two statements to keep in mind, as we approach this year’s eurovision song contest, and examine what choices were made, and which were not. There is much we can learn, simply from the roster of this year’s competition, as well as what arguments have been used where.

Each message has a meaning, and a purpose, even if that purpose is to have no meaning. This is particularly true in the measured and planned messages that are art, public speaking and entertainment. Deliberate choices have led to this year’s European Song Contest looking the way it does. Many are aesthetic, or economical, or even made due to crass necessity, but all of them were  made in a direct or indirect political context.

Russia has been excluded from the ESC due to their invasion of Ukraine, and been condemned for their war crimes against the people of Ukraine. The exclusion is an act that is hard to see as anything but political. Israel, another state that has invaded its neighbor, and committed well documented war crimes against its civilian population has been allowed to participate on the basis that The Eurovision contest.  This decision  has loudly been defended on the base that the ESC has is, and has always been an apolitical contest.

But, keep in mind what I mentioned before, with this statement in mind about messages and art. Is it possible to have an apolitical musical competition, especially one that has as many politically charged entries as the ESC. I want to argue in this text that there is a distinct difference between apoliticality and politics so agreed upon it becomes invisible. Expected truths, the statue que, and ofcourse, successful propaganda are often seen as apolitical, but are in fact, simply invisible.

In Sweden the ESC is exclusively played on SVT, Sweden’s state television, as is the national competition leading up to the ESC. The competition is touted and lauded as the people’s contest, by everyone and for everyone. Is it then possible to understand the directions that are made in the name of the ESC as anything other than political? To be of the people, and indirectly, of the nation, is to be explicitly political.

I would argue that it is easy to see things that we agree with as apolitical, especially if these things happen to fall within the purview of the statue que. Media becomes political in the mind of many viewers once it expresses opinions or emotions that goes against this status quo, or for that matter when the nature of the subject as political becomes unavoidable, or impossible to ignore.

Representation of minorities, such as POCs and queer individuals is a good example of this phenomenon. Their absence is part of the status quo and as a result, not political, and their inclusion, as a result is. This would be a great example of subtle biases, of expectations and what breaks with these expectations. For a long time have the explicit or implicit exclusion of the queer community been almost a given, at least until the monetary value of these groups became apparent. The same exclusion has been, until fairly recently, set on Russia and many of the former eastern bloc countries, on the not so subtle grounds on political affiliations with the former USSR.

The Russian revolution was clearly done on explicitly political grounds. More precisely as a punishment and statement of Russia’s invasion of their neighbor Ukraine. This is an invention that has recently been subtly reframed to be an Unlawful invasion, in contrast to Israel’s Lawful retaliations against Gaza. 

This  distinction makes Israel’s war seem, part of the common narrative in the west, as a simple fight against evil insurgents.  The decision to include them seems to be  apolitical as a result, while Russia’s actions so infidelity aberrant, and their exclusion as apolitical, or at least, understandably political.

Apoliticallity is always a choice, and it is a choice that very few of us have the privilege to make. Keep in mind that if a subject seems apolitical to you, it is more than often that you are blessed to not experience the negative part of said topic. Propaganda and bias is a lot easier to miss, if you have the option to be blind to the problem to begin with.

The library of odd things: A home for obsolete media, and rare finds: part five: Who decides what a library should be

~ SamRandom ~ Leave a comment

Introduction

The question of who gets to decide what a library should and should not be is deeply ingrained to what I aim to discuss in this series. There are several forces that need to be taken into account for this discussion, specifically librarians, patrons and policy makers. Each group has their own biases, needs and wants as well as underlying information when it comes to their news on the libraries collection. This chapter will break down how each group’s interests collide as well as contradict the creation of the library of odd things.

The patrons

The users and visitors of libraries are known as patrons when speaking in library terms. Patrons are individuals that use one or all of the services that are available in public libraries. Patrons have many needs and uses related to the library. Many patrons wish to borrow some form of media or read them at the library. Some patrons also come to the library to use printers, scanners and computers that are available at the library, as well as access to free internet access.

Many patrons already know what they want well before they enter the library, when they do not they often refer to the librarian on duty, regarding tips on fiction or nonfiction media. The answers they are given  are once again limited to the librarian’s skill and interest in that specific area. Sadly, it has been my experience that the Swedish librarians do not get enough time or resources to be as good of a source for this sort of help that I and many patrons would have liked. 

When the knowledge exists it is mostly the thanks of the specific librarian putting down their own time and energy to learn these things. This lack of knowledge infrastructure is one of many problems that needs to be solved if the Library of Odd things is to work as proposed.

With this said, many patrons already know what they want, and simply wish to be pointed in the right direction of where it is located. It is naturally in most patrons’ interest that the things that they are after are as close at hand as possible, something that might lead to less used or known texts getting pushed to the background.

This need for what they know they want is balanced by the patrons’ needs and wishes for novelty and new experiences, as well as the fact that the patron may not always know best what they need or want.

The patron also expects that the text that they want is also available to them as soon as possible. And here we find the first conflict of interest, both with other patrons and with the library staff. Due to the fact that the library has both limited budgets and space, is it impossible to make everyone happy, and often texts that are more often requested or are well known get preferential treatment to the texts that do not.

While it would be easy to fill a library with nothing but the latest top sellers, does this work against the library’s goals of education, democracy and the need for everyone to be able to find what they need in the library’s collection. This is a problem I have gone deeper into in earlier chapters.

The librarians

The role of the library is at the core of what this series of essays wish to explore, likewise are the role of the librarian at the core of what I wish to discuss. What should a librarian be, guides, guardians, curators?

The guide

In the role of the guide we are meant to lead the patrons to new experiences, new texts and new forms of knowledge. This role would fit particularly well in the library of odd things, as it would mean that the patrons would be able to get the most out of the library’s eclectic collections.

This approach would need a much larger amount of time and resource to be allocated to the education and training of these librarians, as well as the possible need to hire more librarians in order to be able to amicably cover all areas of the library to a satisfactory level.

The biggest downside of this approach, or way of looking at library work is that it takes up a lot of time for the institution as well as being costly to maintain. Furthermore can this hands on approach seem off putting to a fair few patrons who just want to get their books and leave.

The guardian

The primary role of the guardian is to safeguard the library and its collection, this has been a role that has been emphasized for much of the library’s existence, especially before the notion of a public library became widely implemented.

There will, as long as we live in a capitalist system of scarcity, always need to be some form of enforcers, guards and collectors of materials and protectors against damage. As the general social climate gets more and more brutal, and more and more social expectations and work is put on less and less resources, will the libraries find themselves exponentially more under stress by various aggressive and dangerous forces.

It would be an easy solution to lock down the libraries as much as possible, to add guards and remove as much freedom as possible from the patrons. This would undoubtedly go against all that the public library as well as the library of odd things wishes to accomplish.

While it is vital that the librarians and patrons feel safe at the library, and that the collection and building is kept in good shape, it is not in my opinion the primary responsibility for librarians to make sure that this happens.

The curator

Another large and important part of the library profession is the work of the curator. Curating collections are vital when they are limited by space and budgetary constraints. Decisions must be made about what should be kept, and what needs to be thrown away, as well as what new materials will proquired.

As I have mentioned before, more or less all space being used in most Swedish public libraries, and as a result is the only way that a new text will enter circulation, is if another one takes its place. These decisions, while made with oversight of rules, regulations and guidelines are ultimately at the hands of the librarians, it is up to them to make the final dissection of keeping or discarding a text. The direction making is made partly by their own knowledge and intuition as well as with the help of policy documents created by library leadership and management.

Furthermore does the ability to fulfill this part of the job come from the same skill set and interest that makes a librarian a good guide. The librarian needs interest and knowledge to be able to properly curate and take care of a collection, they also need time and resources to carry out this work properly. This will be extra important in my proposed Library of odd things, as these collections will inevitably contain both rare and often technologically obsolete texts that require extra time and attention to look after.

While I have chosen to split up the roles of a librarian into disparate parts, and to some degree pitted them against each other, it is the truth that every librarian is all of these roles, and more, often at the same time. How much time, energy and resources that a librarian can spend on each role is very much linked to the libraries organization and guidelines, as well as the policymakers that write them.

Policymakers

The ultimate power of the future and shape of the public libraries lay in the elected officials and governing bodies that control and oversee the libraries. In Sweden are libraries ruled by counties, and as a result are given widely different structures, budgets and assigned goals. There is for example no set rule for what department should take care of the county’s libraries. These can range from education and culture, to tourism and sports and recreation. The department that the library lands under often strongly dictates what form of starting position the library has when it comes to arguing for their budget.

Just as with the problem of adding new books to a collection, is there often a problem with adding new programs or increasing budgets for programs on a county level, often is the entire budget spoken for, and it is a question of taking from one department and adding to another. These arrangements are of course not set in stone, and can change as the local political landscapes shift and transform.

As a result it is often that there exists a somewhat antagonistic relationship between those that need the money, and those that make the budgets. As there is always a limited amount of resources to go around, does it mean that someone will have to work with less than they hoped.

The allotted budget for a library is the most clear and direct way that policymakers can be seen to make a difference for a public library. The budget directly dictates how much space the library has to its disposal, how many librarians can be employed and how many new texts can be bought in.

As mentioned before, can policy makers also make decisions on what can and should be in public libraries, though this is a much more controversial point of their power. Ideally are the actions of the policymakers, that are directly or indirectly elected by the general public through elections, following the wishes of said public. This public also involves the patrons of the library, this group might indeed take the library in account when voting for a local election.

Conclusions

To finish up this chapter I will quickly break down how the decision process of what will turn up in a library looks like. The patrons may choose to ask for a text to be added to the collection, as well as ask for a book to be removed in some rare cases. Patrons can also indirectly steer the role of the library by voting on officials that share their views on the library question.

Elected officials then decide the budget, policies and guidelines of the library, and in doing so create the framework that the library works within. The librarian and chief librarian then take both of these facets into account when making decisions regarding, staffing, curation, programming and other decisions within the library itself. This is ofcourse a simplification of a very complex system but one that I hope helps contextualize what I aim to discuss with this series as a whole. 

This leads me on to the topic of the next chapter, why any of this matters, and why I chose to start this series in the first place.

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New years eve, a liminal study in gray

~ SamRandom ~ Leave a comment

New years is a time of liminality, of barriers and of new beginnings. In the western hemisphere it is also a time of transition between the darkness of winter, and the light of spring, between snow and flowers. Greyness is in and off itself a form of liminality, between black and white, and often seen as an allegory for moral and ethical ambiguity.

I find something beautiful in the gray, and the collection of pictures I took represents some different aspects of grayness, and once I found one aspect of gray beauty, I kept finding more and more.

These images were taken as me and my friend were traveling and exploring an industrial complex close to where I live, much of which is still under construction. Both qualities were further added to the liminality of the shots I took the day’s images. The factories were mostly empty this close to the holidays, though many of the lights in the offices and the company glowing labels were still fully lit.

The unfinished nature of many of the buildings, as well as the fenced off areas further cemented the feeling that this is a place in transition, as well as a place that only a few are welcome.

As we walked further and further, more and more construction became apparent. As well as the grays of the construction sites, slowly making way for the darker greens and grays of the surrounding forests. Mist rising from the endless horizons of wooded hills in the distance.

The gray grewever more apparent and dominating in the sky as the day passed on towards night. The mists rising from the forest, indicating that the temperature was slowly but surely rising, as the dew rose into mist, joining the clouds above.

As we walked, the sun started to set, and the mists started to rise ticker and ticker, blurring colors and making the horizon blend more and more with the sky.  The lights started to glow brighter and more and more street lights started to glow, giving the scenes an even more eerie feeling.

The wilder nature and the city share many liminal spaces, where the farmed forests of energy trees meet the suburbs in unplanned clusters of trees and bushes and greenery. These spaces are everywhere, and very easy to miss, but they are often defined by their lack of human involvement, as well as their wide variety of plants and, if you are lucky, animals.

Final thoughts of the year

As I was taking these photos, and writing this text, I was in the process of moving from my home of several years and going back to my hometown, to hopefully be able to follow my dreams. So in many ways, these pictures also resemble a liminality for myself, and my life, as I am waiting to leave my old life, and move towards my new, and hopefully better life.

I hope to be able to share more essays, photo collections and a lot more in the coming years, I hope to see you all there!

The library of odd things: A home for obsolete media, and rare finds: part four: Inspire or provide

~ SamRandom ~ Leave a comment

Introduction

To build on my last chapter, I would like to ask this question; if it is up to the library to provide new experiences, or to provide for existing wants. This problem lies at the center of this essay. The question of what kind of collections a library should have, and how it should be formed. So far I have discussed the need for expertise, as well as a willingness and interest from the part of the patrons to interact and use the collections at the library. Either must be present in order for the motivation for a certain text to be brought into the collection, as well as for a collection to be created in the first place. 

Providing for patrons

By presenting the patron with a wide selection of the texts that the librarians know that the patrons would want to consume (Feel good novels, detective novels, movies and cook books etc) will the librarians make sure that the patron almost always leaves the library with something to consume. As a result the patron will always leave the library somewhat happy. This form of preemptive and predictive form of acquisition is the most common form used in Swedish and other public libraries.

This approach has been discussed a bit in the earlier chapter, when I discussed how many, if not most patrons already at least somewhat know what they are after when entering the library. To make sure that these patrons leave happy it is vital that they are able to reach their texts as easily and quickly as possible. This can be done in a number of ways, firstly making sure that the search computers as well as the spaces where the reserved books are easy to reach. The second way is to make sure that the layout of the library is easy to navigate for those that know what they are after.

To minimize traffic and optimize throughput does it make the most sense from a patron point of view to add the most popular items front and center, at least if the goal is convenience. New titles are often presented in prominent positions of the library. 

The library often crests specialty collections of the most well read topics and trends amounts that library patrons. Detective novels, feel good novels and historical dramas are common examples of specialty collections that are created. Now these are of course not static, and must adapt and change as the tastes of the patrons evolve as well. For, say, fifteen year olds, the feel good novel was not nearly as popular in the libraries I worked at.

This setup is great if we wish to be as effective as possible, when it comes to giving patrons the texts they want, as fast as possible. This system also allows the patrons to easily find similar texts to the ones that they are already looking for, something that is vital in non fiction collections, but non the less rather useful in fiction collections as well. 

While this is a very effective way to make sure that the patrons get the books they are looking for, as well as making sure they don’t need to spend more time in the library than absolutely necessary, it also risks making sure the patrons miss much of what the library has to offer. It is less likely that a patron will pick up a gothic horror novel or a graphic novel if they already have all they feel they need in the feel good section for example.

Inspire new experiences

There is another way of creating a collection, that instead aims to inspire and present the patrons with new forms of media, rather than to simply provide a convenient way of getting the media that the patrons already know that they want. There are some examples in which the Swedish libraries are already doing this, but I believe that we can go a lot further in presenting patrons with new experiences and forms of media.

As books in Sweden and the west become cheaper and more easily to acquire, I would argue that at least some of the public libraries should move towards media forms that are harder to acquire or consume. This could be VHS classics and cheap VHS players, or laser disks and ways to watch them, as well as ways to play old video games or VR technology that is currently out of most patrons’ abilities, either due to price, or scarcity. As technology moves forward more and more of these media forms will be left behind. 

I argue that it is time that libraries as centers for art and knowledge embrace these forms of media as well. Much media is already lost simply due to the fact that the ways of experiencing them are lost, or default to acquire. A library that is built and curated this way, must by its nature be a lot more strict when it comes to the curation of its collections. 

Due to the added work and infrastructure that is needed for each specialty collection would these collections be a lot smaller, and as a result need to be a lot more heavily and strictly curated. In other words a series of deep collections, rather than a few wide collections. This leads me to the last of my arguments before my conclusions, who gets to decide what kind of media to collect and what will be in it.

Inspire and provide

Much of the logic that I have presented in this text can be found echoed, and indeed being co-opted from the logic of store layouts. Should the goal be to get the customers to find the items they are looking for as fast as possible, or is it rather to make sure that the customer leaves with as many items as possible?

 Now, both approaches are more or less useful depending on what store that you are running. In a supermarket it would make more sense to have stable items front and center, and then have the tempting offers on the way towards the register, while in a specialty store like a jewelry or electronics store, it might be more profitable to have the most commonly bought items in the back, to force the customers to walk past all the other options available to them, and as a result enticing more purchase.

While the library does not share a store’s profit goal, at least in theory, is it not a perfect allegory. But it is nonetheless an interesting framework upon which we can better understand what a library should and should not be. Just like a store, a library is there to provide a service, to aid in some goal that the patron or customer wishes to achieve, the biggest difference is that the library is free.

In this text I have presented two approaches to answering the question of what a library should be and how it should function. Just as with a store will the needs and uses of a library vary somewhat between institutions, user demographic and collection. 

A university library for example would most likely keep the most relevant course materials for their specific schools easy to reach, while the less borrowed and used collections might be pushed more towards the back. This is assuming that the library is not strictly following an already established model.

The question of what a public library should be is less cut and dry, and while my personal preferences should have been made very apparent by now, can I see the value in both approaches.  And it comes back to the core problem of what a library should do. Should the public library  challenge its users’ habits and experiences, or cater to them? While the library of Odd Things by its very nature caters to the idea of expanding the users experiences and preferences, it must also cater to already existing preferences, partly due to the importance of nostalgia and interconnectedness rooted in the project.

The question of what a library should or not focus on leads me to the topic of my next chapter. Who gets to decide what a library should or should not be? Librarians, patrons or policy makers.

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The cost and importance of internet security

~ SamRandom ~ Leave a comment

If you have been online for any time in the last decade, you have undoubtedly realized just how much information is being gathered about you. Everything from your full name, to phone numbers and home addresses seems to be something that more and more websites get from you. And this is just mentioning the things that we give away knowingly. Are you aware of just how much data is being gathered via the use of cookies and other trackers?

All this data can, and is, used to sell you things, to try and impersonate you, or to scam you or your loved ones. It seems the prevalence of scammers contacting people with personal information, data breaches and a large number of other horrifying things seems to be getting more and more common online, and, as a result, in real life.

If you, like me, enjoy watching Youtube, you are most likely already familiar with the company names of NordVPN and Mypseudo. Many youtubers are doing ad reads for these, and many similar products. These products, and those like them, are providing a number of services to keep you safe online, be that from hackers, to keep your data safe, or to protect you from identity theft. 

I do not wish to question the validity or usefulness of these products in this essay, nor will I condemn them as useless. What I wish to discuss in this text is instead, the concept of safety and security, and what these things mean in a more and more digital society.

What does it mean to be safe online? The answer most will probably give, is the freedom from having to worry about viruses and trojans and other malicious programs. Another common answer is to make sure that you are safe from scammers and identity theft. In other words, to protect one’s hardware and software, as well as to protect one’s identity, and as a result one’s finances from harm. 

The two primary ways of keeping safe online I am going to discuss in this essay are, information and tools. Tools are firewalls, virus protection and the numerous other tools and services that I mentioned earlier. You pay a company, to keep safe, to buy peace of mind and security. The other way of keeping safe is information. 

This ranges from technical knowhow, to information searching competency, the ability to recognise scams, as well as the ability to keep up with current news. While often, but not always free, the acquisition and application of knowledge is fully up to you as the end user. Note that both approaches are sadly vital to keep safe online today, and both of these approaches do interlock often.

Tools

It is only natural that as more threats are invented and arrive online, so do the tools to combat them. As lockpicks became better, so did locks. As robbers became better at circumventing alarms, the alarm systems became more sophisticated, this is true, at least in theory for online technology as well. As viruses get smarter, so must antivirus companies advance, as online scammers become more competent, and finding new loopholes, new tools must be adapted and created to stop it.

Just as with physical alarms or locks, are these solutions not free, and as more kinds of threats become apparent, a more extensive and complex systems of alarms, blockers and recovery measures seems to be needed. As identity theft becomes more common, a way to safekeep your security is needed. As more malicious ads appear, ways to shut off these scams and prevent accidental clicks are needed. When viruses and trojans advance, so must your antivirus software.

There are today solutions that claim to do all, or at least most of what you need to keep safe online. How do you as a consumer make sure that you get the protection that you truly need? What kind of services are reliable, and what do they do? What level of security do you personally need?

These questions, combined with a more and more advanced network of real life and digital connections are making it more and more vital to be digitally literate. It is also vital to keep this information and knowledge up to date. This leads me on to my next point, the importance of information to stay safe online.

Information

The digital divide is sadly still widening in much of the world, and it is not, as many assume, across age gaps. I have personally experienced patrons coming to the library that are considerably younger than me, that lack all of the most rudimental technological and digital knowledge. Things like how to log in to their internet bank, their email or how to download pdf files were unknown to a disturbingly large number of my patrons, independent of age.

When even this rudimentary knowledge is missing, how can these individuals be expected to be able to parse the difference between VPN providers, and what sort of encryption set and level of firewall protection is needed for them? How are these individuals even supposed to know that things like man in the middle attacks and keyloggers and DDos attacks exist, even less how to combat them.

A simple answer would be to rely on the tech professionals, to pay for the security that sounds best, be that Norton or NordVPN or any of the tens of other well known brands of digital protection. Just as with physical alarms and locks, it would be easy to hand everything over to a security firm that specialties in the forms of protection you would need. An apartment would after all have completely different needs then a large freestanding townhouse in the countryside. This would be in essence the same as buying a service or a tool mentioned above, where you buy peace of mind

But where would you start? Do you have a home PC, what do you do on it, what kind of security would it need, what about your smartphone, or your printer, or your smart fridge? Any machine in your home that is capable of connecting to the internet is a possible access point for malicious attacks after all. How would you know that you get all the protection you need, or for that matter pay for more protection than is needed for you?

While base protection is always good to have, just as a lock on your front door, as well as a home insurance, I would like to argue that learning about the dangers and pitfalls of internet use is sadly the most efficient and profitable way to stay safe online. This has to be a collective effort and one that everyone has to take part in. The saying “Don’t press an unknown link” needs to be as common as “Never talk to strangers”. The more common these rules are, the safer everyone will be.

At the end of the day, there are many dangers online that tools can not protect you from. These can be websites masquerading as legitimate companies, emails sent from people you know with compromised email addresses. Scams and misleading content is sadly everywhere online today, and the only true way to keep safe is to arm yourself with a good antivirus, and a solid understanding of what to look out for, as well as how to be able to recover if something goes wrong.

Information sharing and support

We are already in a world of haves and have nots when it comes to safe access to the internet. Be that by hardware or information. There are many that can not afford the prices to keep safe using the technological solutions, or are able to afford to spend the time to learn how to acquire these tools in the first place.

Likewise is the acquisition of information on how to stay safe online poorly distributed outside of specialist or enthusiast circles, and much does never reach the general public. And even when it does, it is often too little too late, and may in some cases already be outdated. The dangers of online activities come in a number of forms, and many of them can not be solved with a simple antivirus program. A VPN can not protect you against the lies of scammers, false websites or fraudulent links, but they can give you an edge.

I would like to take up the need for heightened pressure on public providers of the internet to make sure that their patrons are safe. Using a public network today is a bit of a coin flip if it will be safe or not. This is true for your local cafe as well as the nearby public library, though the safest thing to do is to assume that all public networks are unsecured and unprotected.

It is in places like this, that the inequality in internet security truly becomes apparent. Many low income households and individuals use places like this to get access to reliable internet, and it is often these groups that do not have access to things like VPNs and other forms of encryption and online protection tools. Knowledge of things like two step authentication, suspicious links and virus filled downloaded files are especially vital when using these public internet connections.

Final thoughts

The way to heighten security online I would argue primarily comes in two ways, the technical infrastructure of the internet safely must be expanded, things like VPNs must be made available to more people and easier. Public internet providers need to take greater care to ensure that the internet connections that they provide are as safe as they can be.

The second way is to increase public awareness of internet dangers and frauds, there is no longer a reason why these topics should be limited to tech experts and security professionals. Here schools and libraries and other public institutions can be of great help, especially when it comes to educating younger generations of threats that they would not have come into contact with personally yet. But more than that, the topic of internet safety must become a topic of general discussion, just as health and personal safety is. We need to start sharing what we know and what we have learned about our internet safety victories and losses. Only together can we help keep everyone safe.

This essay is a way to start such a discussion, and I will link a list of resources that has helped me expand my knowledge around internet safety, I will expand this list as I find more:

Kitboga, a youtuber that specializes in counter scamming telecom and internet scammers:

https://www.youtube.com/@KitbogaShow

Jim Borwning, another youtuber that focus on internet security, trough scam counteraction: 

https://www.youtube.com/@JimBrowning

National Cyber security center, a British governmental organization dedicated to internet security, below is a list of good tips everyone should know.

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/top-tips-for-staying-secure-online

The library of odd things: A home for obsolete media, and rare finds: part three: Known and unknown needs

~ SamRandom ~ Leave a comment

Introduction

This text is the third installment in a series of essays discussing a hypothetical new form of public library, the Library of odd things. This form of library focuses on providing new, old and novel experiences to their patrons, unbound by the need to show usefulness or to cater to statistics and loan numbers. This library is primarily meant to work as a thought experiment and present the readers with new ways to look at media curation and preservation.

In this chapter I will discuss two driving forces when it comes to acquiring new materials for a library, I will label them as wants and needs. What we balance and look at these terms, and how they are applied to collections will shape how our hypothetical library of odd things will take form. This text will discuss what a patron knows they want and need, as well as what they are unaware of that they want and or need.

What the patron knows they want

A modern public library must always keep in mind what it is that their patrons are most likely to want to borrow, as well as what they might need in their everyday life, work and studies. This way the library will be sure that the library has the texts that the patrons are most likely to ask for. This assurance can partly be made through the following trends, news and interviews within the book world. Patron tips and suggestions are also a great way to expand this part of the library’s collection.

It is in my opinion more common than not that the patron already knows beforehand what they are after when entering the library, often looking for a specific title, or a specific topic of research. The patrons more often than not have a specific title in mind. The optimal solution for these patrons would of course be that we have these texts at hand for them when they come to the library. If a text is popular or new, as it often is, they are presented in prominent parts of the library, easily accessible to the patrons that want them. Likewise are collections of texts such as detective novels or cook books often given more space than less well read topics, yet again for ease of use.

In our library of odd things, popular texts might still need to take up a large part of its collection, but not necessarily in the shape and form as in current public libraries, less used media such as vhs tapes would be presented next to books and dvds. As the patrons get more used to the Libraries of odd things, it is my hope that the patrons will learn how to navigate the library’s new form of collection. Hopefully, just with tool libraries the patrons will come to look for specific texts and machines used to experience them.

What they are unaware of

A seemingly conflicting goal of the library is to introduce their patrons to new texts and information that they had no idea that they needed. While sometimes aware of this unspecified need, the patrons are more often not made aware of it when they are faced with a solution to said need. This means that the more varied our collection, the more topics and perspectives it covers, the bigger the chance that the patron will find the answer to a problem or a need that they did not know they had, or that a library could help with. This can range from a reference work that helps them see a problem at another angle, or present an unsuspected solution to a conundrum, to a story that gives them the insight, comfort or inspiration they need.  

If a patron is unable to see the more specialized parts of our collections, it will be nearly impossible for them to become aware of it. By presenting the most popular texts and genres in the front, will the layout discourage hunting for new experiences and browsing around as the patron looks for their intended texts.

The easiest way to provide this need is with non fiction texts and other forms of reference materials. The realization that “I did not know that there is a book for that”, is an apt way of describing this unknown need. Perhaps a book on biology or botany may help a patron to get a handle on their garden slug problem. Maybe an obscure travel book is just what the patron needs to jog their memories. The examples are endless, and I have seen many examples of them first hand.

Fictional materials can likewise be used to solve problems that the patrons were not aware of, or to fill a need they did not know that they had. Once again is it a question of not knowing that they wrote texts about that, or more often than not, not being aware that there were books for them. As the adage goes, each book has its reader, and each reader its book.

This form of discovery will be the primary goal of the Library of odd things. As mentioned before, the library will have a large collection of popular texts, but the focus will always be on exposing the patrons to new and old forms of media that they would not be able to use otherwise. It is well noted here that the limits between known and unknown needs are not solid, and one unknown need is another patrons known need.

The problem of cataloging and finding texts

When it comes to known as well as unknown needs, we will run into the same problem of the patron needing to find the text, regardless if they are actively looking for it or not. First of all, must the library have the text in question at hand, bringing us back to the problem of curation and all that it entails. 

The second problem is the fact that the patron must be able to find the text in question. This leads us to a problem that we have not hit on yet, the problem of organization and categorisation. The problem of categorisation rejects simple answers and simple solutions, as there is no universal and true way of cataloging anything to the most optimal and objective standard.

This is especially true when it comes to texts, both fiction and nonfiction. While there are of course general guidelines to follow, like keeping the authors in alphabetical order, and organizing non fiction under topic and fiction under general theme, there will never be an absolutely perfect system.

Many texts can be categorized in several topics at once, for example the history of medicinal plants, does it belong in history, medicine or botany, and how granular should a collection be with cataloging. The problem becomes even more complicated and granular when we are talking about fiction. What genre will we pick out, what genres will be placed in general fiction, should be pick out things like lgbtqiia+ characters for example. There are no simple and straightforward answers to these questions, but it will fundamentally shape how the patrons are interacting with our collections.

Just as mentioned with the comparison between large and general collections, and smaller more specialist collections will each specialty category lead to more work, and more space in the library. Each fiction genre we split will need its own space in one form or another, and each non fiction topic that we break down will mean more work, and cataloging for the library. These might not seem as great concerns, but over an entire library collection it will make huge differences. 

Conclusions

How we present our collections are vital to how patrons can interact with the texts within its limits. The reason I split known and unknown needs between each other is that their goals are often at odds with each other when it comes to designing library spaces and other collections.

As mentioned before, will the patron that knows their need either go directly to the part of the collection that they want, or ask the librarian to send them to the right part of the collection. Because these patrons often are looking for similar things, would it make sense for these kinds of patrons to present the most borrowed texts in the front of the library, both physically and digitally.

This comes in conflict with the library trying to present the patron with texts that they are not aware of, or discovering texts that the patrons are not nearly as aware of. A patron looking for a specific popular detective novel for example might be annoyed that they need to traverse the entirety of the poetry collection to get there. On the other hand may moving forward the poetry section lead to patrons discovering a love for poetry the would never have found otherwise.

There are no right and wrong answers to these conflicting goals, but they will be very important for my project for the Library of odd things. This conflict leads us to our next set of questions, what should the library be for, and who gets to decide that purpose.