A Genealogy of Refusal : Walking away from crisis and scarcity narrativesMain MenuCrisis narratives frame our responseBartleby at the WallHow can fiction and popular culture inform the way we promulgate or refuse crisis & scarcity narratives in librarianship?Proud Descendants who "Prefer not to"Some recent gems from Bartleby's lineageA Kinship Diagram of Workplace RefusalSatire is richComedic instances of workplace refusal are especially powerfulDark side of parodyMore SatireWhen Expectations Cross the lineWhy don't librarians "Just say No"?Do we prefer to suffer in silence because its a vocation and not "just a job"Feminized LabourSaying Yes all the TimeSuperhero LibrariansIt’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a librarian!I am not your heroMurderbot: the alternate patron saint for librariansThe invocation of crisis narratives is relentlessNo individual solution to our problemsDebunking myths that hold us back to enable collective ways of moving forwardWhat refusal can we take up?A Cosmic GiftManifest NOBecoming fluent in hearing and saying NoAsset FramingBibliographyWorks cited, featured, mentioned and consulted for Genealogy of Refusal projectGlossary of Key ConceptsMultiple PathsA compendium of paths through the Genealogy of Refusal content: a choose-your-own-adventure approach to this companion piece.Genealogy of Refusal TimelineWe welcome contributionsLearn how to contribute to this projectAbout the AuthorsNatalie K Meyers4b3948ab8901940da5f2eb884c2cc86b3dc6ac22Anna Michelle Martinez-Montavon1459b2fc55591cd9b08a290af468d31b5dfe46a3Mikala Narlockdb843c923469f0dadab98d57ee053b00c88a64b1Kim Stathersb8f352d1ce6eb714d5242702eaa05362c8eae357Multimedia project for the The Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship Special Issue on Refusing Crisis Narratives
The Dangers of Cynical Sci-Fi Disaster Stories
12021-03-31T12:45:59-07:00Natalie K Meyers4b3948ab8901940da5f2eb884c2cc86b3dc6ac22339481Sci-fi doesn’t just imagine the future—it imagines human nature. We need to take that responsibility seriously.2021-03-31T12:45:59-07:0010/13/20Doctorow, Cory. 2020. “The Dangers of Cynical Sci-Fi Disaster Stories.” Slate Magazine. October 13, 2020. https://slate.com/technology/2020/10/cory-docotorow-sci-fi-intuition-pumps.html.webpageDoctorow, CoryNatalie K Meyers4b3948ab8901940da5f2eb884c2cc86b3dc6ac22Sci-fi doesn’t just imagine the future—it imagines human nature. We need to take that responsibility seriously.
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1media/CDdisasterwithbackground.jpg2020-12-15T13:30:58-08:00Crisis Narratives frame our response22image_header2021-03-31T13:59:51-07:00Crisis Narratives frame our responses to disaster, scarcity and refusal. This genealogy of refusal explores such stories. Our aim is to re-frame crisis narratives in librarianship so librarians and others so often called upon by role to compensate for scarcity have other ways of contending with need.
Half the seats on many of the Titanic’s lifeboats were empty. The tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic is an event retold over and over because "it didn't have to be that way". It's become a cautionary tale about hubris, human nature, and constructed scarcity.
"This is the thought experiment of a thousand sci-fi stories: When the chips are down, will your neighbors be your enemies or your saviors? When the ship sinks, should you take the lifeboat and row and row and row, because if you stop to fill the empty seats, someone’s gonna put a gun to your head, throw you in the sea, and give your seat to their pals?" (Doctorow, C. “The Dangers of Cynical Sci-Fi Disaster Stories.” Slate Magazine. October 13, 2020.)
Zaidi, Leah. 2021. “Welcome to the Cyberpunk Dystopia.” Presented at the FITC Sessions, March 11. http://fitc.ca/event/cyberpunk/.
Yet, "Stories of futures in which disaster strikes and we rise to the occasion are a vaccine against the virus of mistrust. Our disaster recovery is always fastest and smoothest when we work together, when every seat on every lifeboat is taken. " (Doctorow, C. “Disasters Don’t Have to End in Dystopias.” Wired, April 5, 2017. https://www.wired.com/2017/04/cory-doctorow-walkaway/.)