I am not your hero
In our genealogy there are stereotypical librarians from the Bookmobile BadGirl, to the Parks and Recreation Sssshh librarian to Morgenstern's Acolytes, Keepers, and Guardians. Each of these stereotypes help us to recognize the encumbered ways librarians live out saying nothing but "yes" so we can "deliver it all over town" or how we Ssssh in the face of actual crisis, or even offer ourselves up to elinguation so that saying "No' becomes impossible. The burden of these roles make it difficult for library employees to refuse, let alone have the difficult conversations we need to work through if we want to experience greater trust in community whether during abundance or crisis.
As an antidote to the hero narrative and accompanying vocational let's take another look at reframing crisis and empowering librarians to embrace refusa. We propose an anti-hero as a sort of new patron saint for librarians, Martha Wells' Murderbot.
In her novella All Systems Red, author Martha Wells introduces readers to Murderbot, an artificial intelligence designed to serve as a security unit (SecUnit) for profitable ventures. The SecUnit was created for a single purpose (keep the contract alive even if it means taking damage to itself)-- and murderbot's feature set ensures that it can do so, but it turns out that it would rather watch media than fraternize with those it protects. Through a first-person perspective, it becomes clear that Murderbot is no gung-ho savior seeking adulation. As much as the Murderbot cares about anything, it is interested in keeping its cohort alive -- but even then would prefer to do so in a self-interested way that requires a minimum level of effort and interaction. It has hacked its own governor module and this allows it to make independent decisions that don't conflict with its primary mission. Instead of volunteering to take on more work and sprinting toward burnout; instead of attempting to fraternize or ingratiate itself; instead of angling for greater acceptance or promotion, Murderbot uses its specialist capabilities to create workplace efficiencies that allow it to spend less time working and more time watching media. Murderbot prefers not to do anything it does not want to.
This fan-imatic by mar puts murderbot's self-awakening as it negotiates its role without a governing module into a perspective that mirrors a rockstar librarian coming to terms with wanting some work-life balance:
