Tag: care
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The Rubber-Meets-the-Road Test
Critical librarianship is everywhere. The reading lists, the conference panels, the bios. Nobody is against it. The profession has learned to wear the critique like a lanyard. Sara Ahmed, writing about institutional diversity work, calls it “doing the document.” The report that stands in for the action, the statement that substitutes for the risk. The…
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The Current Doesn’t Know Your Name
Earlier today, I was watching a movie. It was one of those feel-good things that just hit the right spot. I needed to feel good. Then, it said what they always say — it’s never too late. Instead of feeling good, I felt something tighten. I followed that feeling back, the way you sometimes do,…
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The Knowing: Sylvanas Windrunner and the Politics of the Threshold
There is a moment in Warcraft lore that the game never quite lets you stand inside long enough. The Battle of Silvermoon, the city’s last hours before the Scourge poured through the gates that someone had already opened from the inside. And Sylvanas Windrunner, Ranger-General of Silvermoon, holding the line at the wall while the…
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The Crack in the Throne and the Banshee’s Cry
There is a moment in the lore of World of Warcraft that has been rattling around in my brain lately, vibrating at the same frequency as my research and other conceptual work. It’s the moment Sylvanas Windrunner breaks free from the Lich King. It was an infrastructure failure. The Frozen Throne, the literal seat of…
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The Battle You Cannot See: On Demon Hunters and Partial Recognition
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.” I have carried this line with me for years. It’s commonly attributed to Ian Maclaren, pen name for Rev. John Watson, a minister and author from the late 1800s. The statement is less a sentiment, more an orientation. It is a refusal to take…
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Adaptation Fatigue Is Not Failure
On Gen X, Technology, and the Myth of Reluctance Maybe you’ve seen it. Something’s going around where Gen X is described as being unwilling to adapt to new technology. This isn’t even said dramatically. Not even with much hostility. Just… stated like it’s a matter of fact. Casually. Like it’s obvious. Anyway…. GenXGina66 puts it…
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We Stayed Because It Meant Something: On Captain Grim and the Extraction of Devotion
I came to World of Warcraft through an outbreak. Not a real-life one, like COVID-19. Not even a narrative one in-game. It wasn’t a scripted occurrence. It was, instead, a failure. The Corrupted Blood incident circulated beyond the game. Epidemiologists studied it. Scholars wrote about it. A digital system had produced something complex enough to…
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Feel the Hatred of Ten Thousand Years
In Heroes of the Storm, Illidan Stormrage says, “Feel the hatred of ten thousand years!” Let’s pause here for a moment and note that Heroes of the Storm is a crossover brawler game created by Blizzard Entertainment. Illidan, a central character in the Warcraft franchise, fights other Blizzard game characters: Tracer (from the Overwatch series),…
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No Outside on the Expressway
Near the end of No Other Choice, Man-su sits in his car on the expressway. The traffic has stopped. Around him are enormous trucks carrying lumber destined for the paper mill. The trucks tower over his small car. He cannot move. The vehicles box him in on every side. At first, the image reads as…
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Collegiality Is Not Compliance
There is a move in institutional life that hides in plain sight. It calls itself collegiality. A reasonable issue is raised. A link is broken. A guide is outdated. The work is not the problem. It is ordinary. What shifts is the structure. A directive is issued without consultation. Authority is assumed rather than named.…