The Library Contest

Prize Your Soul

By Alexander Zevin

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illustration by Chris Hu
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We neither wish to write nor to read; on the contrary, we wish to shelve. Like the librarians of Babel in Borges's story, though, we are travelers. We walk up and down spiral staircases, past burnished bookcases, into hexagonal chambers dimly lit, "in quest of a book, perhaps the catalogue of catalogues."

This quest, for the perfect library, is infinity in search of limits:it seeks to contain not only all the books that are but all the books man may ever write. This library is God's universe. As such it is insane to attempt to order.

For the non-professional, the home dweller, the act of arranging one's books can be a task of the highest importance, and offers the greatest possible insight into one's soul. Georges Perec wrote simply but truthfully that a library answers a twofold need, "which is often a twofold obsession: that of conserving certain objects (books) and that of organizing them in certain ways."

There are certain rooms where books may be put, Perec tells us: in the entrance hall, the sitting room, the bedroom, the bog. There are certain places in rooms where books may be put, he adds: between two windows, between two doors, on the steps of a library ladder (very chic), on a piece of furniture set an angle (also very chic).

But the biggest problem that faces all taxonomists of bound material is, of course, the system, the WHY, by which one's books are arranged. Without an order, there is entropy, and a total collapse of the individual in space.

What is your way...better yet, what is the most exuberant, creative, intriguing, sadistic, Homeric or vegetarian way to arrange a library?

The possibilities are as limitless as the butterflies the intrepid lepidopterist dreams of catching in his spangled net. Do you want to order your library by color? Weight? Smell? Imaginary solutions are welcome. The prize is eternal life in newsprint, the winning librarians to be published with care in the next issue of the Indy.

Please send your stabs at bibliographic order out of chaos to the indy [at] gmail [dot] com by October 8th.

Alexander Zevin

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