Let me start with a sort of story-based disclaimer. I passed by my supervisor on the way to the bathroom the other day and it didn’t look like she was really working. She was watching a video while sitting at her desk in the corner, a desk covered in action figures, books, miscellaneous memorabilia and office supplies that look like dinosaurs. One such office supply is a seriously cool 6 inch tall staple remover that looks like a T-Rex. This was given to her by another librarian who felt the need to pass it on when she retired. My supervisor is a woman who is at least 45 years old. She’s no kid. The reason I begin with these details (that might seem to have little to do with the coming commentary) is because librarians do have a sense of humor. If you take nothing else from this you have to at least take that. You don’t need to be afraid of us. We aren’t just grumpy, no matter how many blogs there are about being an annoyed librarian. We rant on the internet because our jobs are sort of fifty percent “Don’t get pissed at people or yell in their faces.” So there’s that.
Anyway. To the point. I never made it to the bathroom because my boss was showing another co-worker this video and I got distracted by it. And I guess what she was doing was at least like work since she was playing a book trailer. Yeah. Those exist. Weird? A little. Scary? For sure. It was for a new children’s book, something following the popular Girl Encounters the Supernatural formula. She played it from the top so that I could see a children’s book completely pre-imagined. It was dark and cartoon-y. No child would have to invent the character’s faces in their bitty brains because they were already computer animated for them. Now books can be just like television! Hooooraaaay. This lead to the inevitable conversation about how if we wanted books imagined for us we would go see movie versions of Harry Potter, Twilight, Coraline, or the other pile of kids books turned into movies. I’m talking about the children’s book trailers specifically (even though adult book trailers exist) because I think kids will grow up to think these trailers are normal and are more likely to watch them than adults. Plus most adults have slaughtered their imaginations already in sacrifice to numerous boring gods of convenience or commerce or just to get laid... so damage done there. Forgive the cynicism. It happens.
Yes. I know. The trailers are optional. When you find a book on Amazon (or wherever else these trailers are) you do not have to watch the trailer. It will call to you, but you can ignore it just like the reviews written by people who are nothing like you and probably do not share your taste in literature.
That’s totally not the point. And you know it.
The point is that it is complete bullshit. It’s unnecessary and a little heartbreaking. As my supervisor pointed out, it is worse than a movie trailer if you’re the sort of person who likes to be surprised by where a book takes you. These video book advertisements seems to mark the end of reading as we know it, more than the Kindle or the obligatory book series turned into movie series trend (two things I am going to talk about before I am done here). Books need marketing like any other product, but this is what book stores and librarians are for.
Here’s the thing. Librarians take classes in how to “booktalk” so we can tell folks about books in an excited and pleasing manner, without giving away major plot points or imagining the book for people. It’s a skill we practice and one of the best parts of the job. I bet most people don’t even know that. So there is no need to spend any money and time on spoiling a book for people by giving it a trailer. These things serve no real purpose other than to give some animator a job, make some money and to possibly...um...I don’t even know what else. They are the sort of waste that seems all too common. It’s the kind of thing that leads me to say “just because we CAN does not mean we SHOULD” and I do say that a lot. Seriously. Knock it off. Get kids to the library to sit down and talk to a librarian. Get adults to do it too.
Damn. I just realized one could say illustrations imagine characters and scenes for people too. That’s completely true. Got me there. But it’s different. It goes WITH the book. It does not exist to give away the whole plot in 30 seconds.
And this brings me to the other points I would like to make. I previously mentioned how these book trailers are worse than movies made from books and worse than Kindles. They are. See, you can sometimes get a freaking gem with movies. You can get Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. Some of these book-to-movie franchises exist only to make more money from successful books. That’s to be expected and there is nothing we can do about that I suppose. But sometimes a book just contains story which can be brought to life by amazing actors. I can’t knock that. These trailers can never do that. They can only plant a certain vision of a story that will change any one you might come up with on your own. Besides, the movies come after a book is widely read. And the Kindle? Well the Kindle gets less of a beating because it’s fucking cool.
One thing about the librarians and the e-readers. When you ask someone what they do and they say. “Oh. I am a librarian.” Do NOT say, “Oh cool. I just got a Kindle.” That librarian might punch you. She won’t mind having to readjust her glasses after the altercation. And she will win. It’s not that we all hate the Kindle. We see the value in it. But that’s what you choose to say? Really? Out of all the books and all of the librarians you might have encountered? See, this whole debate just reminds many of us of the awful and pointless conversations about the fate of librarians that we have to endure in school. It seems every instructor in my MLIS program needs to justify our (their) existence every semester by requiring students to write papers on why the internet and technology will not destroy librarians and the people who work there. And that's so annoying because the answer is simple and goes like this: WE ARE STILL HUMAN! It's as easy as that. As long as we are still people we will need friendly faces to talk up a book, make intuitive and useful recommendations that Amazon will never catch on to, and to just plain teach people how to do things. We’ll need rooms full of history and inspiration. People will need a warm or cool place to sit and read and not have to buy anything. Here’s a shocker for you. Some people don’t even like to use computers. It’s true. While one day it may be impossible to live without a smart phone and a tablet computer, we are just not there yet. Lets not get ahead of ourselves.
No one benefits by pretending all technology is evil, especially librarians. Kindles are light and hold lots of books. They make reading while traveling easier. Classics are free. Plus, people dig technology. I am pretty much in love with online databases. I don’t want to be a hypocrite. Still. There’s a reasons you should mention books to a librarian before you bring up the Kindle you just bought. The Kindle conversation almost always moves into a discussion about whether or not books will become a thing of the past and librarians will be frantically scanning the want adds for legitimate employment. That conversation is so very old to most librarians. We’re sick of it because we know our worth. Or we should.
And, of course, there is nearly always mention of how these electronic devices do not kill any living things (bull) while books are responsible for the senseless slaughter of a (renewable!!) resource. This misses the point entirely because e-readers will never replace books. Why? We’re human. Like I said before. We like the smell, feeling and romance of actual paper books. We like having worn copies of On The Road in our suitcases. Small collections of poetry stuffed in our back pockets. The sweet smell of a book that used to belong to a grandfather or a crazy uncle. Just true. We like giant glossy illustrations and the sound of pages turning. Not just librarians. Lots and lots of people.
So yeah. This is one librarian saying that book trailers are not good. Movies from books can be great. And the Kindle is pretty cool if you don’t think it means books will die. Librarians don’t just sit and read all day. We don’t just know how to use Google a little better than you do. We build our lives around books and how to get people to love, understand, and see the absolute need for them. Most of us do this with a sense of humor and the best intentions. Some are pissed about the movies and the e-readers, but really it’s much worse to see something like a book trailer. It’s something that pretends to stand in for us, but totally sucks at jobs we’re good at, just stands for how profit trumps imagination and convenience trumps a trip to the library. Don't you want to talk about books with someone who really lives for the thrill they get from telling you about books (and might have a collection of whimsical office supplies)? Doesn't that sound nice?
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