I hate these books. If I could, I would take them out of our local library. Unfortunately, it is against the law to do that. And, I believe, they were put in to replace perfectly wonderful books that actually were stolen. So anyway....I did write a perfectly good short story about the case of the vanishing books. What I did not consider when I was writing that was that "they" might actually replace those vanishing books with other books. So now....I have to completely rethink that whole short story...which I always intended to have a sequel. In case you didn't get my first short story. Here it is. Maybe you have some ideas about how I can resolve this story.
The Case Of The Vanishing Books
Once upon a time there was a small town that had a
great library. The library was so great that it had to expand, hire
new, more advanced and educated help. At the time of the move and
expansion there was a great upgrade from the old system (card
catalog) to the new digital system (computerized everything).
But
there lurked in the small town a group of frightened souls who
loathed and feared the contents of the library and vowed to try to
censure the books as the books contained enlightenment that would
expose the corrupt dark souls and their methodology. So the dark
souls devised a way to remove certain books that contained certain
enlightenment’s from the library one by one, year after year
yielding about 2000 books a year. For 15 years they remained
undetected and were confident that they were removing books faster
than the new books of enlightenment could come into the library, or
even be written. Some of the townsfolk noticed the missing books.
They were given various semi-plausible explanations that only now
seems lame. It was easy to remove and discard these books as more
and more of the townsfolk became enamored and preoccupied with
computers and the digital virtual world.
They
carefully removed these books by stealing them and systematically
discarding them through volunteers as well as patrons. The volunteers
became staff. It became more streamline to remove the books of
enlightenment as the staff hired on more dark souls, and more dark
souls volunteered year after year. There was a continuum. They
took the books to an undisclosed location in a nearby village to
prepare them for a great burning.
It
is written that “wicked witches were invented by frightened men”.
Any books written about and by witches had to be removed from the
library in order for the frightened men to sleep at night. After the
witch books were safely removed the frightened men realized that they
were still afraid, even when they were awake…and even in broad
daylight! It became clear to them that the witches themselves needed
to be removed. Systematically, year after year the frightened men
and their women began hunting and trapping local witches, psychics,
mid-wives, druids, and sorcerers. Still they were afraid and so they
began hunting in larger circles covering more area. Burning books
and eliminating people became sport in the small town and nearby
towns as well. They extended and expanded to international
territories. Fires around the world were aglow.
Feminists
were also to be feared and therefor removed from these towns, their
books removed from the library shelves. Children's books were
vanishing. Imaginary fiction like Harry Potter and Mrs.
Pigglewiggles magic gone…leaving the big bad wolf and red ridding
hood…so that fear could be cultivated in their young. Books on
birth control and even law books were threatening to these frightened
people. It was rationalized that people who would try to study law
might undermine the frightened mens legal system. And it was
rationalized that a woman who would seek natural childbirth and
attempt to take control of her own body threatened the local medical
establishment. This was more frightening to both the frightened men
and their women because they needed to control the genealogy of the
whole town to try and protect themselves from the outcomes of their
and their childrens mistakes in judgment. Indeed the children and
teenagers began lacking good judgment because their choices (books
and friends) had been limited and censored. Critical thinking skills
were no longer allowed to be taught in the schools of fright. The
frightened men knew better than to carelessly interact with the gene
pool but had occasional mistakes in their judgment as well. Mistakes
had to be corrected at all costs lest their be too much diversity in
the frightened men and womens lineage.
Books
about the earth and the environment were heavily scrutinized as they
might propose ideas that the frightened people were so afraid of as
they might lose income that derived from the pillaging and pollution
of the planet. Any book that suggested that man kind was murdering
the earth was a threat to the frightened people who were of course
murdering mother earth in addition to their other crimes. And even
though homosexuality and bisexuality were a common thing in nature,
the frightened people were afraid of it. Period. It was not enough
to eliminate books about this subject. The frightened people were
hungry for the hunt. Everybody knows that faggots make the best
kindling for the fires for witch and book burning. It finally became
legal for gays to serve in the military. They were groomed for the
front lines of course. It was a eugenic decision as were most of the
decisions made by the frightened people in the frightening town.
Choice
and equal rights became scarce as the books continued to vanish along
with some of the townsfolk. Anyone different or with different ideas
were marked for future bon fires. These “occultic” actions
continue to this day unnoticed by most, but becoming apparent to
others. It is clear that something has to be done to help the
frightened people get over their fright. When everyone and every
book is gone and the only ones left are the other frightened souls,
they might just start being scared to death of each other and their
own dark shadows.
This
is a work in progress. It has already happened. Part 2 will be
about how the books that have been removed, get replaced. I have
some ideas about that:)