Mark Chambers Martin Scorsese Research Journal: Volume One

Mark Chambers Martin Scorsese Research Journal: Volume One

By Ted Gentle

"I think, therefore, I am." -Rene Descartes

Mark Chambers

Ted Gentle

            I stand on the bleachers, naked.  Years of work, essays and tests, burn before my feet after hours staring at a computer monitor and searching through a library.  They are around me in a circle, gold neck bands and capes covering them like Dracula or Darth Vader.  I stand in the center, dark myself, a mystery in a world very sharply defined by reality.  They chant the names, one at a time, as the same-sounding named people walk across the courtyard to obtain their degrees on paper.  My hair is black, uncombed, and stabs the clear blue sky.  Rain begins to fall.  Blond and red hair interact with the mist and the rain.  The President or someone who works for him says some words.

            What a hard day!  I look into the blue sky, the sun bright and centered in the distance.  I try hard to remember the past and devalue the present, thinking repeatedly of the lessons learned in better times.  Cars and buses rumble in the background.  White and gray birds fly overhead.  The crowd cheers.

            I always knew I was Mark Chambers!

The Narrative

            When I was very young, I had a friend named Erik Horn.  He kind of liked to make fun of me.  In one conversation, he mentioned the character Steven Q. Urkel in Family Matters, and he said “got any cheese, got any cheese, got any cheese, got any cheese?” 

It made me want to imitate Urkel, to wear glasses, to value what is weak, and to study.  Erik and I got into fights over the years, but over time I learned to rise above it, as you will see. . .

When I was 12 years old, my dad had an affair with my mother and gave her herpes.  In reaction to this, my mom took me to see the psychiatrist, Lee Ascherman.  During those sessions, he taught me to develop my language skills and also gave me the idea to be a librarian (by saying the word “library”).  Most of those sessions involved conflict with my brother, Samuel.  Near the end of these sessions, Dr. Ascherman had a special meeting with my parents, and at the end of it, my dad smiled at me in a way that created the image of the poster for the movie “the 40-Year-Old-Virgin.”  What it meant to me at the time?  That everything that followed from that point onward would be fake.

When I was a student at JCIB high school, I had a teacher named Martin Chambers.  The style of his teaching corresponded with a movement known as modernism, which deals with the idea that life is difficult, with the idea that people are basically good, and that some trends in history cannot be overturned.  Around this same time, I saw a film called “Raging Bull” by a man named Martin Scorsese, which deals with the same ideas involving modernism (the idea that life is difficult, the idea that people are basically good, and the idea that some trends in history cannot be overturned).  High school was also a very difficult time for me, because I felt that people ignored me and that I didn’t fit in.  Because I was the only person there who appeared to notice a correlation between Martin Chambers and Martin Scorsese, I became uncomfortable very easily, and people even feared that I might be gay. . .

After I graduated from JCIB, I attended Rhodes College in Memphis, TN.  There, Marshall Boswell, who resembles Urkel’s perfect opposite, was my Professor.  He taught an odd class where, among other things, he would say the full word “nigger” and belittle his male students.  The class left me with a bad feeling, since it was so different than Mr. Chambers.  He would even end each of his classes with a smile!  I would eventually learn that this idea (of a self-consciously fake smile) was from a movement known as postmodernism, which deals with questioning preexisting forms in terms of race, class, gender, or sometimes for no reason at all.  Another Professor who I had at Rhodes was a man named Rob Canfield, who taught a subject called Post-Colonial Literature.  This class was a more radical questioning of Mr. Chamber’s philosophy, one that sought to challenge ideas of inherent differences using politically liberal and Marxist ideas.  At Rhodes, I also studied the writings of David Foster Wallace, who in books like A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again and Infinite Jest talked about questioning preexisting forms in a non-political but still postmodern way.  I also matured a great deal in college, becoming more confident, physically cleaner, and arguably less like Urkel and more like Marshall Boswell.

After I graduated from Rhodes, I went to graduate school in English at the University of Tennessee.  There, I had a very upbeat advisor named Misty Gale Anderson and a very intelligent thesis advisor named John Zomchick.  Dr. Zomchick was particularly noteworthy because his classes strongly resembled those taught by Martin Chambers, even containing similar quotes, and caused me to have a more positive view of modernism.  In the summer of 2005, the film “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” finally came out, with the poster of a man who physically resembled me during my college years.  The first appearance of this poster was on the website www.aintitcoolnews.com.  Viewing this poster on this website greatly upset me, which caused me to post under the name “Chief Redcock” to prove that I was not a virgin!

After graduating from the University of Tennessee, I went to teach 6^th grade English at Deep Branch Elementary School.  The location of this school is Lumberton, NC, which has a large, Native American population and which ironically was the setting of David Lynch’s 1986 film Blue Velvet.  (Both David Lynch and Blue Velvet, coincidentally, are also the subject of David Foster Wallace’s 1998 essay “David Lynch Keeps His Head”).  Though I thought the faculty at Deep Branch were capable, at times the children were difficult, and I left after less than a year. . .

In the Fall of 2007, I enrolled in the University of Alabama’s School of Library and Information Science.  There, I met a number of interesting people, including Jane C. Daugherty, Sara Roberts, Tyler Williams, and Tim Wilson.  Making the transition from teacher to librarian was interesting but challenging, and this period of time was made more difficult by conflicts that I had with Sara Roberts.  Sara was a married woman, and though at times she would be friendly and talkative, at other times she would distance herself from me in order to preserve her marriage.  This conflict would result in tense exchanges between us, including one where she called me a “virgin,” and one where I called her a “whore.”  To further distance herself from me, she would hang out with a man named Tim Wilson, who would engage in exchanges with her where they would both deride me.  This period of a year and a half was very difficult for me, and at times I would drink alcohol and even consider suicide (I would indicate this on the University of Alabama’s website). . .

In the Spring of 2009, I was fortunate enough to get a job at Emporia State University’s William Allen White Library.  Before this happened, the writer David Foster Wallace committed suicide, and I friended Marshall Boswell as a cry for help (the man from Rhodes who taught me David Foster Wallace’s writings).  He accepted the friend request at 12:34 exactly, which indicated that he did identify the intention behind the friend request, but he did nothing about it.  Wallace wrote “The Pale King” shortly before he hung himself which, in another example of a coincidence, resembles the name “Chief Redcock” from my writing on www.aintitcoolnews.com .  After accepting the job, I was asked to be the webmaster, which I accepted with some hesitation (knowing how difficult it can be to get a job, and wanting to fit in).

Around this same time, an incident happened on Facebook involving me and a friend Erik Horn.  My friends’ list on Facebook involves many individuals from my life story, including individuals from my family tree, high school, college, and graduate school.  Starting my job at ESU, my profile picture was an image of me resembling Andy Stitzer from “the 40-Year-Old Virgin.”  After about a month’s time, I began to post written comments on Facebook, and I also changed my profile picture to a black and white image of me outside of my apartment.  In reaction to this, Erik Horn changed his profile picture to a similar image of himself with a man, in an attempt to mock me and make me look gay.  In reaction to this, I posted more upbeat material about what I was doing in the library, book reviews I had written for the Emporia Gazette, and items from the website www.slate.com (a website that Rob Canfield once told me about).  Near the end of my posting, I played a video clip by the band R.E.M. called “The Sad Professor,” where the lead singer appears to give a smile similar to the smile given by Marshall Boswell at Rhodes.  Ironically, the idea of a postmodern smile is also described in the David Foster Wallace essay “E Unibus Pluram,” which refers to an individual conveying an opposite emotion than what they actually experience.

I played this video clip on the weekend after Valentine’s Day, since I was upset that I was still single and bothered by the events at Alabama.  In a strange coincidence, Marshall Boswell changed his profile picture to an image of himself wearing sunglasses and smiling.  Even after some consideration, I have a difficult time figuring out if the act of his changing his profile picture was an elitist snub, a racist joke, or an admission that he is gay.  In retrospect, it seems that the profile picture change was a bit of homoerotic teasing similar to the profile picture change made by Erik Horn.  Shortly after Marshall Boswell changed his profile picture, Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island was released in theaters and at the Dickinson Flinthills 8 Cinemas.  The film featured a character named “Ted” who was experiencing an ordeal similar to the ordeal that I experienced at Alabama, where I was having a difficult time relinquishing contact with a girl or “letting her go.”  In the film, the act of letting her go results in his physical and psychological ruin, and at times I felt the same way about Sara.  That the film was made by Martin Scorsese, whose film “Raging Bull” had inspired my thinking in high school, is only one more twist in this narrative!  The timing was so charged with meaning that I actually thought I was in a fake situation created by Lee Ascherman, Marshall Boswell, and my parents to punish me for hitting my brother, Winston (he and I had gotten into a fight prior to my starting graduate work at the University of Tennessee).  To further complicate matters, I had a strange encounter with Professor Connie Phelps in August when I helped her to create a video presentation involving the Education Databases (Education Full Text and ERIC).  After we had finished creating the presentation, she asked me “what is this talk of another degree for you”?  I told her that the terminal degree for many librarians is a Master’s Degree, and she responded that this is similar to the degree that an Art Professor receives.  She then showed me a picture of a young girl with black hair and said “this is my daughter.”  When I paused in my reaction, she said “oh, you will!”  Then, as if she were making fun of me, she said “oohh”!    

This exchanged left me startled, and unfortunately, it increased my feeling that I was in a virtual reality scenario.  It also appeared to suggest that she had been communicating with Sara.  Dr. Phelps saying “oh, you will!” implied that a relationship between Sara and I would occur.  Ironically, this corresponded with my meeting Sara in Washington, D.C. for an American Library Association Meeting, an event that later in my mind would resemble Teddy Daniels meeting his wife in the lighthouse at the end of “Shutter Island”  (Sara’s husband is named Daniel, which implies that I should come first : ) ) .  Afterwards, everything ceased to make sense.  Taking a break from Sara, and inspired by Connie Phelps’ words, I then applied to law schools, but I failed to get into the more prestigious programs.  Then, in reaction to the events that came before the application process, I went into therapy to try and figure out what had happened.  Unfortunately, my thoughts concerning these events were so troubling that I did poorly on my evaluations at ESU, and eventually I was fired for missing meetings.  In therapy, I was surprised and upset to learn that these events had not been planned by psychiatrists, professors, or by my family.

I don’t know how this narrative would end, except maybe with my watching Hugo and then committing suicide, after writing the following note: I want Martin Scorsese to stop making movies, and I want to marry Sara Clem Roberts.

Personal Boundaries and the Customer Service Librarian

By Ted Gentle

            In this modern era, as we attempt to define what a modern librarian is and what his or her role is, we might ask what his or her role as a customer service librarian is.  Similarly, as we ask how we interact with our academic or professional advisor, we might ask what personal boundaries come into play.  For this reason, we consult our basic knowledge of psychology and let conscious be our guide.  We also ask ourselves, “what does it mean to be a contemporary librarian?  Do our current jobs as restaurant employees even count?”  These issues require a new, working definition of personal boundaries.  This definition: personal boundaries require a definition of niceness with said advisor.

            Working as a librarian in the Midwest, I would receive multiple questions from patrons and from my fellow librarians.  It would be difficult at this time to know the difference between simple politeness and a good customer service work ethic.  From here, we simply let conscious be our guide.  What is the limit of personal niceness, and of self-preservation?  You have to fully understand the culture in which you work, and the moral values of that culture.  You also have to understand the moral needs of the person with whom you interact.

            Let me ask: what is the difference between a fast food restaurant and an academic library?  In many ways, both are the same, since both cater to the needs of intellectuals deprived of traditional teaching faculty positions.  Both cater to the needs of the public looking for basic goods and services, even though neither are exactly as full service as a basic or full service Walmart.  However, both strive to be!  As these employees strive to interact with each other, each must strive to be aware of each other’s personal boundaries.  One must interact with each other in a nice way, without being overly interactive or nosy.  The fast food industry is an example of an industry where this is fully realized, although the library industry has some work to do!

            Is there a sincere need in the service industries to change what is viewed as an imperfection?  You must be very careful in doing this!  An attempt to change things, many psychologists observe, ultimately results in the situation itself becoming worse.  A librarian certainly must know his or her limit, and must be a static presence in the library while catering to some personal changes on the part of his or her patrons.  Fast food workers are similar, and cater to the needs of their customers while serving a product that in many ways is not perfect.  Careful, lest any employee impose his or her personal philosophy on his or her customers!

            Is there a place in any service industry for a strict observation of the law itself?  In this way, these service industry workers cave in to the slavish needs of their personal superego.  However, in following superego, they neglect the personal needs and the personal boundaries of their own customers and patrons.  Many patrons, oddly, mistake librarians and even fast food workers as affiliates of their child psychologist.  Even if they are not, they are beholden to a moral compass that, even when it ideally references the law, does not embody a slavish adherence to the law itself.  Laws and personal boundaries, ideally, work in a very close tandem to ensure that customer service strategies are implemented without too many problems.

            Can you believe that many service industry workers, including English Faculty, Fast Food Faculty, and Library Faculty, have a difficulty convincing others that their day to day responsibilities matter?  Many social events that they go to feature a mindset where they are encouraged to be attorneys or doctors.  However, their roles continue to be important!  People certainly have a need to eat, and as eateries become more exclusive and limited, Burger King, McDonald’s, and Pizza Hut become more important.  There is definitely a need to serve the public in these ways, in terms of both their eating, reading, and recreational habits.  Ideally, all of these activities would be merged in a way similar to a hotel.  However, since they remain separate, they certainly should not compete.  And as they are, personal boundaries that are implicit should be respected.

            Taking all of this in, what is our new definition of customer service?  Customer service, in  my opinion, is defined as items off of the following list:

(1)  You must be kind to others, within reason, as they are kind to you.

(2)  You must provide the service that they request.

(3)  You must respect the law without abusing it.

(4)  You must follow your own moral compass and permit others to do the same.

(5)  You must respect their personal boundaries while providing them with assistance.

Some, but not all, of these principles are taught by many psychologists and by a large number of self-help mentors.  A self-help mentor leads you to believe that aiding others comes before aiding yourself.  However, respecting that person’s personal boundaries actually comes first, so aiding them actually is secondary to assisting them while also aiding yourself.  A customer/patron exchange should consist largely of a transfer of the good or goods in question without violating that personal space.  Anything else runs the risk of offending that person.

            Service industry locations play a greater role in customer service transactions as more and more of their content becomes available online.  Even English Departments, as interested in historical events as they are, are putting more and more of their content such as dissertations and theses online on databases such as WorldCat.  Libraries are similar, with many law libraries using online databases to make items such as DVDs and E-Books accessible to all.  Fast food restaurants use computers and on-the-road navigation systems to deliver their content.  As the business itself becomes more computer driven and automated, the actual workers must perform their standard customer service roles that much more expertly.  As vital as that is, however, they must respect and take care with the people who they deliver this customer service to.

            Does technology create and recreate new definitions of the law itself?  Many fast food workers and librarians, for example, long for the days when their services could be provided more directly and immediately.  If only all cashiers and fry cooks could be farmers, and if only all librarians could simply be monks!  Computers do, in a very complex way, complicate this, making necessary the need to deliver their usual services from a distance as well as in person.  They must study, with a great deal of deliberation, the hearts and minds of their customers and patrons, attempting to penetrate who they are and what their inmost needs are monetarily and personally.

            One must understand that customer service and personal boundaries are inextricably connected and related.  One must attempt to engage the person in any professional, business-affiliated environment in order to make a profit, but one must also keep a professional distance from that person in order to prevent “wearing out his or her welcome.”  To do this, one must choose his or her words quite carefully!  The words must not be too direct or even, as odd as it may seem, too nice sounding!  The fast food worker or librarian must tailor these words to be brief, professional, and in many ways forgettable and not to “stick.”  In other words, to the point, and not too artistic.  One longs to be important to his or her clients, but one must not, above all else, wear out his or her welcome!  The task is difficult, but it is necessary in order to keep the libraries and restaurants of the world filled with people.  The world simply would not turn without too great an amount of unity.

            Now that we have effectively defined customer service, how do we effectively fill the space of our local fast food restaurant or library?  The spirit of creating personal laws, versus actual laws that you find in the local law library, must be evoked and even fully realized.  Artwork on walls, particularly abstract artwork by friends or faculty colleagues, is a great way to create this atmosphere!

The Situation at Emporia State University: Why Academic Librarians Should be Faculty

By Ted Gentle

            As I have written in previous articles, the professional role that academic librarians play varies widely.  One unusual element of many colleges and universities including Emporia State University is that many of the academic librarians are staff or faculty with negotiable privileges.  Staff involves the option to terminate after a year with very little or no research, while a faculty appointment involves a five-year tenure track with tenure granted at the end and research responsibilities performed every year.  Some forms of faculty status do not involve these responsibilities, but a combination of them or none of them.  In my opinion, the pursuit and attainment of this specific form of faculty status under preferable circumstances is preferable, since the health benefits and other forms of benefits likely to be present are worth it.

            To remove faculty status from an academic librarian is to remove him from a situation where he would likely attain those benefits.  It is worth the occasional snub or inappropriate comment from a prejudicial, entitled person in order to attain these privileges and that victory!  What is faculty status, but an opportunity to hopefully work with intelligent people and make things better?  Don’t believe the hype on Fox News, Professors are more likely to work with interesting subjects and gain respect as an accomplished type of person.  At times they resemble an inspiring teacher from high school, and they also support furnishing and using connections and references, which seems to make them more in favor of providing a job for you!  The presence of conscious-based subject matter increases and should mandate a job with similar pay and title.

            The hiring of academic librarians is in many ways more open than that of teaching faculty!  They are more likely to work with lower GPAs and, as a way to compensate, work with more practical subjects.  After such a challenging career, the best place for this person is to work as a Professor.  Their awareness of the profession and its strengths and weaknesses makes their voice useful on college campus, so that similar misunderstandings do not take place again.  The role of Professor is not an unworthy one, but it does involve the attitude, opinion, and approach of the Professors who the Librarian is familiar with being engaged and talked about.

            Why vary the nature of the responsibilities of an academic librarian, when uniformity would encourage the learnability and adherence to the profession?  Almost 60% of people or more have graduated from college or at least been present on a college campus. To avoid the specific occupation that many of your advisors, affiliates, and teachers have would be to risk certain awkwardness or danger!  Many remember the stories of John Nash being persecuted for his once or current role as a Professor, and for no particular reason, so in a crueler vein they might persecute someone else for a former Professor title or lack thereof.  Not addressing this need is similar to a medical doctor leaving a patient unattended, or a worse situation!

            As an example of this attitude, let us look at the current situation at Emporia State University.  The negative behavior, words, and decisions present there are abundant, and rather than support each other generally, they would rather “go negative” in a vein similar to a low-tier politician.  This has not helped them in the ranking on US News and World Report, and it even impairs them in terms of retention.  Their obsession with rules invented in their head impairs them and the day to day operations of the place greatly.  The egalitarian themes concerning race, gender, and slavery painstakingly developed at the department level by teaching faculty are not being referred to consistently by them.  Unlike a trip to the museum, a person’s presence there is certainly mandatory, and preferably in its current state with the current name the place would not exist or in a different more enjoyable form with a different name!

            The nature of conferring Faculty Status is similar to the health care dilemma that is currently facing the country.  People who work daily with budgets debate the expense of healthcare because they lack a complete awareness of how to generate income, although people with less experience and more knowledge debate ways to make care more affordable.  It would be advantageous to have the care provided free of charge like the lessons available on MIT OpenCourseWare.  This realization may make teaching faculty and their affiliates more generous toward the academic librarians they work with, their students, and their community, offering them official faculty status when possible and similar amenities as soon as possible when they are needed!

The Importance of Reference Instant Messaging

Ted Gentle

            Most librarians, and certainly entry level librarians, are expected to do reference duties.  As many libraries and library managers expect, these reference librarians are expected to perform some kind of technological task on a daily basis.  What does that involve?  For many of them, this involves at least a third of their time being devoted to being a library webmaster.  However, since their expertise in this field is so limited, many library managers feel that this role should be redefined and retitled.  Would library web assistant be more appropriate?  And what would this person do on a regular basis?

            The web assistant, I feel, would at least to some degree play a part in memorizing and navigating the features of a library website.  This means each page links to and refers to a resource that the reference librarian notifies a patron of.  The page itself refers to or may even contain a resource such as a DVD, an E-Book, or another useful resource.  The web assistant would also read books on websites and web code, in order to successfully update and modify the website as needed or as he or she is instructed to do.

            This reference librarian would also interact with his patrons through email, through which he or she would receive and respond to reference questions.  The email itself is monitored by multiple people, so this reference librarian in question would be one of many people who monitors it.  This way of correspondence is more lengthy but is in some ways preferable, since it gives the librarian time to think, identify specific resources, and even give citations!

            Instant messaging and interactions with instant messaging software, however, I think, are the most important aspects of the technological reference librarian’s daily routine.  The existence of this software allows the librarian to communicate more directly and routinely with people without putting them at a geographic inconvenience.  It also evokes the inconvenience of the resources themselves that are being described not being online or not being physically available.  IM is a way of conveying electronically a future world where reference resources and reference interactions are made to be more conveniently available and located.

            Meebo is the library IM technology that I have used, though I am sure that others are available.  What is yours?  These technologies encourage ease and efficiency, and also allow disabled patrons not to drop their studies and reading habits in light of their disabilities.  IM is a way for many entry level reference librarians to feel like technological participants with their library without feeling like they have been reduced to computer science flunkies.  I encourage you to research this topic further, in order to improve your reference interactions!

The Argument Against Librarian Layoffs

Ted Gentle

            Full disclosure: I was laid off from my job at Emporia State University as a Reference and Instruction Librarian in Spring 2012 after being hired in Spring 2009.  Talking with friends and family members about one’s career as a librarian, descriptions of stereotypes abound, everything from being a bachelor, to a shusher, to “what’s your favorite book?”  However, the most insidious stereotype that I have heard of, this one shared by my uncle among others, is the one that describes them as being laid off with a great degree of regularity.  This stereotype, made into a reality by many a boss, is one I have also encountered in print on more than one occasion.  There are numerous examples of special libraries shut down, academic librarians denied tenure or terminated for low GPAs, or public librarians who simply were not hired.  Why are accountants and office managers spared the fate that falls onto so many librarians?  My perception: their affiliation with and knowledge of many forms of books creates a perception that they have too much down time.  This is a shame and incorrect, I would argue, since knowledge of all books makes an employee, I believe, more knowledgeable, harder working, and certainly more empathetic.

            The belief that lovers of books and in general members of humanities professions serve no practical use stems, I believe, from the Republican-led atmosphere of collegiate and university culture.  Many attendees of their most likely local college or university, who attend mainly to pursue a subject of their own, real interest, have been exposed to the trials of an aggressively Republican or conservative roommate, teacher, social setting or experience, or group of friends.  These people avail themselves of “open mike” privileges and advocate major fields of study and a curriculum which essentially emphasizes math and the scientific method only.  Majors such as English, Art, and even harder subjects such as History and Psychology become open to ridicule, and research involving more than one opinion becomes impossible to perform as the tone becomes one of constant mockery.  It is a shame that many business, economic, and even simply scientific-minded people become swallowed by this ultimately nativist mentality.

            But in a world where we still value the canon and where the works of Harold Bloom still stand, at what price do we make such jokes and enforce such decisions?  Should we subject a student of William Shakespeare, Herman Melville, or, heaven forbid, Derek Walcott to a lengthy and painful layoff procedure for no reason at all, simply to make a joke?  Works such as Hamlet, Moby Dick, and Dream On Monkey Mountain, in detailing the many difficulties of the human condition, inspire an empathetic and deliberate thought process to avoid such problems.  At a lengthy number of pages and with extremely difficult, foreign language-inflected versions of English being employed, knowledge of these and other books are also evidence of a great deal of hard work.  Discussing a librarian’s Bachelor and in some cases graduate-level knowledge of subject-specific books does nothing to even begin to describe their specific studies with regard to librarianship, research, and technology in general.  Library school is a very intense field of study that deserves its comparisons to medical school, and in reading multiple texts and completing multiple tasks in class and on the library floors with regard to cataloging, collection development, the information commons, reference, and other library-related duties, they should not be removed from work for such petty and unfair reasons.  I would encourage any boss or CEO to tour their local library school.  Such work is always needed!

            With a heavy heart, I note that almost all of my friends from library school have had either a layoff or at least a less than pleasant job that they had to leave.  The average number of careers for a librarian is three!  One solution to this problem is more face time between the librarian in question and the boss, where both can identify work and address approaches to that work that involves the librarian and his or her staff’s unique set of skills.  On my solitary grave, please put on my tombstone, “we are not old maids!”  Employers and the public need greater knowledge of and appreciation for the unique set of research and logical thinking skills that librarians have to offer.

The Rareness of Books: Comparing Amazon and WorldCat

So much of being a librarian is being an antiquarian, and that involves the simple act of finding a book.  When a patron, in an act similar to consulting his local Family Video, simply asks for a good book to read, and the librarian desires to leave the confines of his or her catalog, where does that librarian turn?  Is the answer a bestseller, or an obscure work from small press?  The answer, inevitably, is to provide access to the greatest amount of variety as possible.  With that having been said, which serves that need the best, the bookseller Amazon or the open catalog WorldCat?

            With Amazon, the big win is accessibility, with books being quick to purchase and quick to deliver.  There is access to multiple works, including books, DVDs, and other items.  One can buy the book or DVD version of Shutter Island, or multiple editions and commentaries on Moby Dick.  Pricing can be expensive, although the used editions are usually much cheaper.  Amazon also has a reputation for a rather ruthless business approach, although this can also be present at certain, overrun libraries!  One can argue that, like Facebook, a new expectation for librarians is familiarity and use of this website.

            Where does that leave us with WorldCat?  One can observe that WorldCat does not allow you to buy the book, but does lead to greater awareness of what is present in various libraries and from various small publishers.  It’s role is mainly as an archive, where one can look up his or her old student projects or those of an old Professor.  If you can believe that Post-Colonial Literature is less a body of books, and more of a resource or more, then WorldCat is a resource that would help a librarian in his or her research responsibilities.

            Will there ever come a day when Amazon and WorldCat merge?  The greatest dilemma facing librarians today is whether they can agree on a single, open-source website such as OverDrive that can provide all of the articles, books, and more.  Would we call this website AmazonCat, and have pricing dealt with by a third party?  Is Walmart’s Vudu a positive sign of change, with almost all of the movies physically available through Netflix now streamable there? 

            One can certainly see an immense need for Amazon and WorldCat, with each website having its own strengths and weaknesses.  However, one can also identify a large amount of disorganization in the physical library systems themselves.   One can hope that these physical libraries, if their use continues, serve as an access point to fewer, similar websites with a greater amount of organization.  With online apps such as Pandora being one successful example, one hopes for a goal of free and open access.

Why Academic Librarians Should Be Relatable People

By Ted Gentle

            It’s an interesting curiosity that academic librarians typically do not have credentials resembling the teaching faculty who they work with.  Typically, they have lower grades and not as much time in school.  Although in some cases they may hold a Ph.D. in Education or Library, they have typically not done as much work in a single subject.  Is the average academic librarian bitter about this deficit, or do these qualities allow him or her to relate better to the average patron?

            Part of answering this question involves understanding the role of the academic library in this new, modern, and technological world.  While academic departments contain more typical, student figures, the inhabitants even of an academic library range from professors and students to local members of the community.  It’s been my experience that many academic librarians use their lessened credentials to relate more directly to their patrons.  However, some do not!

            Would these tensions between academic librarian and patron be lessened by changing the occasional requirement of an Education PhD for them to a Library Science or Studies PhD?  One would assume that this occasional item on the academic librarian’s resume serves to merge and comment on the preceding two Master’s Degrees.  However, the more everyday information taught in the more technological Library PhD program may serve them better day to day and in terms of their interactions.  It may also help them to work with various databases and other technologies that they encounter in their respective library.

            One should note that the GPA requirement for academic librarians is typically lower than for that of teaching faculty, which in some cases may go back to high school.  Is this why there is at times tension between academic librarians and teaching faculty, and vice versa?  But one could argue that these lessened requirements put the profession in its proper place, as a good career for student-minded but less than perfect students to go.

            In light of these lessened credentials, why should academic librarians be paid as much as they do, $30,000 or above?  The answer to this mainly is that it serves the public good.  Many employees, including workers at Dunkin’ Donuts, McDonald’s, and Pizza Hut, work for minimum wage or less.  While they are happy to get this work, making such a low wage and often with a rather good background can impact attitude.  Many people who do this work have a Bachelor’s Degree, and some have gone to cooking school, but to have this clear impairment to their career may have an opposite attitudinal effect, and they may become cocky and confrontational.  With a greater rate of pay, similar-minded people with similar roles are able to more easily serve and relate to their customers.

            With these traits, it seems to me that an academic librarian relates more directly to his patrons than a member of the teaching faculty in a similar role.  Where does this positive attitude come from, and what belief system informs it?  The first step in having this positive versus judgmental attitude toward your patrons is to have a belief system of some kind.  This can be informed by politics, theology, or belief in the library system as a positive force generally.  Although this author believes that the role of helping others is an important component of this belief system, many psychologists deemphasize what exact belief system is present, believing that any compelling belief system that informs a successful performance on the job is a good one.

            The belief system informs a measured yet tough attitude which should be present at the circulation or reference desk.  Questions and their answers come from multiple resources, but they are informed and interpreted by a consistent belief system, which helps the academic librarian to be confident in his or her stance.  During even the most troublesome reference interaction, the academic librarian can refer to his or her belief system and use it to generate confidence in him or herself.

            That the belief system comes from someone with a more common background helps this academic librarian to be more relatable.  Customers interact with this librarian and also with his or her belief system, and the likely egalitarian nature of this belief system helps that interaction to be a positive one.  Even the most jaded lecturer, for example, can turn to his or her academic library and find the struggles engaged in class less present.  It could be that belief system is more abundantly present in academic librarians than factual knowledge, which helps to challenge and change the worldly realities that this knowledge represents.

            Hopefully the job of academic librarian will not become a dead or dying institution like Blockbuster Video.  Even with the current economic challenges faced by the publishing industry, the role represents a unique merging of student and teacher, and also is a unique example of a job that may directly involve helping those in need.  One hopes not only that this mission statement remain intact, but that the down-to-earth qualifications of the academic librarian be maintained.

Coffee With English and Library

By Ted Gentle

            Should librarians be more creative in their careers and in their private lives?  It is an unexpected irony that the vast majority of librarians come from English major backgrounds.  However, the typical library school in many cases discourages raw English scholarship and creative writing in favor of Education and Technology-based pursuits.  This is done, in this author’s opinion, to encourage each librarian to have a hard opinion toward the matter at hand.  However, in doing this, does he or she alienate the English faculty member or English student he or she may work with?  Would his or her opinion seem too ironclad, and not flexible enough?  It seems to me that more similarities between English and Library professionals should be encouraged, to help him or her to more readily engage new ideas and new people.

            How calamitous are the interactions between English graduate students when they pursue their first Master’s Degree, or even the PhD!  English students and teachers seem to know each other better, and they seem to be more facile when it comes to group projects and group study sessions.  Immersion in technology, which is not people based, is placed second in favor of the study of text and, directly, the ideas contained there.  Literary movements such as modernism and postmodernism are studied, including the ultimately class-based prejudices sometimes present in modernism and addressed by the rebellion or at least more direct tone of postmodernism.  They may worry less about scientific consensus, in favor of a larger theme such as helping people.

            Not every library committee believes in the value of helping others, or in a number of years studying canonical or socially important books.  One apparent stereotype is that they are looking for a webmaster or at least someone who can add to the website, and little else!  However, in doing this, they neglect the humanities education that even many of their sites offer!  These texts prepare one for the infinite number of situations that one may encounter at the circulation or reference desk, and they describe the type of people one might meet during these situations.  Should a scholar of Hamlet or Ulysses really be substituted in favor of someone who is basically an extension of a collection of CDs?

            To further discuss this problem, let us examine the differences and similarities between librarians and library faculty.  Library faculty function in a culture that is, in many ways, more open to texts than the historical English department.  Serialized comic books and graphic novels are often discussed by the student body, as are fantasy novels.  However, the role typically taken by most library faculty is to steer them in a more practical, technology-minded direction.  It is debatable, I think, that they can really take hold of these technology lessons, however, since the programs only run for a year to a year-and-a-half.  In response to this, I would argue that the library schools need to substitute much of this for history-based, text-based pursuits, whether they are informed by Librarianship or Literature.  Students retain these lessons more, and they also get more out of them!  I have always believed in a relationship between fun and success, and too much practicality I think stagnates the programs.

            Let us imagine an English liaison Librarian discussing Collection Development with the English Faculty.  It would definitely be to his or her benefit to have a PhD in Creative Writing or Literature, or at the very least to have familiarity with the texts taught at the BA and MA level.  This department, I feel, is the most aggressive promoter of that campus’ ideological and financial success, fueling a lot of the conversation, good will, and even enrollment on campus.  Familiarity with this department and its content directly relates to the success of the campus in question, and in a very intense way to the success of the library itself.  I have no question that this department is the most credentialed, purchases the most texts from  the library, and has the most aggressive interest in the texts that they teach.

            It would be in the best interest of the library schools for them to emphasize and expand the literature-based classes that they have.  Young Adult classes are present but not well-known.  Classes in the commonly cited William Carlos Williams or Stephen King would also be a welcome addition, preparing the library students for the conversations that they might have across the desk.  An English Literature sampler class would not hurt either!  These classes would serve to play up the librarians’ Humanities credentials, and prevent them from being seen as automatons.

Heaven and Hell as Rendered by William Blake

Ted Gentle

            “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” as rendered by the artist and poet William Blake depicts alternately blissful and painful states of being as they exist in various poetic realms called Heaven and Hell.  The main characters of this poem exist largely and thematically as characters and almost as potentially narrators.  The scenes and states of being themselves seem to exist and have some loose or in some cases specific connection to books themselves or the book making industry.  As the characters weave in and out of Heaven and Hell, the poem itself becomes a metaphor for the electoral process and the alternation of political parties in England and the United States.

            What was Blake’s actual stance as a philosopher concerning Heaven and Hell?  Reading the text of the poem, it seems as if solipsism, or the idea that these states are not concretely realized but are more perceptual, informs how he chooses to depict these states.  Each level of Heaven and of Hell exists as a room that the characters or narrators navigate in order to make him or herself more comfortable or victorious.  Are the characters alive or dead?  It is not entirely clear, but they seem to be struggling with an indefinite state that is more similar to being dead or near death than to being alive.  They seem to want to find the right room in order to bring their zombie-like existence back to “life.”

            And what of the nature of slavery with regard to these poems?  Each character is regarded as a slave looking for a way out of their slave-like or hellish existence.  It is unclear if any of these characters is African or African-American, but they exist in an uncertain state that they are trying to break free from in a way that resembles a slave rebellion.  Blake himself seems to support their efforts toward liberation and emancipation, which is why the perspective of the poem favors a first person or liberatory attitude (note the use of the word “marriage”).

            Although Blake’s poems that are more firmly set in the real world have more of a following, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” is a very moving statement about an individual or group’s ability or right to escape oblivion, a hellish state of existence, or literally Hell.  Those who have been told or characterized as needing or having to “go to hell” might take comfort in this poem.  Anti-slavery leaders and groups might also use the text itself as inspiration.

“Notice My Book”

Ted Gentle

            Ten years ago, a book showing in an auditorium in the South.  Please notice my book!  Ignore the valley girls, the endless stream of businessmen and hippie baby boomers who have cranked out salacious autobiographies and would be best-sellers with serial killers and detectives.  Notice my book!  Ignore the latin honors and honor society literary types, the people who imitate James Joyce (or, worse case scenario, Anne Rice).  I have had it hard, I know, and my book bound by Staples and pending review by a self-publishing firm isn’t much to write home about.  My days and sleepless nights cramming for tests and working on papers in cramped dorm rooms, chugging coffee and Pepsi, gorging myself on M&Ms, believe it or not though, are captured in those scant 40 pages.  Do not pass me like one more artsy fartsy Professor with piercings and a bad haircut (bald?).  Please notice my book!  Ignore the jock/bimbo (not race, class, gender) jock/bimbo avalanche making its way through this auditorium!  There is more to life than watching small press publishers schmooze and try to mate with each other.  And I don’t want to die, homeless, wearing rags, clutching my last jar of peanut butter and sleeping in a cardboard box.  PLEASE!

In Defense of Derek Walcott’s Language

By Ted Gentle

            As a student at Rhodes College, I studied the play Dream On Monkey Mountain in a number of Post-Colonial classes taught by Rob Canfield.  His main argument against Derek Walcott was that the language was simplistic and racist, a stereotypical depiction of the tribes that he depicted.  He also mentioned Walcott’s relationship with the opposite sex, a negative attitude which he used to exploit certain female critics.  I would argue that the play, Dream On Monkey Mountain, is good, and describes a tribal altercation and the law enforcement response to it in very intense and creative way.

            More than the typical 100 to 150 page play, the play is rather lengthy at about 300 plus pages.  The language itself, which is the main source of the controversy, reads like the language of critical theory versus clear, descriptive language.  The characters are relatable, and are not overly aggressive and stereotypical characters.  The ending allows them to enjoy liberty, as they escape the hands of the Sheriff and go to a different city.

            With the controversy surrounding Walcott’s personality, the play is very much in peril.  It is rare to find such a direct depiction of race, gender, and slavery and the overarching class problems that they involve than in that text.  The characters seem realistic, but they also symbolize the oppression that would have existed in those minority, impoverished countries.  It is a more commonly referenced example of Post-Colonial Literature and its approach than others.

            With Walcott’s passing, should Dream On Monkey Mountain be able to shake its reputation as a bad, canonical text?  As a former student looks back on his career, it is hard to find another highly memorable example of a Post-Colonial work that really exemplifies that movement.  For the movement to have worth, all relevant texts need to be considered, and at the same time an attempt needs to be made to differentiate the works from specific political goals and allow the states of being they depict to function as symbols.  Dream On Monkey Mountain, in many ways, is a successful work, one whose formal strengths outweigh the controversy surrounding it and its author. 

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road as Dystopian Novel

Ted Gentle

            When renowned writer Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road was first published, it was widely regarded as his masterpiece, with his rivaling Blood Meridian and Suttree being the only possible exceptions.  One characteristic that makes the novel so exceptional is its functioning on two levels.  On one level, the novel functions as a simple adventure story similar to Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, with the old man and his son or “the boy” encountering one strange sight and adventure after another as they embark down this road.  However, on a second level, it is worth noting that each of these sights and adventures is somehow related to the depletion of the earth’s natural resources.  The abused elderly, the cannibalistic gangs, and the dead cities with unused, left over resources to steal evoke a world where food and gas are the only goals left.  The bond between the old man and the boy becomes all the more precious when we realize that almost every other person is fighting over these commodities, squandered in years prior.

            More than once, the duo encounters a straggler who has been left behind by others, and who they are unable to take because their own resources are so limited.  A small boy and an old man, abandoned by their own and left with nothing, are essentially left for dead on the road with nothing but the clothes on their back, so intense is this futuristic fight for survival.  Even worse, one gang they pass is consuming a small baby, as victimization becomes the new resource in this dystopia.  At a more sane and pragmatic level, one man who resembles the old man tries to steal from the duo, but the wise old man sees him coming and humiliatingly leaves him naked in the road.  However, the duo on more than one occasion is forced to steal themselves in order to survive, happening upon more than one dead gang and family and taking their food, clothes, weapons, books, and other possessions.  McCarthy depicts this all impassively, seeming to lament the new economy of kill or be killed, steal or be stolen from.

            This dystopian tone noticeably lessens toward the end of the novel, with the old man and the boy playing in a light-hearted way with some of their acquired possessions such as a colorful raincoat and a picture book.  The book, at its conclusion, recalls more strongly the source material of Huckleberry Finn in order to end with a note of hope for the boy, after the old man expires quite Biblically in the garden.  However, this merger of Mark Twain and recent headlines serves to very vividly convey a moral argument on the part of Cormac McCarthy: how scarce and precious our natural resources are becoming.

Slavoj Zizek on David Lynch

Ted Gentle

            I was first introduced to the works of critical theorist Slavoj Zizek as a graduate student at the University of Tennessee in numerous classes and at the advising level.  Since then, I have read two books and a number of articles by Zizek.  His formidable, wordy writing style is intimidating to say the least and rivals Jacques Derrida’s!  I have found works such as The Sublime Object of Ideology less appealing since they are less firmly grounded in what I think is Zizek’s best subject, film.  This is why my favorite work by the critic so far is his book on filmmaker David Lynch, The Art of the Ridiculous Sublime: On David Lynch’s Lost Highway.  Hardly a light read, it is still interesting enough to make you want to stick with Zizek.  He cites a number of other films and sources, everything from Casablanca to Bill Clinton, in making his argument that one of Lynch’s more underappreciated films, Lost Highway, functions as a hypertext from which we simply cannot turn away from the terrible.  In a way similar to the eerie sounds at the end of Eraserhead, we simply cannot turn away from the tragic fates that await each character around every corner.  The theoretical language and wide-ranging sourcing make the late, great David Foster Wallace’s essay on the same film look rather conventional by comparison, lengthy footnotes and all.  One of the fiercer, more coherent works by Zizek that I have yet read, and at 56 pages, worth the time.

Is Scorsese Scorsese?: The Wolf of Wall Street and other films as evidence

By Ted Gentle

            Martin Scorsese may be the best known filmmaker in the world, known for such critical favorites as Taxi Driver and Raging Bull as well as the more recent popularly and critically acclaimed The Departed and Shutter Island.  Even the Wolf of Wall Street, although not a critical success, contained his usual bankability.  It is noteworthy that while his early films were grounded in a first person perspective, his later films have at times abandoned this in favor of a more in your face, political approach.  Even cast members such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Andrew Garfield reflect a more contemporary approach to the films.  Has Martin Scorsese literally been replaced by a new director such as Oliver Stone (the most likely suspect), or has he simply embraced a more spontaneous, politicized approach to filmmaking?

            It’s interesting that two recent Scorsese affiliates, Laeta Kalogridis and Leonardo DiCaprio, have had or almost had an affiliation with Oliver Stone.  Kalogridis authored his critically panned film on Alexander the Great, and DiCaprio and Stone were at one time in talks to adapt Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho.  Starting with the alleged Scorsese film The Aviator (and maybe Gangs of New York) on, these films have also been faster paced and contained more action scenes.  There is less attention to setting, conversation, and awkward moments.  The camera doesn’t just sit and watch a conversational scene unfold.  The films in some ways resemble what this Ellis film would have been, with very fast pacing and very routine attention to class disparities in a more coherent way.  The films in many ways have more in common with Born on the Fourth of July than Casino or Bringing Out the Dead.

            Silence is another example of more politicized subject matter.  The film deals with an unwanted presence in a foreign country like Platoon or Oliver Stone’s failed Pinkville.  It never fully enters into the perspective of any character, and it even does away with Scorsese’s usual habit of letting relatable characters survive until the end of the film.  Many lovable characters are killed by the Japanese, setting the stage for a comment on this Jesuit occupation.  Except for a few brief scenes resembling The Last Temptation of Christ, the photography never overtly resembles Scorsese’s except for a generally gray tone.

            Even in the DiCaprio era, one can identify a few touches that resemble Martin Scorsese, such as the Coco Cabana club in The Aviator or the tea cup briefly glimpsed in The Departed.  However, with the filmmaker getting older and with his affiliation with Stone well known as his former teacher, one may ask what inspired this shift in his oeuvre from the modern into the postmodern.  Their frequent interviews together, which are easy to miss, and even the similarities between their films such as Taxi Driver and Natural Born Killers make this possibility more likely than one would initially think.

The Use of the Name Ted in the Films of Martin Scorsese and Other Films

By Ted Gentle

            Although the film Shutter Island by Martin Scorsese was not nominated for any Oscars, during the year 2019 appreciation for the film has grown as an old-fashioned favorite as Scorsese has looked for different venues for his films like Netflix.  As a fun, event movie, the film is unparalleled, and it is difficult to find something similar.  In some ways, it resembles Brian De Palma’s Blow Out, Michael Mann’s Manhunter, and David Fincher’s The Social Network for depicting a male character under such adversity and under such fantastic circumstances.  However, Shutter Island in many ways represents a unique marriage of fantasy, film noir, horror, science fiction, and thriller.  Considering the film’s uniqueness, it’s interesting that around that period of two or three years, other films came out using the name Ted like the name of Shutter Island’s main character, Teddy Daniels.  The most notable of these are Fracture, Salt, Ted, and Ted 2, which are worth seeing but vary in quality.

            Although Fracture threatens to be a remake, it is potentially a similar, follow up to Shutter Island, one that follows potentially the same character later in life as he has another encounter with a spouse that leads to her death.  One could entertain the idea that it is the same character with a slightly different name, Ted Crawford, who has found himself in a similar situation.  Even the chronology of the two films Fracture and Shutter Island fits with this idea.  The film is not well made, consisting largely of dull court room scenes with Anthony Hopkins, but it does attempt to expand on the symbols depicted in Shutter Island.  In this case, the Ted character also resembles Ted Hughes, who drove his wife Sylvia Plath to commit suicide.  This might be to give these narratives more literary appeal.

            Salt, I believe, is inspired by Shutter Island in a similar but different way, functioning essentially as a low grade, B-movie remake.  Here, the Ted character is Ted Winter, who functions as a spy and double agent and works with another agent named Salt.  The story is very confusing, and the character Ted Winter is hard to describe, serving as a double agent and also dying in a strange, nonsensical act of strangulation.  The emphasis is on action scenes rather than story, although watching the film is satisfying on that fast-paced level.  However, it ultimately suffers from a lack of respect for the characters and their physical states.

            The Ted films by Seth MacFarlane are similarly flawed, promoting a lot of negative acts and attitudes but also attempting to exist in a state of comedy and fun.  The film exists between the states of cartoon and grotesque caricature of reality, with the character of Ted being more symbolic but also existing as a Bukowskian, hobo character.  The strength of the films is that they do not replicate the Shutter Island concept, but instead take the name Ted, a symbol of human suffering, into new and uncharted territory.

            Why was the name Ted used in these cases?  It’s hard to decide on a reading that makes sense.  It could be that they were made in anticipation of Martin Scorsese’s Roosevelt, which is about the U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.  This critic has not seen Dead Silence or the animated Justice League films, and has not seen The Core in some time, which may add additional information to these readings and to that theory.  For now, Shutter Island exists as the best example of the films, taking the depiction of the human condition in films such as Raging Bull and enacting it at a greater number of physical locations.

“Hospital Bed”

Ted Gentle

            He married my mom in 1980, a year before they had me.  Now?  Racking up an enormous amount of debt as he lies in his hospital room at UAB, we don’t know for how long, feed tubes down his throat.  Forget gray, his hair is white, and the top of his head bald.  He wears his light pink skin loose like clothing.  My mom, Aunt Emily, my brothers and I stand in a circle, waiting for news.  Is it cancer?  Alzheimer’s?  What could have brought him here, and why is he in such pain?  Can’t you see that years ago, he failed to graduate from school, never got that big job with any of the top businesses in the city?  Endless rows of women we knew he thought of, that he never got to date, never got to marry.  Never forgave himself for where he ended up, he always looked for a way out.  He lies there, struggling to breathe, resembling a withered piece of string.  His face is stoic.  The machine beeps and will keep beeping.

Customer Service and Hiring Librarians: My Struggle to Find a Job as a Librarian

Ted Gentle

            If you are reading this article, odds are you have some affiliation with a library school.  This means you have seen the numerous postings of library job ads all over the internet, on listservs, and, rarely, in newspapers and magazines.  What do the library committees and human resources departments responsible look for in a candidate?  Is it moral character, or is it simply the ability to hire other candidates and to schedule the desk effectively?  When they consult a resume, are they looking for fresh faces, hard-nosed experience, or someone more seasoned?  In this current, dismal economy, with even current optimistic analyses deeply misleading as I have stated in The Economic Times, it seems to me that human resources departments and the library committees they affiliate with should have more respect for and hire seasoned candidates who have been affected by this adversity.  To do so would be to demonstrate exceptional customer service toward this person.

            Full disclosure: I was laid off from my job at Emporia State University as a Reference and Instruction Librarian in Spring of 2012 after being hired in Spring of 2009.  With the debate between technologists and the more humanities-friendly side of the library field being as intense as it is, I was one of many casualties of this debate or, more accurately, this conflict.  With funds being short in this post-recession, post-Iraq War economy, even the at times friendly, but also very competitive and reminiscent of Amazon personnel, employees of ESU were not willing to spend money on an English major and lover of texts like myself, even if he had agreed to train on the job as a webmaster.  Whatever their decision may be, and they certainly have the legal right in a technical sense to make those decisions, there certainly is no excuse to make such a decision in such a rude, confrontational, and heaven forbid indirect and hurtfully implicit way.  Please leave the raised tones of voices at home!  In the hopefully unwanted event of a layoff, which should only be undertaken if there is no other recourse, one should have a sit down conversation with the person and, at great length and with a text-based accompaniment, explain the situation in purely economic terms.

            This should be done because, in spite of whatever other reasons are given, the reasons are purely economic!  The recent Harvard study about the sluggish recovery under President Obama and, do not believe the press, President Trump is one of many reasons why people should believe so.  I have since been laid off again and been subjected to shoddy, community college classes at Jefferson State Community College.  I have also been forced to work fast food in order to support myself.  I proudly list all of these tough yet educational experiences on my resume and curriculum vitae, which I believe only make me stronger and more seasoned. 

            If only every part of this story was as inspirational!  How I would love to work in a library again with friendly, well-educated folks like my colleagues at Emmet O’Neal Library and the University of Alabama, where the pay and work experience far exceeds that of Substitute Teaching and fast food.  Who would refuse $45,000 a year and full health benefits as advertised at Birmingham Public Library over $12,000 a year and food stamps?  But sadly, the people who make the final hiring decisions and provide related feedback at Birmingham Public Library, South University, and elsewhere do not see the irony.  Years of experience outside of the field or at least nomenclature of librarianship should inspire pity and help with a capital “H,” not rejection.  Experience outside of the field, after all, makes a candidate more seasoned and gives him a fresh, outside perspective to correspond with his numerous years of experience elsewhere, like a student of literature pursuing a career in cinema such as documentary filmmaker Errol Morris.  It is a shame that committees such as those at Birmingham Public Library, and they are the worst example as I have seen for myself, choose recent graduates with one Master’s in the field or a local friend of a board member versus someone like myself who has interviewed multiple times with more education.  The experience is similar to trying to buy a loaf of bread at Wal-Mart at multiple registers!  Very poor customer service!

Why Pizza Hut Continues to Work

Ted Gentle

            One of the many falsehoods stated by Jordan Belfort is that fast food is a dead end career.  That is just not the case!  Looking at all of the innovations currently in the works at Pizza Hut such as the Book It! program and the addition of vegan pepperoni to the menu, you will see the reason why Pizza Hut remains successful: its willingness to innovate and to reach upward.  Never a quick and soulless affair like McDonald’s, and always willing to continually experiment with the menu in order to attract new customer, Pizza Hut is definitely a keeper.  One question: is it a restaurant or fast food?  We may never know.

            The Book It! program is Exhibit A as to why the Pizza Hut CEO has his thinking cap on.  It lends culture to a profession under attack by people like Belfort, who think the career is for slackers and dunces.  Many trained graduates of colleges work such jobs, and the affinity with academia is evident here.  Students turn in their completed reading assignments at their local Pizza Hut for a free personal pan pizza.  It’s as simple as that!  Way to promote reading among the young and also stay classy, Pizza Hut!

            The ever rotating and evolving menu at Pizza Hut is another reason why the restaurant is here to stay.  In addition to the new and delicious Cheez It Pizza, which looks exactly like a large Cheez It cracker, there is also the special Cheesy Bites Pizza, the secret menu Brownie, and the secret menu Stuffed Bacon Crust Pizza.  They have other rarely known items, too, if you’re already familiar with these, like mozzarella sticks, French fries, and pineapple pizza.  It’s very important for a successful business to remain exciting, and this is all proof of that.

            Pizza Hut remains on top of Dominos, Little Caesars, and Papa John’s for one reason only: it’s reason to innovate in a way that knows no limits.  Book It! and the unpredictable menu are both proof of this.  With these innovations, Pizza Hut successfully walks the line between sit down restaurant and fast food.

New Vegan Pepperoni: Why Pizza Hut Continues to be Great

Ted Gentle

            Last week Pizza Hut continues its decision to perpetually expand its menu by introducing its new Vegan Pepperoni, a move which establishes how in-touch the venerable old restaurant really remains to be.  More than just one more fast food outlet, a decision is made here to cater to the new customer with more specific tastes.  A younger generation will now find Pizza Hut appealing, a group too young to remember Pizza Pete.  And what is remarkable is that the addition is just one of many which Pizza Hut has unveiled this year.  Read on!

1.    Cheez-It Pizza – This Pizza is filled with mozzarella cheese and is made to resemble a Cheez-It cracker.  They are small, yet satisfying, and resemble in taste a Cheez-It as well as a Pizza.  They also go great with the marina sauce.  A truly creative addition!

2.    Cheesy Bites Pizza – This item is available for a limited time at different times during Pizza Hut’s schedule, and now it’s back!  Any large Hand-tossed dough Pizza is accompanied by bites of cheese baked into the crust.  These little bites of mozzarella just live to make your taste buds sing!

3.    Brownie Dessert – For the true gourmet who likes to compliment every meal with dessert, and who needs more chocolate than Pizza Hut’s traditional Chocolate Chip Cookie, there is now the Pizza Hut Brownie Dessert.  Every customer should at least sample this confection, which tastes like it came right out of grandma’s oven!

4.    Bacon Stuffed Crust Pizza – This much coveted secret menu item is here to stay!  Little pieces of bacon, typically placed as a topping, here are baked into the stuffed crust along with the mozzarella cheese.  Taste great with a pepperoni, meatlovers or, if you dare, a bacon Pizza Hut Pizza.  Delicious!

With Pizza Hut, you never know what you’re going to get!  Whether it’s the perfect health-conscious dinner or a succulent dessert, they never run out of options.  And as they seek out this new clientele, they also have the best customer service the fast food industry has to offer.  Not to mention one of the best employers for a side-career in the business!  Check them out!

Pizza Hut’s Book It!: Why Fast Food Needs to be Edified

Ted Gentle

            Pizza Hut’s Book It! program is designed to promote reading among our video game and movie loving youth by rewarding them with a pan pizza when they have read a certain number of books.  You simply report your school day’s activities to your local Pizza Hut to receive your reward.  However, the program serves the additional purpose of making this Pizza Hut employee feel like a worthier member of our academic and school system by giving him still another reason to see Pizza Hut as a source of health and virtue.  Fast food sure has come a long way!

            My days as an English major featured many entertaining moments that were both inspiring and comedic.  One of these were the frequent jokes people would make about English majors, and how they were destined to work fast food jobs!  Since the joke relegates the job to a source of humor, the prestige of the job in the eyes of these people is obviously small.  It’s good, then, that we have programs like Book It! with its direct ties to academic and intellectual pursuits.  Even fast food workers can, and are, educators!

            Hopefully this will start a new trend in elevating the profession beyond it’s recent, more humiliating role.  With Book It!, employees may find still other ways to serve the school systems, such as maybe meal vouchers for students or special days for school functions.  Special presentations to classes on the role would not be out of the question, as well.  Taking such steps, people may feel less ashamed to list a fast food job on their resumes.

            Many fast food employees have greater aspirations, such as wanting to one day be librarians, teachers, or even professors.  This program will help to prepare them for that role, by exposing them to a greater number of students and also books.  One should take no shame in enjoying Moby Dick or even the latest John Green while eating Pizza Hut pizza.

The Struggle: Trying to Find a Job After the 2010 Crash and Beyond

Ted Gentle

            Full disclosure: I was an Assistant Professor and Reference and Instruction Librarian at Emporia State University from 2009 to 2012 before I was laid off.  Hello, my name is Ted Gentle.  Since my graduation from academia in 2008, followed by a brief three year stint as a librarian and Assistant Professor, I have had a hard time making ends meet in this rough and tumble economy.  I would like to briefly chronicle these tough times as evidence that, contrary to what the 24 hour news cycle might tell you, things have not “gotten better.”  In fact, looking around me, they’ve seldom been worse!

            After I was laid off from Emporia State University, I was lucky to get a job through my father at Gentle, Turner, Sexton, and Harbison LLC, a law firm that he manages.  However, even with my own father being managing partner, I was only able to stay on for four years.  These four years were similar to my time at ESU, with many people watching entrance and exit times, and remarking on them noticeably, and with the feeling in the air being that layoffs were imminent.  For what reason, we were never told!  The strain certainly had to do, however, with the difficulties involving the money available.  Very tough times, indeed!

            I was very lucky, afterwards, to find a full time job as a Delivery Driver at Pizza Hut with very limited, but still available, health benefits.  This was not after a lot of wear and tear after the layoff, however.  I was evicted from my mother’s house, which was very physically difficult for me.  I was lucky to, before Pizza Hut, find a job as a Substitute Teacher which I keep to this day but rarely work, as the schedule is spotty, there is no health care, and even when diligently attended it only pays maybe $450 per month.  I also enrolled in a Medical Transcription and Editing program at Jefferson State Community College, but frankly I found the program to be an unworkable scam from which I failed out after about a year.

            My conclusion that I have reached, from all of these things, as I work my job at Pizza Hut for not bad money, is that the Iraq War is responsible for this occupational floundering and lack of funds.  However, as I saw even the Obama administration come up with little in terms of answers, I wonder if the Democrats aren’t part of the problem, too.  As I consult my English major background, I wonder, are tax cuts the problem, or the cure?  In any event, being drawn to political campaigns with hopeful messages is understandable, but to say that things have gotten better, I think, is problematic to say the least.

“My Office Corner”

Ted Gentle

            Is there any place more sacred, yet more dangerous, than my office corner with the potted plant and the Christmas decorations?  Two years ago, left to fend for myself at that law firm, the years were 2013 to 2017.  What place on earth, other than the small office corners and cubicles that many of us occupy, more represents all of the caste systems and class systems, completely insurmountable, that exist in our society and have existed for thousands of years?  Many people scurry about these buildings, throwing spitwads, gossiping, dating, checking in and out of doctor’s offices and hospitals, bullying.  A mass of human flesh of indiscriminate nature zipping up and down hallways and across rooms, mouths always moving, sometimes uttering indecipherable tongues and lists of numbers.  So many physical and verbal spitwads.  So many different cubicles, apartments, houses, and corners like my own in which to pray.  My psychiatrist talks about looking forward to the great, shining circle of people you will meet in Heaven, and the comforts they will bring, rather than do anything in the here and now.  I try to listen.  Office corners and cubicles.  Glass ceilings.  Revolving doors.

The Split Personality of Shutter Island: Teddy Daniels as Modernist Hero

Ted Gentle

            The popular success of Martin Scorsese’s 2010 film Shutter Island is all the more surprising considering that it was based on Dennis LeHane’s surprisingly literate book!  The book is more down to earth and procedural than the film, by far, which plays more like an epic mood poem befitting leading man Leonardo DiCaprio.  Beyond the atmosphere, however, another major difference between the film and the book, in a subtle way, involves the plot.  While Scorsese seems to think that the main character Teddy Daniels is definitely crazy, for LeHane his mental state is up in the air, and he may very well be sane!  In the book, keep in mind, there is no way to confirm the physical functionality of the island as either hospital or prison, and in the book Teddy Daniels himself seems more like a grounded, typical police officer.  Even after the explanation at the end, we simply do not know.

            In the book version of Shutter Island, Teddy Daniels is physically described as more of a lantern-jawed, tough, wise guy-type police officer than would be played by someone like Leonardo DiCaprio.  When he says “screw their sense of calm!,” we believe it!  For this reason, I think LeHane intends it to at least be harder to believe that Daniels has completely mentally succumbed to the trauma of his troubled past.  Unlike the film, we expect at least some parts of his story to be true.  Unlike Scorsese’s Andrew Laeddis, he seems to be a reliable narrator.

            LeHane’s Teddy Daniels also seems to have a very firm grasp of his physical location, appears to describe it accurately, and does not seem to be hallucinating at all.  Note the extensive detail with which he describes Dr. Cawley’s office, even perceiving according to the book what an odd, studious man Cawley is just by looking at his face.  His sickness on the boat is also described in vivid, physically accurate detail, the vomit coming out of his mouth looking like “black ropes.”  He even conducts a number of complex interrogations with the patients, and in terms of the narration seems to have a firmer hold on this proceeding, never blinking his eyes once as DiCaprio does during those scenes.  Even if he is crazy, LeHane’s Daniels never betrays his origins as a detective. 

            It’s also true that, in the book version of Shutter Island, it’s harder to identify the physical role and nature of the island itself.  In the film, what initially seems to be more of a prison soon reveals itself to be more of a highly experimental prison/hospital.  However, in the book, that transition is never established as smoothly, and the odd laboratory housed inside of a lighthouse, which so prominently symbolizes Teddy Daniels’ insanity in the film, plays less of a role in the book.  For all we know, the whole story may begin and end in a prison with only some odd dialogue and events in the final scenes.

            This duality between the book and the movie may be one of many ways that this story, which becomes kind of a meta text that even has a graphic novel version, has of highlighting the difficulties that Teddy Daniels faces, mental and otherwise.  Daniels truly is a modernist hero, one who certainly struggles to do the right thing, find the missing patient and avenge his wife’s death, against great odds, and who only partially succeeds for reasons that never are entirely clear to us.  We may never know what he encountered on that island, or what he faced when he entered the lighthouse in the last scene.  One may only hope to find the answer with multiple studies of the aforementioned texts and graphic novel.

“Movie in the Sky”

Ted Gentle

            You remembered it from your earliest days, watching Sesame Street and Parker Lewis Can’t Lose in your parents’ living room.  Then, as now, they strongly evoked memories of different, better things you had heard of briefly during long car rides with parents to places you barely knew such as therapists’ offices (Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. . .  “I’ll make them an offer they can’t refuse,” Dad imitates).  Shooting hoops by yourself in your parents’ driveway, you wondered why every show should have a laugh track amongst your real life bullying and suffering, groups that wouldn’t hang out with you, and you wondered if there was anything else.  The Godfather.  Maybe locked up somewhere in a cabinet with a key next to that old color television set.  Even then, watching that TV, your head full of old and new memories, you could just barely see the idea of that special, sincere film, the black and white and some color film about a boxer.  The film would be Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull, a film you can see just to the side of that color television, a shadow and hidden sequel of those locked up Godfather films.  Raging Bull.  But mainly a black and white film about a boxer.  Martin Scorsese.

            Scorsese.  The man whose appearance and whose films you wait for in the womb before you are born in that enormous blue, brown, and purple cinema with red curtains with your mother, who planned the whole thing.  You.  Tiny, dark haired, Italian, just like Scorsese, a baby holding your mother’s hand, both of you watching the screen as you run to your seats in that theater.  Heaven.  Sesame Street.  Scorsese.  A man who would make many films, but never one as good as Raging Bull.  A man who, as you sat in that Heavenly theater that may not exist, you knew studied and saw so many films that he was out there, destined to make a great one.  Just one.  But whose films mostly would be okay, in color, like Sesame Street, like his The Departed, whose colored scenes and expository photography of buildings and streets looks like Sesame Street.  Scorsese.  Who’s sell out movies might have included a bad one about you, Shutter Island.  Scorsese.  Who keeps making them.  And will, until that day comes when you and he die, and you finally reach that dark and maybe fictitious Heavenly theater, and the Scorsese films finally stop, and you can sit with he and your mother and simply watch that enormous white screen with the Walt Disney animated purple swirl in the center, an epic, endless Transformers film directed by our Creator.