No one else claimed it....

[lordpeter.livejournal.com]

So unless anyone objects, Lord Peter will be putting plans into motion to endow a library at Milliways, in the coming weeks.

Jake (boy_not_lost) has expressed an interest, and Peter intends to hire Remus in some kind of supervisory capacity. Other Bound (or unbound, whatever) players are welcome to make use of the library or apply for employment. Or donate books. Peter has realised that if there are nine thousand kinds of tea, think how many books there are...

This also means that L-Space* may become a valid method of travel to and from Milliways. And Peter would, of course, adore to speak to the Librarian, if he's around. My goodness, it's an orangotan....

* L-Space being a Pratchettian theory based on the idea that knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass. It means essentially that every library is connected to every other library, or large collection of books, at any point in time, and if you know how, you can travel from place to place via bookshop. Peter's been doing a variation of L-Space travel, without realising it, since he found Milliways.

Comments

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

Sounds good, though I have to ask - how are you dealing with the cannon-puncturing fears? Only having fictional(that is, the book itself is fictional and characters non-playable)/character approved books, or what?

[lordpeter.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what policy is on canon anymore, but as I understand it, it's okay to be aware of the canon of one's existence, as long as nobody's running around going BUT YOU'RE A BOOK!

I think we can deal with it as it comes up. It's not like I'm going to be keeping a card catalogue :D

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

There was also the fear that someone might read another patron's book to find out more about them, perhaps with malicious intent. Snow will happily donate a copy of the Brothers Grimm stories, with humerous margin notations, footnotes, and strike-throughs added as she deems neccesary. The bit about the dwarves is cut out entirely, for example. However, should Fables show up in any format, that would be bad.

[pjpettigrew.livejournal.com]

I was thinking that the library will make any canons not read prior to arrival inaccessible to any but the person/people whose canon it is.

Thus, because Peter Pettigrew has never heard of Stephen King's short story "Apt Pupil" outside of Milliways, he couldn't access Todd Bowden's canon in the Milliways library. (Nor could Todd read Peter's canon, as there's no way that Todd, in 1970s California, could have heard about a series written in the late 1990s to early 2000s.)

However, Jake Chambers could read the last book in the Dark Tower series, since that's his canon, and he could finally settle in his mind how it all comes out.

Any attempts to read or borrow someone else's canon from the Millibrary will result in refusal by the library itself--sort of like the bar when she decides that a patron is too young to drink, or that a drink is too strong.

Does that make sense?

[fairest1.livejournal.com]

Makes perfect sense, I must say. Snow has no real interest in comics, so she won't even notice the Graphic Novel section. *whew*

[lordpeter.livejournal.com]

It does make sense, but I'm going to let people decide on their own if they can read their own canon. I am not going to be library police, because that's too huge a job -- I will merely state that canon books are in a Restricted section.

It'll be the job of the players to make sure they're not reading someone else's canon, or if they are, that their knowledge is used appropriately. Todd, for example, HAS read Peter Wimsey's canon -- as I understand it, Peter W. is mentioned in Apt Pupil rather often. I'm happy to cope with that, so long as Todd-mun plays within reasonable boundaries.

I don't see that this is really an issue at all if people adhere to the usual modrules. *shrug*

[pjpettigrew.livejournal.com]

Yes, I believe that Todd's guidance counselor thinks several times that Karl Dussander--whom he believes to be Todd's grandfather--resembles Lord Peter Wimsey on some TV show.

And I was just trying to answer Snow-mun's concerns about researching others' canons with an IC explanation. I didn't think that you were going to be a library policeman.

[lordpeter.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know. I was just saying -- trying to spread the word, since there's more than one thread in my post about that concern.

(Ian Carmichael is rather creepy looking...)

[blue_ajah]

Canon policy? I know I have that marked somewhere... *runs off to find links*

Here's the 'Ways Back mod post dealing with the topic.

Here's the comm info link that details current policy on the subject.

As I said before (and at some length, because I have a tendency to overthink stuff sometimes), I do love the library idea -- with the caveat that current canons not read by a character prior to their arrival at Milliways be locked away in a Forbidden Section or something like that, please please please. :)

[lordpeter.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links!

I'm more than happy to lock up current canon books in a Restricted Stacks, but I don't think it's really Peter's job -- as long as he says "current canon is restricted" it is the job of the players to make sure they're not reading someone else's canon, or if they are, that they don't interact with a player based on that knowledge.

[blue_ajah]

Thank you for that. Very, very much. :)

And also, oh, absolutely! I'm not suggesting Peter become some sort of authoritarian library enforcer who has to personally stay aware of all the canons, etc. -- that would be rather a pain for him to do (and you to play), I think.

It's only making the restriction in the first place, maybe with the idea that the Magic of Milliways (tm) will handle the enforcing behind the scenes so that current canons won't be handed out, that I'd love to see implemented. After that, I'd agree that it's up to the players to make sure that they don't set up a character IC as having checked out a book from the 'Ways library that's current canon for someone else.

(You know, I bet the cast list could be used as a valuable aid for that latter sort of thing, too.)

[lordpeter.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Peter could play it like Sirius did with the bar -- "I dunno how it works, stuff just shows up and then vanishes...good luck." :D

[furikku.livejournal.com]

DUDE! Once she's recovered, Windows 95 would be all over helping out at the library like bluescreens on my computing machine! Is there a way I can get in touch with someone to arrange this?

[lordpeter.livejournal.com]

Well, here's as good a place as any. What would Win95 like to do? I presume card catalogue maintenance... :D

[furikku.livejournal.com]

That, and she could also provide janitorial services, being a domestic-type.

You'd just have to make sure nobody ever asks her to help find a book about Macs... -_^

[lordpeter.livejournal.com]

LOL! Peter would merely say "Max who?"

How does Win95 incarnate? I mean does she have a body, or...?

[furikku.livejournal.com]

The answer to all that and more lie within. Sort of. (http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=95_tan)

tl;dr version: She appears to be a more or less normal human woman of the traditional Japanese sort. (Though she occasionally makes disturbing chugging noises or freezes up entirely.)

[lordpeter.livejournal.com]

*grins* She and Peter should get on smashingly.

[anthy-rosebride.livejournal.com]

Eeeeee!

My character is probably only reluctantly literate, but I squee with joy.

[maid-of-astolat.livejournal.com]

My character is barely literate, but would definitely be interested in helping. She is Bound, after all, and likes the idea of being around books.

[lordpeter.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there's something for her to do. Sorting and shelving doesn't take much literacy, or she could be the one who stamps the books with the due dates :D

[maid-of-astolat.livejournal.com]

Hee! That would be nifty. And of course, Elaine could learn to read better whilst she is there. ;-)

[lordpeter.livejournal.com]

Peter would be happy to give her lessons, though I doubt he'd make a very good teacher :D

[maid-of-astolat.livejournal.com]

Snow White has helped Elaine onto the path of literacy, but if Elaine decides to read Donne or anything, she might need to ask questions. LOL

And Elaine-mun is *such* a Lord Peter fangirl...

[lordpeter.livejournal.com]

Peter would be glad to explain Donne. Or Dante. He's very fond of Dante. It's just that he tends not to factor in the education of the person he's talking to, so he'd probably hit a lot of false starts before realising how slow he'd have to go.

[maid-of-astolat.livejournal.com]

But still...very cool. And Elaine-mun has read both Donne and Dante, so, even more cool...

*considers bringing Dante into the bar*

*slaps self sane* LOL

[vivien]

Tom will help with any library efforts ;)

[lordpeter.livejournal.com]

Yay! He can be in charge of the Biographies. :D

[balletrat]

*grins* Meg would be happy to help with the foreign language section, specifically French, if you want her. She likes books. Doesn't have much of a chance to come into contact with them, but likes them . . .

[lordpeter.livejournal.com]

Ah! Peter's fluent in French, so I'm sure he'd be happy to have a native speaker running that area. :)

[i_vanquish_evil]

Martouf is quite literate - possibly in many languages, but he's rather quiet, so a library would suit him fine - esp since it would be so much different from what he left - war-ish stuff; fighting; badness; death, etc - he can do lots of things - whatever's needed. He's dead; he's bound; he's bored.

[lordpeter.livejournal.com]

He's hired! :D

He'd probably appreciate shelving -- you don't have to talk to people and there's something very soothing about organising all those books.

[i_vanquish_evil]

Probably. Martouf doesn't mind talking to people, he's just soft-spoken.

But - shelving sounds good. ;)

[empath-wiggin.livejournal.com]

Alright, for fear of sounding like a bitch here, I would like to just say that I've been working on this idea for about a month now, out of character, and my backroom post of a few days ago was just the culmination of a bunch of attempts at working things out. Valentine has icly talked with azraphael about it, and is getting her own ducks in a row about it. I would appreciate if you talked to me about it before going on with it. Especially as Valentine is working on it ICly, and attempting to get things going herself.

Anyway, if you'd like to chat about it, I can be reached at conservegirl on AIM, quinby76 on Y!M and angelicphoenix@gmail.com. I'd love to work with you on it :)

[lordpeter.livejournal.com]

Ah! I thought it was just a suggestion free for the taking. My apologies. Of course if it was yours, I'd be happy to turn it back over.

The post I was referring to was another post wherein the library was merely a suggestion -- I don't read every entry in either the bar or the back room, so I hadn't seen yours.

*withdraws*

gratituous

[ookookook.livejournal.com]

Ook.

Re: gratituous

[lordpeter.livejournal.com]

Yes, I entirely agree.