{"id":14295,"date":"2026-08-27T14:22:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T21:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=14295"},"modified":"2026-09-07T14:27:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T21:27:38","slug":"bibliolabyrinths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2026\/08\/27\/bibliolabyrinths\/","title":{"rendered":"Bibliolabyrinths"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

from School of The Unconfirmed on Substack<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bibliolabyrinths & eating (over) books<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Architectural design plans for John P. Robarts Library, University of Toronto<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All civilization comes through literature now, especially in our own country. A Greek got his civilization by talking and looking, and in some measure a Parisian may still do it. But we, who live remotely from history and monuments, we must read or we must barbarise.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

from The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells, 1885<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday night, circa 1980-something, and I (Peco) am hurtling down the highway in an apple red manual-shift Volkswagen Rabbit. I loved that car, which my father would later crash during a wicked storm my mother warned him about. But he never listened, and they got t-boned in an intersection with my baby niece in the backseat. Miraculously they got off with only slight injuries, but the Rabbit ended up like a karate-chopped Coke can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weeks. That\u2019s how long it took me to learn stick in that car, repeatedly stalling it on the circular gravel driveway of the timber-walled country home where we lived. When I did finally master it, I relished the sense of being an extension of the vehicle, right hand on stick, left hand on wheel, feet dancing between gas, brake and clutch. I was part of a machine, but rather than making me less human when I drove it, it made me somehow more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ click to continue reading at SCHOOL OF THE UNCONFORMED<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from School of The Unconfirmed on Substack Bibliolabyrinths & eating (over) books All civilization comes through literature now, especially in our own country. A Greek got his civilization by talking and looking, and in some measure a Parisian may still do it. But we, who live remotely from history and monuments, we must read or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art","category-literary-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14295\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}