Thursday, December 9, 2004

Libraries
I never used to have a problem with our library. Never. I went there all the time, hell, every other day during the summer I'd walk or ride my bike over. I'd cart home a backpack FULL of books and generally enjoy myself.

Lately, though ... I don't know. It seems that the library has been taken over with CDs, and DVDs, and computers. I was browsing through the Young Adult section (now renamed to 'teenager') and came across a flier for the library's anime club and winced. I'm tempted to show up, just to see what the median age of the group is, but I'm afraid to.

Anyway, my goal was general knowledge and information, I figured I'd look up some books on alchemy, maybe some on the Restoration because my Shinsengumi knowledge is rusty. So I went and browsed, couldn't find anything, so I used the handy-dandy computer system to look up books on alchemy.

There are a grand total of three alchemy books in our public library. Among three branches. One of them I've already flipped through, no new information there. The second was an biography of Issac Newton I might pick up because he's interesting, and the third was a pulled book, so who knows what was up with that.

I move on to the Restoration, and forgoing computer-searches I went and physically browsed through the books. Two history books about Japan, one on the Restoration/Meiji era specifically. "A-ha," I think, picking it up and flipping through it. I check the index, because really my goal is Shinsengumi-related.

Not. A freakin' mention. Of the SHINSENGUMI.

This wasn't a small book, mind. This was easily five, maybe six hundred pages. And there's not a mention of the police force in Kyoto that had the most skirmishes with the rebels? Not a MENTION? Or, if there is some mention not enough to warrant a spot in the index?

Excuse me while I stew in my pot of "WTF?"

Disgruntled, I pick up a mostly-pictorial book about samurai and flip through it. I'm more interested in weapons at this point, since for some reason when I'm getting pissed at inanimate objects reading about weapons makes me not do violent things. Or something, I don't know. Anyway, I'm standing in the aisle, flipping through the weapons section when I come to a two-page, full-color spread on katana.

It's worthwhile to note that there were two boys, probably high-schoolers, in the aisle with me. They were looking for books on WWII, I guess for a project in school.

So, I'm flipping through the book and skimming when I come across ... hell, I'm not even going to paraphrase because it still pisses me off, but they essentially mix up the wakizashi and the tanto. Which honestly, isn't that hard to do, but my frustration with the library is at its peak and I slammed the book shut and slammed it back into the shelf, which caught the attention of the two guys. They both kind of looked at me, and I snarled "LIES! They can at least get their damn SWORDS STRAIGHT!" before stomping off.

Well, at least I provided someone with a WTF moment of the day.

Augh, this irritates me. I remember, back in the day, when the library always had what I was looking for.

Thank GOD for the internet, that's all I'm sayin'.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

And now for the daily dose of Irrational Things that Piss Me Off.

[+] Insisting that Kenshin's sakabatou is kusanagi no tsurugi.

...

I have encountered this. In real life, too, not just the internet. Allow me to stare incredulously at your SHEER STUPIDITY.

First. Kusanagi no Tsurugi is like... the "Excalibur" of Japan, so I can understand wanting such a cool and powerful character as Kenshin to have the blade, but kusanagi no tsurugui is a double-bladed sword. Its name alone should tell you that, a tsurugi is similar to a Chinese broadsword. They're ancient, double-bladed and most assuredly NOT a KATANA.

Secondly, there is a replica of the sword at Atsuta Shrine, that has never been moved. In Nagoya. Not in Kyoto. Nagoya. Besides, unless someone pulled a "Raiders of the Lost Ark," that sword is nothing more than a copy of the real thing. The real kusanagi no tsurugi is at the bottom of the ocean.

Third, you people need to stop being stupid. GRR ARGH. I went absolutely batshit insane at the beginning of the third Inuyasha movie when they acted like the kusanagi no tsurugi was being stored in the Higurashi shrine. HELLO, YOU'RE IN TOKYO. That's like Excalibur randomly showing up in someone's bathtub in England. I mean, come on.

If you want a correct and effective use of kusanagi no tsurugi in a fictional sense, pick up the Grasscutter and Grasscutter II arcs in Usagi Yojimbo. You won't be disappointed.

It's just a sakabatou, people. There's nothing extra-special about the weapon. If you're going to give 'niisan a special sword, at least write it better and stop trying to instigate fanon.

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