Why bother doing a genealogy of refusal from Fiction and Science Fiction and popular culture?  If we want to confront the options for workplace refusal it helps if we acquaint ourselves with some common stories and the worlds they've explored, exploited, and created.  We can begin our own exercise in professional foresight by examining dystopian, utopian, satiric and humorous workplace scenarios.


Just as Bartleby lives on (and has been taken up by filmmakers, artists, literary theorists, and even RPGs), libraries and librarians don't exist apart from the culture we curate. We exist in that self-same idiosyncratic, imperfect, self-reflective culture of books, film, comics, music, history and theory.

This genealogy is launching point for understanding the librarian's role in crisis narratives in the workplace. It lets us connect the librarian's role not just to the characteristics accredited through the award of an MLS or other degree or credential, but also to other memorable characters in popular culture, and to labor and feminist work. It helps if we have a common narrative history to refer to that exists "outside" the profession.

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Now talk about