Hehehe. Now I’m really cracking up! I’m about to write a post about how "The Fall of Man" led to dinosaurs becoming carnivores but first I check my stats and what do I find? Someone found a post of mine with a misspelling of ‘apple’ so I go to fix it and what is it called? Eating apples?
Mmm…apples…Fall of Man. My life doesn’t get any tastier or funnier than some of the strange synchronicities that crop up.
As a budding cataloger I follow AUTOCAT. It is frequently enlightening, often educational, sometimes boring, and more often than you might think it is downright entertaining.
Lately there has been a thread about how to classify the book, Dinosaurs by Design by Duane T. Gish, et al. [Or for those who prefer the Amazon version so they can see the cover and read the crazy reviews.] Actually, I’m not really sure why it’s coming up now as it was published in 1992. Maybe it’s been reissued with all the new ‘interest’ in intelligent design?
Anyway…. The thread has been all of the above, except boring. But today it got downright hysterical. And I am not picking on what the poster said here, but on the book’s ideas. A lot of comments got tossed around although most people had never seen the book, but today we finally got a description of the content:
The book explained such things as: 1) How the biblical "Fall of Man" (i.e., the first sin that was committed in the Garden of Eden) caused most dinosaurs to become carnivorous (according to this book, all dinosaurs were herbivorous prior to the Fall).
This shit even made my Mom laugh on her birthday! Happy Birthday Mom! There is far more by the way, but seeing as I shouldn’t cite without permission I’ll leave it at that. Suffice it to say—fire-breathing dragons, dinosaurs on Noah’s ark, and man’s sin caused those poor innocent herbivorous dinosaurs to become nasty evil meat-eaters—I have got to get my hands on this book. Matter-of-fact, I’m predicting the circulation of this little gem is going to go way up as catalogers all over the nation have to take a look at it now. I hear it has great pictures too!
OK, if you are religious then I apologize if I offend you hereafter. But, personally, I find the concepts of "The Fall of Man" and of "Original Sin" to be utterly absurd. And yes, I’ve read just enough Kierkegaard to know that the absurd bit might ought to be enough to make me sit up and take notice. But, nah.
And yes, I was born and bred a dutiful little Christian and have even been born again, as they say. But that was a long time ago and I’m still no younger. But you see, since then I’ve seen some of the world, done a little reading and learning on my own, learned some of the history of the church and of the Bible, learned a little history period. And I am sorry, but I see little of the Christian God in the Old Testament and certainly not in that ridiculous concept of orginal sin. In fact, I see little of the Christian God anywhere in the world, but that could simply be humankind’s fault and not God’s. But no matter, it still doesn’t square. In so many ways it doesn’t square.
Now I have no problems with Christians. Some of my best friends and family are Christians. But I have a massive problem with most people who go about their life like everything’s fine in the world and know that they are saved because their aesthetic appreciation of Christianity tells them they are fine. In the meantime they support some of the most evil people doing some of the most evil things ever done in the name of God and capitalism. And that, my friends, is a pretty big list to top.
Me. I’ll just keep eating apples. Pray for my soul if you like. But I’d prefer it if we all actually act as if our souls mattered. All souls.
i did not design this game
i did not name the stakes
i just happen to like apples
and i am not afraid of snakesAni DiFranco. "ADAM AND EVE." DILATE.
Hehehe. Fall of Man causes dinosaurs to become evil meat-eaters. Can it get any funnier?
4 responses so far ↓
1 Angel // Nov 22, 2005 at 10:04 am
Hmm, just when I thought the whole intelligent design thing could not get any funnier, here you come along and make me laugh this morning. The amazing thing, or not depending on how you view human nature and its gullibility, is that there are a lot of people out there who will actually believe that as if it was gospel or scientific proof.
By the way, I often see that in people who were raised in some Christian tradition when they actually get to some serious reading and self education. They realize the world is a more complicated place and that often the worst evil gets done by those professing a religion (or religious belief). On my end, I was raised Catholic (can it get more dogmatic and guilt-ridden?). Like you point out, I don’t aim to offend those who choose those paths, but make it clear they are not for me. Way I see it, for what it’s worth: if your religion/belief moves you to be a better person and to make the world a better place and to care for others, so much the better. If on the other hand, it moves you to be a bigot, a racist, to be ignorant rather than educated and to generally oppress others who are not members of your club, then I have no use for you and I will denounce your oppression the best I can. Anyways, I probably got a little carried away, but you made me think a little as well as laugh. Best.
P.S. Got the article for the club through ILL (ain’t it a wonderful thing, ILL?. Will be reading it soon).
2 Mark // Nov 22, 2005 at 12:04 pm
Hi Angel,
Yes, ILL is a wonderful thing! And don’t worry about getting carried away here. As usual, you said it far more eloquently than I.
I was raised as a Southern Baptist and they are (or were) only a tad bit less dogmatic and no less guilt inducing. The beauty of the Catholic church as I saw (and see) it is that they allow for one to confess, do a few little rituals, and be absolved of that specific sin. So one must still be terminally full of guilt (thanks to original sin), but at least you can write off the ones you confessed to. Baptists are just stuck with it for all of their lives.
I’m sure that is an oversimplification, but hey, I’m trying to be a simple guy nowadays.
3 Laura // Nov 22, 2005 at 7:58 pm
What I really want you clever catalogers to come up with is a way to track how many people who check out Dinosaurs by Design think it is science and how many who check it out would instead classify it as humor. I guess that’s where the folksonomy comes in–so perhaps the problem is already solved, or would be, if OPACs only allowed user input. More cans of worms!
4 Mark // Nov 22, 2005 at 9:46 pm
Now that would be a trick Laura!
And yes, I agree with the ‘potential’ solution of allowing user input to our catalogs. Folksonomies have limitations too, but the two systems complement each other nicely.
It is long past time librarians took back control of their own systems, not the least of which is the OPAC.
It is also high time catalogers got back to being concerned about catalogs vs. slaving away over the creation of catalog records.
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Yes. There is definitely a need for quality control, and some special items will always require a ‘trained professional’ (don’t do this at home kids!), but most do not. The catalog as a whole is what needs professional oversight.