It is important to keep things in perspective.

Today I got to go on a tour of my university's book bindery (is that what it's called in English?) which made me realize that I might just try to get a job there instead of being a librarian or whatever.  I say "whatever" because it is basically impossible to get a job as a librarian here.  Anyways, it was SOOOOO completely awesome.  About 10 years ago I had a great short term job in the art department for Colorbok, making prototypes for the stationary and little bookies and funny little things there.  This type of work is like, the less silly and more official version of that, so I would love to work as I book binderer.  Bindist?
Next up, a really interesting lecture about the evolution of preserved writing/press/books, where we got to look at old ass books from the 1400s to the 1800s.  Including a Gustav Vasa Bible (above), which was the first version of the bible in Swedish.  Even my heathen and generally bible-hating heart can appreciate the word of god in this form (I mean, I do love books).  Apparently this thing cost about 7 horses when new!  We also got to look at several other books, including a little mini book about 5x3x0.5 inches in size, (or maybe smaller), about Cicero, from the 1700s - one of the first "pocket books" made in Sweden and another book worth about 200,000 dollars, made in pre-chapter and pre-paragraph indentation times... some time in the 1400s.  The man who donated it to the library bought it for about 50 dollars sometime in the 1940s, and it was by far in the best condition of all the books we looked at.  I got to feel the paper, and it was so sturdy and... fresh looking.  The print job and the paper combined looked like something bought from a really expensive paper shop nowadays.  It was fantastically made and preserved.

The lecture ended with the following piece of work - a job announcement from the University of Göttingen, 1748.  I'll try my best at translation.

Competency requirements under the hand-press era could be very high, which Matthias Gessner, a librarian at the University of Göttningen in 1748, gave expression for:
"He (the librarian) must have a noble and generous heart, which can overcome his avarice, and who is able to put the library's interest above his own.  He shall have a kind attitude towards library borrowers/patrons and the ability to give them good service.  He shall also have a feeling for beauty, accuracy and cleanliness.


He must have mastery of Latin, Greek, French, Italian, English, Spanish as well as the other biblical languages.  He must be able to understand the nordic languages and be able to work with documents in German dialects, middle-ages Latin and the Slavic languages.  Yet, most important are  abilities/understanding of the history of learning.  The librarian shall not merely know author's names and titles of representative work, and know which editions are best:  he shall also be able to show that he has knowledge within all branches of science.

Winter is coming.

Seriously though, where I live, winter lasts almost 8 months, and just a few days into September you can feel that the man who lives in the sky and controls everything has flipped the switch.

The phrase “winter is coming” is also the motto of the House of Stark, the family of Winterfell, for those who do not yet know the craziness that is Game of Thrones.  I say that with a touch of sarcasm, I do.  I am an avid fantasy/sci-fi reader, and although I like GofT, and am amused by it, it doesn’t have the depth of character analysis that I prefer.  On the other hand, although the characters are all quite thinly described, they are done so in a rather defined way.  There is an economy to Martin’s writing that is pointed and which moves swiftly along, but somehow still seems to be… thorough?? I guess I have a hard time describing what I mean… it is an effective style, that does not feel empty, despite it’s thinness.  Maybe that is why he is so popular?  

After the big hubbub caused by What’s Her Name, from the NYTimes, (aka Ginia Bellafante) who wrote a universally-accepted-as-lazy/stupid review of GofT, (the tv show), I was found myself in a long discussion with a man in my town known as “The Bull.”  He hadn’t seen the show or read the books, and I was trying to express the big deal-ness of it, and of What’s Her Name’s comments about the sex scenes in the show and how they are only there to draw in female viewers (and how no women she knows read or watch fantasy/sci-fi).  I, of course, was miffed by that summation, being a female, and being attracted to fantasy/sci-fi for reasons other than sex (although of course, I’ll take anything with a dash of sex on it, or in it).  SO, in a grand gesture for the whole of this weird northern city, which is stuck in an eddy of prudish sex-negative pseudo-radical feminism (imho), The Bull asked:  ”are the sex scenes feminist sex scenes?  like feminist porn?”

LOL.