Zone One

The SF Book Discussion group met November 6th and discussed the Colson Whitehead book Zone One. If we had only known, we could have included this book in our 2012 series of apocalyptic science fiction reads! Personally, I was extremely impressed with the writing and think this must be the most literary zombie apocalypse book out there. Whitehead has a great way with words and uses his command of the language to great effect.

Unlike most apocalypse-themed books where mankind is struggling to rebuild, I never had the feeling that the stubborn tenacity of mankind might prevail. Rather, I had this feeling of impending doom. A sense that rather than being salvageable, human civilization itself had become infected and would be better off if someone shot it in the head like any other skel.

As an added bonus, Whitehead introduces the concept of PASD - Post Apocalyptic Stress Disorder. This is why I would have loved to have finished our series of apocalyptic books back in 2012 with this one - then we would have understood, I think, why we all sort of felt the way we did after reading so many depressing, world-destroying books! We were suffering the stresses of surviving the apocalypse.

Silliness aside, I highly recommend this book EVEN IF zombies are not your thing. I think the other members of our discussion group would say something similar. Whitehead's writing makes it worth the effort.

Good Show Mr. Gaiman!

My favorite library advocate Neil Gaiman makes another articulate defense of libraries in this article from The Guardian.

In answer to this: "If you imagine yourself as a kid now, why not get that stuff on your phone? Why do you need the building? " Here's what Gaiman had to say:

"I think, firstly, nobody is curating the information for you. Nobody is giving you a safe space. I used to love libraries at school. Because school libraries had an enforced quiet policy, which meant they tended to be bully-free zones. They were places where you could do your homework, you could do stuff, whether it was reading books, or getting on with things that you wanted to get on with, and know that you were safe there. And people responded to your enthusiasms. If you like a certain writer, or a certain genre, librarians love that. They love pointing you at things that you’ll also like. And that gets magical. If you like RA Lafferty, you’ll like Ursula Le Guin, you’ll like Tolkien. And there’s web access. I’ve talked to a lot of librarians, and one of the things that they do is help people who do not have web access. Most job applications, and a lot of information on benefits and things like that, are out on the web. We act as if a smartphone and internet access are now handed out at birth. But it’s simply not true. A lot of people don’t have web access."

This is the heart of the matter here. Libraries curate the information. Librarians care about you and your interest. It doesn't matter what the interest is, they're going to help you along with it. It doesn't matter if you're looking for a pastime fiction book or a new career, there's a resource for it ready and at your disposal.

Thank you Mr. Gaiman.