Humanism
= 194 SAR. If you just remember that, your night will not have been wasted. To know your way round a library is to master the whole of culture, i.e. the whole world. Iâm scarcely exaggerating. In any case, itâs my belief that Dewey was totally megalomaniac. Well,obsessed at any rate. Iâm sure he was one of those people who canât get to sleep unless their slippers are neatly lined up at the foot of the bed and the kitchen sink has been completely scoured. I understand him, Iâm the same myself. This was someone who devoted his entire life to libraries, his existence revolved around books, that was it. Since he was American, and you know how practical they are, Dewey set up a cabinet-making firm to manufacture library furniture, the
Library Bureau Company
, pardon my English pronunciation. The company still exists today. Oh, thatâs so American. It sells really good quality furniture. They have a few pieces in Paris, at the library at Beaubourg, the Pompidou Centre. This library canât afford them, of course, our furniture is shoddy stuff. Iâve told the Librarian, and indeed the Mayor, that cheap deal bookcases arenât good enough, but what can I say, they couldnât care less. Anyway, I donât count for anything. No-one listens to me. Iâm totally invisible. In fact, if I hadnât deliberately made a noise just now when I arrived, youâd still have been fast asleep, you wouldnât have been disturbed. Iâm sorry to have interruptedyour snooze, but perhaps you think it a matter of little consequence that it was an American who dreamed up the ambitious plan of classifying the whole of human knowledge? Well, donât be naïve. When that fanatic Dewey classified literature, he set up a monument of ethnocentrism: 810, American literature; 820, English literature: two whole divisions for the English-speakers. 830 to 880, European literature: six divisions for the whole of old Europe. And what about the hundreds of other languages in the world? Just one division: 890. Just one heading, see? So Deweyâs classification has been modified. They decided it would be more politically correct to increase the space for non-aligned countries. O.K., not a bad idea. But then there were more tendentious changes. Graphic novels for instance, theyâve been taken out of 741.5, because they were crowding out Fine Arts. They get a special section now, near the door. I was against it, I didnât approve of that at all, but well, what did they care? The Religion section, where there are fewer and fewer books, has been tacked on to the end of History â Dewey would have been O.K. withthat. But what really gets me, a huge mistake, is moving Languages from 400 to 800. What have they put there instead? Nothing. So shelfmark 400 is now unoccupied, itâs just empty. You agree with me, donât you, itâs ridiculous. It makes my head spin, having a vacant shelfmark. Whatâs going to be put there? What domain of culture and human knowledge that we havenât properly valued is going to take it over in the future? I prefer not to think about this unoccupied shelfmark, it frightens me. Like swimming far out to sea. Iâve only done that once, in the days when I was still taking holidays. More than fifteen years ago. Nowadays I donât go on holiday, not even weekends, I canât stand leisure. Thereâs no space for leisure in life. Youâre either going up or down, end of story. And at a certain point in your life, you have to decide what you want to do with your time. Well, as I was saying, I was younger then. Iâd been dragged onto a boat, I was taken sailing, and suddenly they were all in wetsuits and over the side. I jumped in too, because I didnât want to be the only one left on deck. But I wasnât happy, we were out of sight of the coast. And suddenly,thinking how deep it was under my feet, I had a panic attack. Brr, I
= 194 SAR. If you just remember that, your night will not have been wasted. To know your way round a library is to master the whole of culture, i.e. the whole world. Iâm scarcely exaggerating. In any case, itâs my belief that Dewey was totally megalomaniac. Well,obsessed at any rate. Iâm sure he was one of those people who canât get to sleep unless their slippers are neatly lined up at the foot of the bed and the kitchen sink has been completely scoured. I understand him, Iâm the same myself. This was someone who devoted his entire life to libraries, his existence revolved around books, that was it. Since he was American, and you know how practical they are, Dewey set up a cabinet-making firm to manufacture library furniture, the
Library Bureau Company
, pardon my English pronunciation. The company still exists today. Oh, thatâs so American. It sells really good quality furniture. They have a few pieces in Paris, at the library at Beaubourg, the Pompidou Centre. This library canât afford them, of course, our furniture is shoddy stuff. Iâve told the Librarian, and indeed the Mayor, that cheap deal bookcases arenât good enough, but what can I say, they couldnât care less. Anyway, I donât count for anything. No-one listens to me. Iâm totally invisible. In fact, if I hadnât deliberately made a noise just now when I arrived, youâd still have been fast asleep, you wouldnât have been disturbed. Iâm sorry to have interruptedyour snooze, but perhaps you think it a matter of little consequence that it was an American who dreamed up the ambitious plan of classifying the whole of human knowledge? Well, donât be naïve. When that fanatic Dewey classified literature, he set up a monument of ethnocentrism: 810, American literature; 820, English literature: two whole divisions for the English-speakers. 830 to 880, European literature: six divisions for the whole of old Europe. And what about the hundreds of other languages in the world? Just one division: 890. Just one heading, see? So Deweyâs classification has been modified. They decided it would be more politically correct to increase the space for non-aligned countries. O.K., not a bad idea. But then there were more tendentious changes. Graphic novels for instance, theyâve been taken out of 741.5, because they were crowding out Fine Arts. They get a special section now, near the door. I was against it, I didnât approve of that at all, but well, what did they care? The Religion section, where there are fewer and fewer books, has been tacked on to the end of History â Dewey would have been O.K. withthat. But what really gets me, a huge mistake, is moving Languages from 400 to 800. What have they put there instead? Nothing. So shelfmark 400 is now unoccupied, itâs just empty. You agree with me, donât you, itâs ridiculous. It makes my head spin, having a vacant shelfmark. Whatâs going to be put there? What domain of culture and human knowledge that we havenât properly valued is going to take it over in the future? I prefer not to think about this unoccupied shelfmark, it frightens me. Like swimming far out to sea. Iâve only done that once, in the days when I was still taking holidays. More than fifteen years ago. Nowadays I donât go on holiday, not even weekends, I canât stand leisure. Thereâs no space for leisure in life. Youâre either going up or down, end of story. And at a certain point in your life, you have to decide what you want to do with your time. Well, as I was saying, I was younger then. Iâd been dragged onto a boat, I was taken sailing, and suddenly they were all in wetsuits and over the side. I jumped in too, because I didnât want to be the only one left on deck. But I wasnât happy, we were out of sight of the coast. And suddenly,thinking how deep it was under my feet, I had a panic attack. Brr, I
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