Wikipedia:You don't have to be mad to work here, but
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"But I don't want to go among mad people", Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can't help that", said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be", said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."
―
A tour of the Library
The Third Librarian was neatly dressed in a black velvet
The hall, for hall it was, was of immeasurable length. The books were in aisles either side of a single, immensely long corridor, which stretched into the distance in both directions. Each aisle was lined on both sides by shelf upon shelf of books, each one in its named place, the shelves rising high, back-to-back with the shelves of the adjoining aisles. "How many books do you have here?", I asked. "Millions", said the Third Librarian, "and the number grows every day; the hall grows with them so there is always room for more. But come, we are not here to see books; let me show you the people of the library at work."
1. The hall of content
Virgil led me through a side doorway into a spacious airy hall curiously marked "Content". "Is this a room for some kind of happiness", I inquired. "No, rather the people here are
Most were busily writing; some angrily crumpled or tore the sheet they had just written, throwing it into one of the many capacious bins provided to receive waste paper; others summoned servants, giving them strict instructions to fetch one volume or another from the library stacks. But here and there a pair of these authors disputed loudly over what they were writing. "How can that be?" I asked. "Ah", said the Third Librarian, "now you have it. They are disputing over the content of an 'article' that they are both seeking to write; neither will grant the other precedence, so agreement is required for the article to progress." Now I saw that, although the men were seated at their writing-desks, they all wore swords. "What if they come to blows?", I asked. "Then the bailiffs admonish them", he replied. "And if that be insufficient, then the bailiffs eject them from the library. But come, there is more to see."
2. The cabin of links
My guide gestured to me to follow him, and we passed to the end of an aisle, where behind a thick curtain was an iron door, its hinges and latch fastened with large hot-forged rivets. He opened the door and we stepped through, closing the heavy door behind us. We made our way down a flight of steps to what could have been a ship's navigation cabin, with rolls of paper that might have been maps, atlases, lists, well-thumbed almanacs, and several heavy books that were perhaps dictionaries or cyclopedias.
All around the cabin, men with a nautical air read through documents, carefully marking words that seemed to catch their eye. One or two smoked pipes; one casually plaited
3. The corridor of categories
The Third Librarian led me to the end of the chamber main hall, turning swiftly left through a narrow door. We entered a long low corridor with a row of cells on either side. Each cell contained nothing but a hard bench at a low, dimly-lit shelf that served as a table; it ran the width of the cell. On the benches sat a crew that seemed to be entirely of ruffians in ragged clothes; many went barefoot. Over the entrance to the corridor, a roughly-painted sign hung from a rusty nail; it said simply "Categories". "What is the meaning of this?", I asked. "Here, they assign each work to a
I gazed at the turbulent scene for a while; it grew no quieter, and a question came into my mind. "If I may ask, what purpose do these labelled boxes serve?" The Third Librarian glanced at me curiously, and replied in an even tone that the category system was a part of the Library; every library had such a thing. Clearly this was a sensitive matter, so I tried again with caution: "Indeed, but who makes use of it, and how does it help them?" The Third Librarian seemed surprised at the question, answering that any man might use it, and that the categories helped them to locate 'articles' in which they were interested. None the wiser, I thought it best to drop the matter, though I supposed that if I wanted an article, I would find it by its name rather than by means of dusty wooden boxes. At that moment, a scuffle broke out between two of the ragged ruffians, and the Librarian gestured towards the exit.
4. The mine of gnomes
Virgil led me along a passage a fair way – it seemed a mile, but it was hard to tell in the dim light – and turned into an aisle that ended at a very low door. Ducking my head under the lintel, I found myself in an immense mine, the roof supported on countless pillars that seemed to have been hewn from the bedrock: or rather, they were all that was left of the bedrock, as numberless picks and shovels had worn the rock away until practically nothing remained, in the manner of a monolithic church. As my eyes grew accustomed to the near-darkness, broken here and there by the guttering of ill-smelling tallow candles, I saw that a great number of fellows with bent backs, rough boots, conical hats, and furtive looks were toiling away at a multitude of tasks. Try as I might, I could form no impression of the goal of their labours.
"Pray explain to me, sir, what these men are doing", I said. "Ah", said the Third Librarian. "You may well ask. They are not all doing the same thing; indeed, even I have not heard of all the tasks they have set themselves." This time it was I that gave him a quizzical glance. "No", he went on, "their tasks cannot be numbered; but in the main they are doing what they believe may in some small way improve the articles in the library. Here, for example, this man is searching for any mentions of 'Shakespeare', 'Will Shakespeare', and 'Wm. Shakespeare', and replacing them with 'William Shakespeare' in full; while across the way there, that rough-looking churl is looking for any mention of 'William Shakespeare' more than once in an article, and replacing the second and subsequent instances with 'Shakespeare', the bare surname, to avoid repetition. So, together, they are making the library more systematic." I opened my mouth to reply, but could think of nothing seemly to say.
"Over here, now," he went on hastily, "this fellow is changing a thousand places where people have written 'colour' in the spelling used in England, to 'color', the spelling used in North America." "I see", I said. "So the Library has a rule that North American spelling is to be preferred? Clearly that would be a great simplification." The Third Librarian looked at me unhappily. "Alas, no", he said. "Articles which are
We walked on across the seemingly endless mine; the excavated portions stretched ahead into the unguessed distance, while wide galleries opened to left and right, often plunging steeply downwards as if to follow some
5. The chamber of frames
My guide lit a small lantern, and led me far along the mine to a surprisingly fine doorway; it was elegantly framed with a crisp classical
6. The cave of the obsessed
Virgil showed me to a tunnel that sloped steadily downwards and curved towards the left. "Those here have chosen tasks more peculiar to their own natures. Over there, a fellow comes in daily to replace 'is comprised of' with 'consists of' or 'is composed of' or 'comprises', as the fit takes him." I looked quickly at the Third Librarian to see if he was joking, but he appeared to be completely earnest in this matter. "Is that not a matter of personal taste in these times?" I asked. He shook his head sadly. "It has for many years since been a common usage among those less well schooled than our fathers", he replied. "But this fellow has read, in more than one impeccable guide to correct taste, that the offending phrase is a solecism, and must be expunged. He has made it his life's labour." "He will labour at the task until his dying day, then", I replied. "That he will", said the Third Librarian, and motioned to me to take the opening on our left.
7. The pit of vandals
Our path took us now down a steep slippery passage; the going was sticky, with water trickling down the rock walls; and it became perceptibly hotter and more humid as we descended. "It becomes a degree hotter on Mr. Fahrenheit's scale for every sixty feet of descent", said my guide, conversationally. We must have descended many hundred feet, as it was soon as hot as any place I had ever visited, by the time the passage widened out to reveal a terrible sight. High above, on a platform on one side, boys were laughing and joking with pens in their hands, and I realised they were defacing documents from the library with every piece of boyish nonsense and obscenity; and on the other, bailiffs were interrogating a line of similar boys, some now not smiling, others still shouting defiance, and every now and again the bailiffs threw a boy down head-first through the fumes and steams, to land with a plop in the sticky mud of the pit before our horrified gaze, their legs protruding and wriggling uselessly. I glanced at Virgil. He shook his head, and we turned to leave.
8. The furnace of disputation
I had supposed that since we had reached the bottom of the pit, our way would now turn upwards; but my guide, turning to his left, pulled a lever and a square door, spattered with mud and almost invisible, at once opened. I stepped into a well-engineered passage that seemed to be lined with
9. The ice of the two-faced
Virgil turned to a brick-lined door and, sheathing his hand with his robe against the heat, quickly pushed it open. I stepped gladly out of that place, though with some concern that the next would be still hotter. It was not to be; the passage was chill, and as we progressed it grew colder until our breath could be seen condensing to fog in the freezing air. "How is this?" I asked. "Did you not study your
Reality
I awoke to find my wife holding my shoulder and looking at me with concern. "Is something the matter?" she asked. "Just a nightmare", I replied. "Are dreams not always about real things?", she asked. "Do you think so?", I replied.