Bibliothecae Vigilis, the Guardians of the Library

I'd love to join, but I'm wondering... is this some sort of planned Roleplay, or a distinct story, or, or, what? o_O"

For one thing, you've postulated that The Library contains everything ever written. There are certain groups who would have a problem with certain works seeing the light of day, either on moral grounds or to cover up their misdeeds.

Similarly, there are people who would do anything to learn certain facts. Once they learn of The Library, they will do anything to gain access to it.

Finally, as they say, "Knowledge is power." The Library, containing practically infinite knowledge, would confer practically infinite power on its controller. Some groups would move mountains to get that kind of power, while others would fight just as hard to stop them.

Hmm...that's interesting. *takes notes*

Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentine writer of works that are definitely Speculative Fiction but not very cleanly any particular sub-genre. He wrote nothing longer than short-story length, and he wrote about a number of things that that are relevant to the Bibliothecae Vigilis:

• The aforementioned Book of Sand, a book containing an infinite number of infinitesimal pages, no one page of which has ever been read more than once
• The Anglo-American Cyclopedia, an unauthorised edition of the Encyclopaedia Britanicca of 1902 containing an entry on the fictional but plausible land of Uqbar, the mythology of which begins to bleed into and ultimately overwhelm reality
• The Approach to Al-Mutasim, a non-existent short story which he reviewed
• The Garden of Forking Paths, an ancient Chinese manuscript by the Yunnan governor Ts'ui Pên, intended to be a labyrinth of parallel and intertwining tales in an infinite number of similar universes
• Don Quixote by Pierre Menard, who sought to surpass mere translation by immersing himself in it in such a way that he could reproduce the novel in its original 17th-century Spanish from his own context as a contemporary author

Borges was cast as a character in Umberto Eco's novel The Name Of The Rose, where he is (grossly oversimplifying) a caretaker at the largest library in Europe, constructed as a labyrinth, the placement of books within which is carefully guarded and known only to the librarian and the librarian's apprentice, under the philosophy that all books must be preserved but the librarians must be trained in their discernment to know whether each book will do harm or good in being released to the hands of a particular person.

Eco himself is an author worthy of your consideration for similar reasons as Borges; you should definitely read The Name Of The Rose, as its themes and characters would all be very appropriate to the Bibliothecae Vigilis. You may also want to learn more about the Oulipo, especially Italo Calvino, the works of which are very similar as well.

edited 31st Oct '11 6:25:26 PM by Noaqiyeum