# YEAH! Librarians!



## Stormcat (Jan 9, 2018)

Not long ago I learned that the fictional character Optimus Prime, Savior of both mechanical and biological lifeforms, got his start as a librarian on the Transformers homeworld. Today, I saw a book about a real librarian who hunted all over Africa to find and preserve ancient scrolls from the ever-turbulent militias who would destroy them for funsies or because this particular scroll doesn't interpret the Koran the exact same way the men in the militias do.

This got me thinking. Librarians are pretty much guardians of knowledge, and in an area where people are kept deliberately ignorant for whatever reason, they can be the driving force to change the community by exposing everyone to "forbidden" knowledge. They make sure controversial books stay on the shelves, to never cater to one political faction over the other, to plant seeds of inquiry in young minds and give them the tools to discover the truth for themselves. There was even an article in the paper the other day that said that homeless people are congregating in the big library downtown to protect themselves from the cold, so the librarians are working to provide them with food, healthcare, and other living essentials.

Okay, Enough exhalations.

My WIP is set in a world besieged by a Totalitarian Theocracy. Like most Totalitarian dystopias, the government has strict control over what media the people are allowed to consume. You can't turn off your state-mandated radio, you can only legally purchase newspapers from the government's propaganda department, and even otherwise innocent entertainment sources have pro-government messages ham-fistedly shoved into them. So, providing alternative media and accurate news is a big deal for the resistance.

I need information about how to construct and maintain an "illegal" library. How do the books circulate? How do the "librarians" know which potential patrons could rat them out? Where do you even hide an illegal printing press? How can the librarians offer their services in a world where most of the population is illiterate?


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## Ralph Rotten (Jan 9, 2018)

This is a good question for spies & stoners: people who are used to living in secrecy on a daily basis.

So how do stoners find other stoners & dealers?  Answer: They are vetted first by other users.  How do you know that other guy is really a stoner and not a narc? You get stoned with 'em (reeealll stoned), usually multiple times.  No one introduces a noob to their dealer until they have been fully vetted, and the dealer says it's okay.  In most cases dealers prefer to sell to as few people as possible. 

How do you know that other guy is a stoner? There is a fair amount of stoner jargon, terms not used by anyone BUT stoners, so hearing one of these terms would be a tip-off.  Stoners may smell like burnt weed, or carry eyedrops.  Also, stoners will react differently to some phrases than civilians would.  Up until recently, most people had no idea what 420 was all about.

How do stoners and spies communicate without being caught? They have a lingo of their own, and usually their local network even has some unique terms.  
Example: "Hey man, you seen Lenny lately?  I got that money I owe him"
Translation: I need to buy some weed if you know anyone holding right now.
Example 2: "Time to make the donuts!" 
Translation2: Let's go get stoned right now.

So for your story, not only would you have librarians who preserve these banned books, but they would each have large networks that they feed.  For security purposes they would only come into contact with a small percentage of the people they serve.  In most cases, people would acquire their books via an affiliate, or fellow stoner.  It's actually very practical for one person to make a massive dope run for their friends (it's called a dope ring, and the guy in the middle smokes for free (or greatly discounted rate) because he takes all the risk of setting it all up.)

Study stoners for your story. They live secret lives out in the open (and you would likely be surprised WHO in your life are stoners.)  Secrecy is central to their lives.


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## H.Brown (Jan 9, 2018)

Ralph Rotten said:


> This is a good question for spies & stoners: people who are used to living in secrecy on a daily basis.
> 
> So how do stoners find other stoners & dealers?  Answer: They are vetted first by other users.  How do you know that other guy is really a stoner and not a narc? You get stoned with 'em (reeealll stoned), usually multiple times.  No one introduces a noob to their dealer until they have been fully vetted, and the dealer says it's okay.  In most cases dealers prefer to sell to as few people as possible.
> 
> ...



Can I ask, are you a stoner?

In part you have it correct while dealers can be secretive people, stoners-in my expirience-aren't. We socialise in public places, getting high in parks or walking through large crowds. We do not use key words that only other stoners can pick up on but use normal words, as one of best ways to hide is in plain sight. People think that stoners hide but in actual fact we do not hide at all.

In answer to the OP;  have you thought about looking into how Jews wee secreted away from the nazis, during ww2? Your main obstacle is why would the books need tobe hidden if the majority of your world can not read? Look to history Stormcat.


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## Ralph Rotten (Jan 9, 2018)

Brown:
You sound like a tye-dyed dead head stoner who doesn't care if the world knows you get high.

But the rest of the respectable world of stoners live in relative secrecy. We do not reveal our sins to family, parents, employers...  We take great pains to hide that part of our life, sometimes even from our spouses.  And yes, we do have code words; only a mook would text in plain language about drugs (especially with a company phone).  Most good jobs do not allow weed, EVEN in states that have legal pot.  

Twas out of line to question my credentials the way you did.


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## Stormcat (Jan 10, 2018)

Okay, so the stoner analogy is relevant in terms of secrecy and networking. But here's the thing, These Spy-Librarians aren't selling the books, they are merely circulating them. The books are also not consumable in the sense that weed is, so anywhere from ten to ten thousand people can utilize just one book. It's also possible to endlessly copy a book if there are enough supplies to run the printing press. 

I thought of something else. I've heard of "Black Propaganda", which is basically making something look "official" but on closer inspection, you realize it didn't come from the alleged host. For instance, Con artists might print a letter on bank stationary to inform bank customers that they must send certain important documents to update banking information. Most customers will be suspicious and contact the actual bank directly about it, while a more easily manipulated customer might send in all the important documents to the con artist without much thought. Either way, it serves to create doubt in the authority of the entity (in this case, the bank). I'm thinking that it might be useful for the Spy-librarians to utilize this technique.

There's also the issue of illiteracy. If you buy something from China but the instructions only come in Chinese (which you can't read) you won't be able to assemble your product. Similarly, in the world of my WIP, education is reserved only for the elite. The Spy-Librarians need to teach skills as well as deliver products. But how do you teach someone in secret?


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## velo (Jan 19, 2018)

In terms of two associates already a part of the community I think that's entirely up to you.  They can communicate with any code you can create- special words, graffiti, putting a potted plant in a window, etc.  Be mindful that they will still be careful in case anyone got caught and forced to talk.  So there would like be a lot of segmentation of groups to minimise each person's knowledge of the whole community/organisation.  

Another trick is believably writing how someone on the inside would be able to gauge a person on the outside.  How does the group get new members to circulate their seditious materials?  What are the parameters for trust?


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## NathanielleC (Feb 4, 2018)

Neil Gaiman once told a story about a relative who was forced to be a teacher in the Ghettos during WW2. 

She would hold secret book reading sessions where she would read books to children (and probably adults) that were all basically on the banned books list and could have gotten her killed.


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## sas (Feb 4, 2018)

NathanielleC said:


> Neil Gaiman once told a story about a relative who was forced to be a teacher in the Ghettos during WW2.
> 
> She would hold secret book reading sessions where she would read books to children (and probably adults) that were all basically on the banned books list and could have gotten her killed.



Every year I gift my granddaughters a banned book. I have these great red stickers to put on them that say:

I Read Banned Books.


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## Robbie (Feb 4, 2018)

That is wonderful Sas! Good for you. I love the way you are teaching those girls.


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## sas (Feb 4, 2018)

Robbie, 

Thanks for thumbs up. I am the Grammy that's all about life lessons. I was an older age grandmother, so it's like I'm racing to stuff everything I've learned into a short time with them. It was the reason I started writing poetry. They are life lessons for them, with cliff notes, of course. You don't get those notes. Sorry. Smiles.


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## Stormcat (Feb 4, 2018)

NathanielleC said:


> Neil Gaiman once told a story about a relative who was forced to be a teacher in the Ghettos during WW2.
> 
> She would hold secret book reading sessions where she would read books to children (and probably adults) that were all basically on the banned books list and could have gotten her killed.



That sounds awesome! it would be easy to get people in a group together under the pretense of something else. Might even be able to sweeten the deal by providing food so it looks like the host was just having a meal with some friends.


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