ON GETTING THINGS DONE; or, HOW TO EXPLOIT AN EMPLOYERS' JOB MARKET

we didn't read this apparently "fascinating article" from the boston globe on the fate of authors' libraries after they die, but it's mention in a blog post at 'mobylives' entitled "the endless ephemera" that begins "what's to be made? what's to be saved?" did get us to thinking.

the idea that a library, or any collection of cultural material for that matter (especially a personal one), should might be engaged as a story representative of its curator(s)' artistic, philosophical and philological history is nothing new to modern epistemology, particularly within literary circles. samuel beckett was notably keen on the idea of a book of fiction put together entirely of linked quotations, passages lifted -- not plagarized, mind you, for the consciousness of the effort -- from other works and reassembled as a unique statement. that idea is central to michael kruger's the executor, in which one writer and scholar is appointed the task of locating a deceased (and somewhat estranged) friend's masterwork amid the piles and shelves of his literary and academic estate. the work, it seems -- although the executor leaves his original search to get lost in the back streets of memory and its interpersonal demands -- might be the shelves and the piles themselves, mapped by the deceased in a code of aggregated quotations.

too academic for this blog, you say? fie! the point is that we wonder to what or to whom the 'looking good in pants' library should be devoted once our illustrious blogging career has ended. what does or should it say about us? or, what does and should it say about whom? (read the death of the author by gilbert adair for an impressively intricate, postmodern tail chase of that idea.)

there should at least be a catalog. so! we're accepting applications for an intern. pay is negotiable; but really, we hold all the cards. all are welcome to apply, and application materials will be judged solely on merit. standout candidates will be asked for an interview. it should go without saying, but biting wit and snappy dressing are musts.

update: we did read the article. now probably on to wittgenstein's mistress.