March 13—Friday the Thirteenth, Day of Infamy. The San Juan Public Library will be closed starting Sunday March 15 until Friday April 24. Fortunately we got notices this afternoon, because we are volunteers. We made a mad dash to the library, grabbing books and DVDs off the shelves as if they were toilet paper. The only upside to all of this is that I can keep the book I had checked out on Inter-Library Loan for an extra month. Not to worry, though. I have a couple of diary entries backed up, along with an upcoming profile on Herbert Putnam, who devised the Library of Congress (LOC) cataloging system.
I am continuing my devotion to the O’s of fiction, utilizing last year’s algorithm—only check out fiction by authors whose last name starts with O. This started out in petulance that the library did not have the novel Ruth Ozecki wrote *after* A Tale for the Time Being. So I just picked up a bunch of books by authors in that section. Returning to that time-tested method, I recently read Olaf Olafsson’s novel The Sacrament (suitably creepy) and am now reading The Woman Next Door, by Yemande Omotoso. Really great so far. But I have to admit that Mac and I simultaneously thought of the same tale as appropriate for Our Time—Edgar Allen Poe’s "The Masque of the Red Death." The opening paragraph follows: But Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious. When his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand hale and light-hearted friends from among the knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep seclusion of one of his crenellated abbeys. This was an extensive and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince's own eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in. This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered, brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They resolved to leave means neither of ingress nor egress to the sudden impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. That’s what I’m talkin’ about! In the meantime, we extend deepest sympathy and concern for those who are suffering the economic impact of school closures, quarantines, lay-offs, and more. Please call your neighbors who may be in need of food, medication, rides, and a friendly face. We’ll try to do the same. Note: I changed the quote from EAP after re-reading the tale. This seemed more appropriate than the first paragraph of the story. It's online and a quick read. Comments are closed.
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Author Rebecca Moore is Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at San Diego State University. She is currently Reviews Editor for Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions and Co-Director of The Jonestown Institute. Archives
December 2021
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