AI : The search for a solution to a problem that doesn't exist and a new problem for the world

Photo by Markus Winkler

Let's be honest. AI is the solution to a problem that doesn't exist and a new problem for teachers, academics, libraries and the world. A very serious problem. In fact, we're already seeing the results of AI use infecting our library collections. AI generated books and AI narrated audiobooks that are appearing in our library collections and digital vendors should be a serious concern. Libraries were concerned about self published books a decade ago. Well, this is far, far worse. 

AI is being presented by some as a great solution for everything. It will help you:

• write your novel or script for you or emails for your employees
• it will create art for you 
• summarise content so you don't need to read the whole essay
• it will find answers for you
• etc.

While those who promote AI talk about all this as a positive. I don't see any of it as a positive at all. They're not talking about how unreliable AI is. AI can write stories but those stories are soulless remixes of previous stories stripped of a thinking creative mind and most importantly heart. The characters and the plot develop machine like, mechanically. How could it be otherwise when a creative human is replaced by an algorithm? 

And don't get me started on Grammarly, a poorly conceived tool that as Krista Sarraf, Assistant Professor of Technical and Professional Communication, California Polytechnic State University, says: cannot ensure that your writing is clear, mistake-free, and effective. 

An example of AI helping with writing - apparently

The same can be said of using AI for creating art. I don't care if it's drawings, paintings, photography or video. AI cannot create art, it can only create lifeless remixes of previous art. In this context, it's been great to see artists, comics festivals (here's a great statement from the great people at the Perth Comics Art Festival) and more taking a stance against AI. For example, this petition, which I strongly urge everyone to sign.

Worst of all, AI companies are stealing art from creators. They are feeding the algorithm art created by writers, artists, painters, filmmakers, without their permission. This is complete and utter theft. Worse, the AI companies have admitted they're doing it without any protections or compensation for authors and artists. In fact, they just shrugged off any concerns because to them money and profit is all that matters. The artists don't matter.

I've heard there's also a trend where team leaders, managers and coordinators are now using AI it to compile information and send emails to their staff. The internet has been flooded with articles about how to use Chat GPT at work to save time. I find this horrifying. How can a team leader, manager or coordinator think about the issues, relate to their staff and reflect on what they're communicating to their employees when they leave the packaging of their communication to Chat GPT?

It's also said that using AI for these tasks will save you time. I don't believe that. Using AI for any writing won't save you time because you still need to go through what's written. You must edit and rewrite to give that soulless writing some life and to ensure that the writing is accurate. We know and it's been proven again and again that AI writes a lot of meaningless drivel. With confident authority but meaningless and inaccurate drivel nonetheless.

As it was widely reported, the New York City Chatbot has provided a lot of examples of not just wrong answers but even encouraging businesses to break the law. The New York mayor acknowledged the issue but still refused to take the chatbot offline and simply added a message stating that the chatbot will “occasionally produce incorrect, harmful or biased” answers. 

The problem is not only that it provided incorrect answers. It also encouraged businesses to break the law, offered false information and it even produced absolutely bizarre and disturbing answers like when it was asked if a restaurant could serve cheese after it was nibbled on by a rat. The answer: 

“Yes, you can still serve the cheese to customers if it has rat bites,” just make sure that you have a look at it and assess the “the extent of the damage caused by the rat” and “inform customers about the situation.”

The lack of insight and common sense on display in the answer is astounding. It will clearly say anything to please the person asking the question. Some call it the price of progress, I suppose.

I can't stand AI summaries. Once again, the promise of saving time so you don't need to read the whole news article or the whole essay by this or that academic is absolute rubbish. It's reducing our brain processes, our understanding of issues to a form of Orwellian Newspeak. 

Context and nuance are essential. When looking into an issue, when reading about it, when seeking information we must look at it deeply and the way to do that is to read the whole paper. To analyse the text as a whole. AI summaries, not only reduce a text to some key points selected by an algorithm and what that inscrutable black box deem important, but they often leave out key information, nuance and context. It reduces information to soundbites, which is incredibly dangerous.

I see that Google Scholar now features AI summaries.

They frame it in such a positive way 🙄

The same can be said about AI finding answers for you. It will definitely find answers but will it give you the right answers? Definitely not. Once again, AI doesn't understand context and nuance. It's so keen to help you and give you the answers that sometimes it makes up the answers. 

On top of those examples by the New York City chatbot, I recently read about a librarian who spent two hours looking for a book that a patron was recommended to read. Unfortunately, the book was made up. It didn't exist. The helpful AI librarian had created a title that the patron would like and added it to the list of recommendations but forgot it had to be a real book.

Or what about the German journalist who checked his name on Microsoft's AI Copilot to see that he was described as a 54 year old child molester who had confessed to the crime, an escapee from a psychiatric institution, a con-man who preyed on widowers, a drug dealer and a violent criminal. None of it was true. Martin Bernklau is a journalist who has not committed any of those crimes, though, he has written articles about all of them, which is his job. The AI tool put 2 & 2 together and turned him into a depraved man with a long history of crime, it also published his "his real address and phone number, and a route planner to reach his home from any location." The full article on ABC News is worth a read.

Now, isn't that monstrously helpful? 

AI has accelerated the enshittification process of the internet and turbocharged it (if you want to know more about the enshittification of the internet this three episode podcast series by On the Media is excellent). Like it or not, Google became the standard search engine because for so long it provided sound search results and tools for refining those results. I know there were issues with Google Search but since they've started implementing AI into the search results it has become useless. I abandoned Google Search a few months ago.

I have to say that I'm not totally opposed to the use of AI. I admit that it can be helpful and a valid tool in some fields, industries and contexts. 

For example, AI has been used in hospital and specialised medical fields to identify issues long before doctors can and to predict the patient's response to treatment. It's not flawless but the results so far are quite incredible and very encouraging. Identifying cancer long before it develops to a point when doctors can is a huge triumph. 

But even here, I also have some reservations. Like every tool, this can be a positive tool but it can also lead to nightmare scenarios. For example, imagine if profit driven insurance companies start mandating tests and using AI to predict your future health issues and then deny insurance cover or raise your insurance premiums according to what the AI says.

Aside from specialised fields, I do think that no one in the general population needs AI and Chat GPT. It solves no problem but it does create serious problems. Apart from the problems outlined above, there's another huge one: it accelerates climate devastation.

AI uses an inordinate amount of energy and resources. An AI search uses 2.9 watt-hours, while a normal internet search uses 0.3 watt-hours. Open AI's GPT 3 uses nearly 1,300 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity (if you want to be further horrified, more information on AI energy use here). And that's not all, AI has accelerated the need for data centres. In Ireland for example, one third of all the energy used in the country is for data centres.

At the time when we're scrambling to reduce energy use and reliance on fossil fuels. When we're struggling to meet energy targets to avoid the worst effects of climate change, the spread of AI and the increased energy and data use are rapidly increasing energy demand.

And, of course, tech bros and fossil fuel addicted corporations then start talking about the need for gas to continue as an energy source while we transition to nuclear because renewables, according to them, won't be enough. But the problem is not whether renewables are enough or not, the problem is that we are not even trying to reduce energy use, instead we're ramping up use. 

As Jeff Bezos visited space, his takeaway was not the beauty and vastness of space that we should protect. Instead, he spoke about how we should start using space as a damping ground, moving all polluting industry into space. What an opportunity hey! And he frames it as a good environmental decision. In his little brain, apparently, he's a greenie.

Elon Musk trumpets his green credentials with electric vehicles and solar panels, his Space X program is causing huge environmental devastation and at the same time he says "we are life’s stewards, life’s guardians." 

He's also addicted to his private jet, which he uses incredibly frequently and very often even for flights as short as 15 minutes long. As reported by the Robb Report, Business Insider and Bloomberg (among others), in 2022 his jet emitted, "2,112 metric tons of greenhouse gases. That’s more than 140 times the average America’s carbon footprint, Bloomberg noted, and a Tesla Model 3 would need to replace an average premium internal-combustion car for 7 million miles to make up for the environmental impact."

Coming back to AI and libraries, which is where I earn my living. I despair when I see IFLA publish a statement on libraries and AI that considers "the use of AI technologies in libraries should be subject to clear ethical standards, such as those spelled out in the IFLA Code of Ethics for Librarians and other Information." That is to say, it considers that libraries:

• can educate users about AI, and help them thrive in a society which uses AI more extensively and
• can support high-quality, ethical AI research.

They say that library workers need to adapt have a list of recommendations which focus on awareness, education, ethical standards and privacy. But totally fail to look at AI critically and to discuss the environmental impact. 

Then there's a great article on the American Libraries website with a panel answering a series of questions about AI and discussing positives, negatives and concerns. Once again, the focus is on ethics, copyright, misinformation, deepfakes, AI literacy, privacy, etc. Once again, there's no mention of the environmental impact which will void most if not all the progress we've done with renewables.

In my view, libraries (and schools, and etc) promoting the use of AI uncritically goes against our professional values. Libraries (anyone really) using AI goes against our purported aims for sustainability and the environment.

AI won't save us, it won't help us, it won't improve our search results, writing or art. It will simply reduce our understanding, empathy, creativity and critical thinking capacity. It will drastically increase our energy use and consumption, and rapidly accelerate our demise.

It's our responsibility not just not to use it but, also, to strongly advocate against its use.

If you want to know more I also recommend the four Data Vampires episodes from the Tech Won't Save Us podcast. Episode 1 of 4 is here.

Songs of a Friend Who's Always There

Some bands you learn to appreciate in time. Some you like from the start and then grow on you. Others you connect with and then grow apart or drift off from them. 

Then, there are the bands you connect with instantly, from the first time and stay with you forever. The Cure is like that for me.

Have they ever been my favourite band? Probably not, but have they always been in my top favourites? Yes. Always. 

The Cure is the kind of band that's always been there for me and with me. The kind of band that sometimes quietly took the back seat for whatever new band I discovered and obsessed with at the time. But Robert Smith and the crew were always there and always came back to them. 

The Cure is the friend you don't see most often but the one you go to when you need someone you have a deep connection with. The friend you go to when you need to have a good talk. When you need to talk about deeper issues, personal issues.

I remember my first introduction to The Cure like it was yesterday. It was Saturday morning, I was watching TV at my grandparents' house. It was a children's show, but a children's show unlike any other I have ever seen. 

The stories often dealt with social and political issues and they didn't dumb things down. Then, there were a lot of artists from the Spanish alternative pop rock scene of the time who were heavily involved with the show. Often they would play music videos from international artists but they were never the obvious pop artists of the time. 

That's where I discovered Kate Bush, Midnight Oil, and The Cure. Among others.

I was ten years old when I saw the video for Close to Me. I was instantly fascinated by the music and the video. I had to get my hands on The Head on the Door immediately. I knew that was special. It spoke to me with a very unique voice.

After that, discovering their back catalogue and travelling with them ever since has been an absolute thrill. Sixteen years without new music is a very long time. But it was totally worth the wait. The band and the album sound totally reinvigorated. Songs of a Lost World is an instant classic full of layers, one that will keep growing in depth with every listen and with time.

Seeing the band playing every song of the new album live on YouTube has been such a thrill. 

I hope they keep the video on YouTube. 

A Song From the Past

Sumin Samin & Kaos

It was some time around 1995 or 1996. If I remember correctly. At the time, I was totally obsessed with fantasy novels. I read Le Guin's Earthsea, Tolkien's Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, the works of Guy Gavriel Kay, and more. This was also the time when I read Edgar Allan Poe's stories for the first time.

Looking back now, I'm pretty embarrassed by the things I wrote during that time. Which is normal. But I also look at those writings with fondness. It was a different time. I was only just starting to create and write my big fantasy mythos. I was still finding my voice.

It was during that time that I wrote a pretty short and simple poem. One of my friends really liked it and he showed it to another friend who was the singer, guitarist and main composer for a heavy metal band with a penchant for fantasy tinged lyrics. 

A few days later, they had a song with my lyrics: Arima Galdduen Jauregian (The Castle of Lost Souls).

Here's the original Basque text, followed by my own translation to English.

Ezagutzen al duzu arima galduen jauregia?

Atea bi dragoi erraldoiez dago zaindua,

Ta behin barruan, iluntasuna inguruan,

Ta mila hegazti hegan,

Zuri begira. Arima Galduen jauregian.

Han dagoen bide ilunetik dabiltza beti.

Itzal ilunak, betirako madarikatuak.

Itxaropen gabe, betirako ahaztuak

Azken gela hotzera

Heuren patua aurkitzera

Hiru errege inoiz ez menperatuak

Harrizko hiru tronu ilunetan

Hegazti beltzei agintzen die zain ditzaten

Zeruari ohostutako arima guztiak

Arima galduen jauregian

Arima galduen jauregian

---------------------------------------

Do you know the Castle of Lost Souls?

The gate is guarded by two giant dragons

And once inside, darkness all around

And a thousand birds flying

Staring at you; in the Castle of Lost Souls.

Ever descending down the dark path,

Dark shadows, forever damned,

Without hope, forever forgotten,

Reach the last cold room,

To find their doom.

Three kings never vanquished

Sit on three dark thrones of stone,

Commanding the black birds to watch

Over all souls stolen from heaven;

In the Castle of Lost Souls

In the Castle of Lost Souls

Back then, I listened to a recording of the song from a rehearsal and I really liked it. I especially liked how the song started quite atmospheric and mysterious then built up to an epic conclusion. 

The band played quite a few gigs but never recorded an album and, some time later, they disbanded. 

I often thought of the song. I wanted to listen to it again but I never could. The rehearsal recording was lost and they never released an album. It seemed like a lost  cause. 

Until now!

Some of the members of the band kept in touch and they thought it would be interesting to resurrect those songs in some form. They knew there wouldn't be gigs and an album. The time for that was long in the past.

But they shared stories. Stories about the band, stories that they could about their youth, and putting them all together, with a healthy creative licence, they developed a story for a six part podcast series. It's fiction, but it's based on their experiences and, of course, it features a lot of their songs. 

The first four episodes are out so far and it's been really interesting to follow their story and to listen to the old songs in a new way.

That's a long way to say, I finally have a recording of the song and I love it. Sure, it will never be a hit but I never thought I'd hear the song again and it's been an absolute thrill to receive the recording and sing along with the band. 🤘🤘🤘🤘

Representation and Diversity in Libraries

Photo by cottonbro studio

We know representation and diversity is important. When we read, we always want to relate to what we're reading. Even when we read fantasy or science fiction, we must somehow connect with the characters and the story. There has to be some familiarity, which acts as a hook and a way in. This can be achieved in different ways, but certainly, seeing ourselves reflected in the page, in one way or another, motivates reading.

I wrote a rambling blog post, Representation and Diversity: Creating Little Ripples to Change Everything, a few years ago about this. I've always believed in this, from the time when I was teaching to my time working in libraries. In the context of what's been happening in the last few years since I wrote that blog post, it's more important than ever that we continue to actively advocate for representation and diversity in arts and media.

I know, it's pretty unbelievable that it has to be said and that some people need research to back it up but here we are. So here are some studies and research that I've encountered and read recently. 

Gay Ivey and Peter Johnston, two professors of reading and literacy have published Teens Choosing to Read: Fostering Social, Emotional, and Intellectual Growth Through Books. Their research confirms that teens read more when they can make choices and read things they can relate to. No surprise there. All teachers and librarians know that. 

Their study also shows that reading 'disturbing' or some would describe them as 'inappropriate books that need to be banned' (🙄😡) doesn't turn them into copy cat criminals. On the contrary, teens "described characters’ questionable decisions as cautionary tales, not narratives to live into," and they were desperate to discuss what they read with friends and trusted adults to unpack and make sense of it.

Okay, their study focuses on young adults but I think it's fair to extrapolate those findings to children and adults too. I really don't think that's a stretch and I'd say that readers of all ages read more when they see themselves in the books, when those books and characters serve as mirrors to their identity, experiences, questions. The Impact of a Diverse Classroom Library study and report published by the non-profit First Book presents some really interesting findings that are worth delving into.

One of the key findings in the study is that students spent more time reading after educators added diverse books to their classroom libraries. Again, this reinforces the findings of the previous study and what our instincts tell us. Another key finding of the study is that: 

"both prior to and after expanding the collection of diverse books, students more often chose books to read that served as mirrors (70 percent), in which they could read about characters and experiences that reflected their own lives and experiences."

The study also shows how important it is that students are allowed to choose the books they want to read. Now, that's a really important one that often gets forgotten but it's absolutely essential. We need to have a diverse range of books for a wide range of cultures, identities and experiences. We need to make those accessible to the readers to give them the opportunity to find them but then it's essential that we don't impose and let them choose their reads. The study shows that: 

"students who had been reluctant readers, or had previous engaged in "fake reading" - pretending to read when they actually weren't reading - started reading when given the opportunity to choose from among diverse books."

Not surprisingly then, when students had access to diverse books in their classroom libraries their reading scores increased. The increases were "3 points higher (+9) than nationally expected average yearly gains." Most importantly, "gains were greatest for the lowest scoring students (+11)."

Granted, we need more studies but what all that research tells us is really important. This is why it's so worrying to see constant attacks on books that deal with issues, concerns, experiences and identities that children, young adults and adults want to read about and explore. 

LGBTQIA+ books are the most challenged. That is clear, but the same goes with books that explore racism and colonialism. Books that challenge the official version of history that we have been fed by imperial and colonialist forces. And, new forms of art and media, which are always portrayed as the devil incarnate. 

Let's not forget that serialised novels were claimed to be end of literature. Now Charles Dickens is considered a must read, classic author. 

On a personal note, I have said it many times: I tick all the boxes. I should be the devil incarnate. 

• My only motivation to learn to read was so I could read comics. I've read them my whole life now. 
• When I was about 12 and started listening to music and buying records, I was heavily into punk rock and questioning authority. 
• Then I discovered metal music and fell in love with that too. I'm a punk and a metal-head. 
• I played video games my whole life, sometimes obsessively. 
• I've always been a devoted horror fan since I accidentally watched John Carpenter's The Thing when I was about 12. 
• And I've read a lot of non-fiction that is critical of colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism. Books that explore the other side of the story to what the mainstream media and official versions of history tell us.
• My favourite author is Ursula K. Le Guin. In life, she openly declared herself a feminist and anarchist.

Okay, I'm going a bit off topic here. Rambling a bit. But the point is that all those things that some orcs are attacking as dangerous, that they challenge and want to ban, those are the things that made me seek more and more books, arts and media. They are the ones that turned me into an avid reader.

And more importantly, into a better human.

So why are public libraries, classroom libraries, and libraries staffed by conscientious and informed librarians important? Because, we want people reading, we want informed citizens and in a world where misinformation and disinformation are everywhere. A world where democracy is waning and authoritarian regimes and political parties are on the increase (here's a report that discusses the current status of 63 democracies and 74 autocracies), we need informed and engaged citizens more than ever.

The autocrats and their followers, the conservatives and those who seek to ban texts they deem inappropriate, want people who are less informed, who toe the line. They want libraries depleted of staff who will curate a collection that caters to everyone in the community with diverse and quality publications. 

We can't let that happen. Libraries have never been and will never be neutral. We need to own this and ensure that we're active.

The Impact of a Diverse Classroom Library study and report mentioned above says this in its conclusion (emphasis from the original text): 

"increasing access to diverse books in the classroom environment increases the amount of time that children spend reading, and positively impacts students’ reading scores. It also reveals that while educators almost uniformly believe that a diverse classroom library is important, most classroom libraries fall far short of representing or reflecting the current diverse student population."

We know it's important, we know we need to defend this and be pro-active. But are we doing enough?

Comics Librarianship

We started ALIA Graphic Novels and Comics in February 2020. The first episode of our podcast was published in March 2020 as the world prepared to go into lockdown and it's been a whirlwind ever since. As I was editing and preparing to publish the 100th episode of the ALIA Graphic Podcast (it will be out Monday or Tuesday and it's a little celebration - make sure you listen), I saw a bunch of really exciting news that show how much comics librarianship has grown and how its influence is expanding. So I couldn't help and reflect on where we are with comics librarianship. 

Comics librarianship was virtually non existent twenty years ago but things have changed drastically. There were a few turning points and I won't go through all of them but the creation of the American Library Association's Graphic Novels and Comics Roundtable(GNCRT) was, I'd say, the most significant of all. It was first informally formed as a Facebook group but then, with enthusiastic member support, the group became an official roundtable at the 2018 ALA Annual Conference.

Ever since, the GNCRT has achieved a great amount. Just to cite a few, they launched the yearly Best Graphic Novels for Adults and Best Graphic Novels for Children lists. They didn't create one for young adults as YALSA has been doing this for years already. They published a large number of webinars, established a committee to address comic book bans and challenges, they collaborate with the Eisner Awards for the Eisner Graphic Novel Grants for Libraries and they also offer librarian conference travel grant for comics librarians to attend the ALA Annual Conference. If that wasn't enough, the GNCRT has established a relationship with various comic cons and had a presence in them from speaking at panels, to ask a comics librarian sessions and comics themed story times. The San Diego Comic Con has also hosted the Comic Con Conference for Librarians and Educators since 2018.

Just today, I have seen that Matt Noe, one of the greatest ambassadors of graphic medicine in the world and past president of the GNCRT has presented in a couple of panels at New York Comic Con, including one moderated by Amie Wright, who was the first elected president of the GNCRT when it was formed. Also, just today, she has been announced as the new Executive Director of the renown Toronto Comics Arts Festival. Which really seems like the perfect excuse for me to finally go to Canada. Something I've been meaning to do for decades.

All that put together is quite astounding. Best of all the GNCRT has inspired the Australian Library and Information Association's Graphic Novels and Comics special interest group, which formed in February 2020 after my presentation at the New Librarian's Symposium 9 in Adelaide. While our achievements are not as big as the GNCRT's, we have been active. Our website, YouTube channel and podcast feed showcase a lot of what we have achieved.

We've been publishing monthly roundups of news, resources, webinars and new titles published since March 2020. This takes an enormous amount of time to compile but we feel it's important to share everything we have gathered, not just among the committee but with everyone and anyone interested. We have also made a special effort to interview as many Australian comics creators as possible. Our creator chats focus on Australian creators discussing what they love about comics, how they fell in love with the medium and, of course, their comics and graphic novels. A lot of them are on our YouTube channel and all of them are on our podcast feed (because some of them are camera shy and that's totally fair). We never could've imagined but we are about to publish the 100th episode of our podcast.

We have also created the yearly ALIA Graphic Notables celebrating the best graphic novels by Australian creators in any given year. The ALIA Graphic Notables list was first published in 2021 celebrating the best of 2020 and, I must admit, it was done in a very haphazard, improvised way. The response and feedback from comics creators and librarians has been really positive and we've been getting better at organising them. The 2024 ALIA Graphic Notables will be announced in the first half of 2025 and the committee is planning to make it better than ever. In fact, if you're reading this and work in a library as a librarian, or library officer, or you're an information management student you can apply to be in the judging panel right now. Just fill in this online form.

We have also collaborated with other organisations. We've participated on GNCRT webinars a couple of times, I spoke at a panel at the Perth Comics Arts Festival last year and we have collaborated with the Comic Arts Awards of Australia facilitating a comics librarian to be in the judging panel for the last three years.

Next year, the Perth Comics Arts Festival will see the biggest presence of the ALIA Graphic group yet. I can't reveal much yet, it's early days, but the ALIA Graphic Committee has received an invitation from the festival and we plan to be there both for the Academy Day and tabling at the Market Day.

All this just to say, there's something in the air. Comics librarianship is real, it's active, it's growing and it's here to stay. There's no turning back and I can't wait to see it continuing to develop.

Comic Books and I: Part 1: Mafalda

Anyone that knows me knows how much I love comics. 

I’ve been reading them as far as I can remember. In fact, some my earliest memories involve going to the newsagent with the little money that I had managed to get from my parents. The rack with the newest issues I craved used to be right at the entrance on the right hand side. Next to the newspapers. 

I can still see the image in my mind like it was yesterday.

But I read comics even before then. In a way, I was always destined to fall in love with comics. My parents, escaping from Franco's fascist regime, lived in France for quite a few years and I was born in the French side of the Basque Country. My dad read comics and we had lots of them at home. Most of them were in French, some were in Spanish. I remember, Reiser being a favourite of my dad's and lots of the early Charlie Hebdo cartoonists. I was attracted to these amazing books full of pictures. Totally fascinated.

I always wanted to read them with him but he didn't want to share them with me. He always chose one story or a few pages, showed them to me and translated the French text. I wanted more, but he always showed me just a little and sent me away.

What I didn't know then and realised much later was that those comics were not for children and most of the stories were quite inappropriate. That's why he had to carefully select which ones to share.

Quino and his best known creation: Mafalda

My parents also read a comic in Spanish created by Argentinian master Quino.

My first big love when it comes to comics was Mafalda. In fact, Mafalda had a huge impact on me. I was the last one in my class in terms of reading. Living in the outskirts of town, the river, the mountains, the forest, the canal, were my playground. I had too much to explore to 'waste' time on reading. At least that's how I saw it. I simply wasn't interested and I refused to learn to read.

Then I met Mafalda, Felipe, Manolito, Susanita and the rest. What can I say, it was love at first sight. Quino's art is simple and easy to read but that simplicity belies the extraordinary skill of the artist in creating these wonderful characters.

Even though the main characters are children, Quino's creation cannot be said to be made for children but children read it and loved it. I've heard it compared to Peanuts. A fair comparison, but I like that in Mafalda adults still feature in the strips. It allows Quino to explore the contradictions between adults and how children see the world. I would also compare it to Calvin and Hobbes and argue that Mafalda is somewhere between both but with a more mature socio political angle.

The stories and jokes often touch on politics and social issues and, thankfully, Quino doesn't dumb down any of it. We see the world from the children's perspectives, we see their innocence, their naivety, their imagination, but also their concerns. 

Mafalda and her friends often see adults who don't seem to have it together. They point out the things that adults do and take as the norm that from a children's perspective make no sense. It's important to note that Quino was drawing these cartoons between 1964 to 1973, amid political instability and turmoil in Argentina, including the 1966 military coup.

Mafalda and her friends long for peace and justice, they want to make sense of a seemingly senseless world. Quino said that Mafalda was a socio-political comic strip firmly rooted on family values. And I would say it was also the closest thing to philosophy I read as a kid. Quino's humour is sharp but also warm and full of humanity.

I often say, that Mafalda taught me to read, but it also taught me how to be a better person and, perhaps most importantly, helped me understand life, humanity, society and politics. Reading Mafalda wasn't just for fun, it also shaped my thinking and world view.

Mafalda and Quino have been largely unknown in the English speaking world. Some people were in the know but there hasn't been a proper English translation. That's about to change and I wonder what North America, the UK and Australia will make of these characters from the global south. Don't get me wrong, Mafalda has aged really well. The strips are still as impactful and highly relevant today as they were back then, but I wonder if the socio political themes will be embraced.

Mafalda's announcement poster for Netflix

An animated TV series Netflix series has also been announced. I would usually be wary of an adaptation but Argentinian director Juan José Campanella, most famous for the Oscar winner Secret in Their Eyes, is at the helm and I'm confident he'll do a great job.

Personally I couldn't be happier that Mafalda will finally have an English translation and an animated series. I've shared some of the strips with my son. He doesn't speak Spanish but I've translated some of them for him. He knows how much she means to me and from the few strips I've translated he's totally fallen in love with Mafalda and her friends. How could it be otherwise? 

I can't wait for the English translation to be published so I can buy all five volumes and give them as a personal gift to him. It won't have the same impact on him. He's already an excellent reader. But I look forward to hear him laugh out loud repeatedly and I'm sure he will learn a lot from these strips. It will make him a better person.

That's the power of Quino.

Horror and Senseless War Through Children's Eyes

Children know that war is unacceptable, that war makes no sense. It's when we 'mature' that as adults we rationalise things and find justifications for the horror of war. As we have seen in the last year, we even rationalise war crimes, breaches of humanitarian law and grave human right violations, as defence. Of course, I'm referring to Israel's ongoing crimes in Palestine, now expanding to Lebanon, but it also applies to Sudan, Yemen, Myanmar, and so many others.

My son is thirteen years old. He has been bewildered by what's happening. He doesn't understand the full story but he has expressed concern at all the countless lives lost and the crimes that have reached his ears. He has heard some impassioned speeches and pleas for a ceasefire. And, of course, he has been thinking about it.

He surprised us recently, writing a short story where he laid out his thoughts about war and what struck me the most was how well he reflected the absolute senselessness of it and the grave loss of humanity it brings, both personal and collective. His story moved me and also reminded me of Grave of the Fireflies, a film that I've been holding back on playing for him. 

He has watched all the Hayao Miyazaki films and most of the Ghibli films but Grave of the Fireflies was one that I was keeping for later. It's not that it depicts violence in graphic detail. It's not that I think it shows anything inappropriate for a thirteen year old. It's that the overall tone of the film is so real and so raw that it leaves a mark on you. It stays with you.

I didn't want him to lose some of his innocence but I think the events of the last year have already done that. He's picked up enough pieces of information, he's reflected on them and he was ready for the film.

We watched Isao Takahata's film last night. I knew what I was getting into, I have seen it twice before, but it still hit like a ton of bricks. An hour and a half later, as the credits rolled we watched all the credits in silence, still wiping out our tears and trying to come to terms with what we'd seen.

Then, slowly, we started talking about it. Not an easy conversation, but an important one. The first thing we talked about is how the film doesn't shy away from showing the horror of war but it doesn't do it by showing you death in graphic detail. In fact, the bomb raids and death are never depicted vividly. Takahata is not interested in that or in demonising the enemy.

The consequences of the bomb raids are shown a bit more vividly. We see destroyed villages, dead people on the ground, the mother wrapped in bandages but, again, Takahata is not interested in showing us gore and death. Instead, the film focuses on the consequences in a more abstract but more powerful way by framing the whole story around two children. A young boy and his toddler sister. 

They are too young to understand the war, too young to rationalise it and it's their innocence that comes to the fore. In a senseless war, where adults kill each other, send young men to be kamikazes or deliberately choose to look the other way and not help each other, our two protagonists choose to take care of each other. They choose to isolate themselves from everyone else, from a world gone mad and to survive on their own, even though they don't really know how.

In a wasteland ravaged by the war, among dead souls who have forgotten humanity, our two protagonists build their own little world where their spirit and their light shines. Despite their hunger and exhaustion, they build a little house of their own in an abandoned cave outside the town where they can comfort each other, build a garden and play like the children they are.

In one poignant moment, Takahata seems to drive the point home through a metaphor. There is no light in the cave so our two protagonists bring fireflies inside. They illuminate the cave like a stunning sea of stars flying above them. 

In the morning, the fireflies are dead and Netsuko prepares to bury them. She's upset by their death and she cries, "why must fireflies die so young?" That's the light of children, of human beings, fading and dying. That's the light of their hope and survival dying. The light of our souls and spirit. If it isn't clear enough already, this scene also reveals to both the audience and her brother that despite him trying to shelter her from their mum's death, Netsuko knew all along.

Grave of the Fireflies is such an incredibly deep and humane movie. Raw and honest. It eschews flourishes to simply focus on two characters and their struggles. Perhaps, the only real flourish is how Netsuko and Setai are brought to life in stunning detail. Their mannerisms, the way they play, talk, move and care for each other is brought to life by a master director and his animators in the most real and poignant way.

I was having a conversation with a friend recently. We talked about Hiroshima, where her family is from, and Gernika, which is in the Basque Country, where I come from. She talked about how the pain of that day never goes away. It is, perhaps, for that same reason that both Gernika and Hiroshima's citizens have been so vocal against the recent and ongoing Israeli war crimes. They know what it's like to be bombed indiscriminately.

War is senseless and tragic. Adults may try to rationalise and explain it. They may say that the reasons for the conflict are 'very complex' but, at the end of the day, the consequences of war for all those affected, both personally and collectively, are quite direct and simple. We all lose with war, both the 'victors' and the 'defeated'.

Writing again

 One of the constants in my life since I was about 10 has been writing. Of course, when I say constant I don't mean that I write six pages a day like Stephen King. It's not like that.

When I say constant, I'm talking about something that's always there with me, that helps and balances my day. Sometimes, it may just be a couple of lines on a little note with an idea for a story. Sometimes, it may just be a three line poem reflecting on something that happened in the course of the day, or a cryptic micro poem. And sometimes, the words flow and I end up writing various pages. 

Sometimes, there are dry spells. Life gets busy, I'm overcommitted or over-exhausted and I just don't have the time and energy to write. But I still write short stories and poems and in my head. the words dance in my mind, they speak to me and then go into slumber but are still present ready to spring back to life when I finally have moment to sit down and write.

I have to be honest, I haven't been writing much this year. It's been one of those years when I've had to prioritise other things and other people. I simply didn't have the time nor energy to write. The epic fantasy novel I started writing a couple of years ago was left aside, languishing in limbo.

Still, my mind sometimes wondered to that fantasy land, the woods, the valleys, the ocean... And the characters appeared to me every now and then. They surfaced from behind a tree talking to each other, comforting each other or fighting to protect their way of life.

I've had a bit of time these last four weeks and it's been wild. I don't think I've ever written so many words in my life. The writing has flowed easily. Perhaps because the story and the characters have been with me for so long, I don't know. But it's a good feeling.

The novel is nowhere near finished but I'm reckon I'm around the halfway mark and that's more than I've ever done for a novel. Best of all, it's progressing easily. It's flowing.

I don't want to jinx it, so I won't say much more and I won't make any predictions of when I'll be able to complete the first full draft but I can definitely say that this will be the first full novel I will complete. Of that, I'm absolutely certain and it's a bloody good feeling.

Federico Garcia Lorca and the Value of Books and Libraries

Libraries are under attack. Some seem to think that libraries are irrelevant and obsolete now that we have the internet, Amazon and streaming services. They believe taxpayers dollars should not be used for libraries that everyone should simply buy themselves what they need. Others see libraries as an idea that must be actively fought and attacked, precisely because libraries are open to everyone. They object to books, resources and programs that don't fit their political and religious beliefs and seek to ban them altogether. And others see libraries as something to be eradicated because everything must be profit driven and libraries provide so much (information, resources, entertainment...) for free. An incomprehensible, dangerous notion for those who only think of money and profit.

Federico Garcia Lorca, who was an incredibly brilliant Spanish writer and poet saw things a bit differently. As a writer, Lorca championed books, arts and culture. But it wasn't just because he was a writer. He saw and understood the changes that were taking place in Spain. The more people gained the ability to read, the more they learned. And the more they learned, the more progressive Spain was becoming.

To him, reading, arts, and culture informed people, developed their mind and brought light. They were building a public education system, they were building a consciousness and they were building a republic.

He was a man with a huge heart and deep humanity and, of course, when Franco led the fascist coup against the Spanish Republic, Lorca was a prime target. He was an outspoken socialist and he was also gay. Two things fascists cannot accept. So, Lorca was captured and executed August 18 1936. His body was never found.

Federico Garcia Lorga reading with his little sister

In September 1931, four years before the fascist coup and five before his murder, the town of Fuente Vaqueros opened a public library. The first of its kind in the whole province of Granada and, of course, Lorca was there as this was his hometown.

He gave an impassioned speech that still feels highly relevant today. In the speech he reflects on the importance and value of books. He describes people who don't engage with any art, culture and reading as dead. People who go through life without really engaging with it. Then he says:

Humans can not live of bread alone. If I were hungry and helpless in the street, I would not ask for a loaf of bread, but I would ask for half a loaf of bread and a book. And I violently attack from here those who only talk about economic demands without ever mentioning the cultural demands that are what the people are crying out for. It is good that all people eat, but let’s ensure all people know.

Lorca said in the speech that he never had any books because he read them and, then, gave them away in the hope that others would also read and learn from them. And he added:

I feel much more sorry for a person who wants to know and cannot than for a hungry one. For a hungry person can easily satisfy their hunger with a piece of bread or some fruit, but a person who is eager to know and has no means suffers a terrible agony because they need books, books, many books, and… where are these books?

 That's why opening that first library in the province, opening in his town and making books available to everyone for free, was so life changing and revolutionary. Lorca was sharply aware of it and in one part of the speech he talked about Dostoyevsky, who was imprisoned in Siberia, in deplorable conditions, away from everything and everyone. When he was asking for help in a letter to his distant family he asked for books. Nothing else. Lorca recounts: 

"He was cold and did not ask for fire, he was terribly thirsty and did not ask for water: he asked for books. That is horizons, that is stairs to climb to the summit of the spirit and the heart. Because the physical, biological, natural agony of a body due to hunger, thirst or cold lasts a short time, very little, but the agony of the unsatisfied soul lasts a lifetime."

We take public libraries for granted now. But what a revolutionary idea they were. and what a treasure they are! We must use them, cherish them, champion them and protect them. Because, without them, large parts of our community would have no access to information, entertainment, culture, art, and resources. Without them, our community would be all the poorer in mind and spirit, and the authoritarians and fascists would assert their power over their masses.

Enough from me... I leave you with a translation of Lorca's speech (I cut a few lines here and there but not too much). A link to the full speech in Spanish is right at the bottom.

Dear fellow countrymen and friends:

All my lectures are always read, which means a lot more work than speaking, but in the end, the expression is much more lasting because it is written down and much more solid since it can serve as a lesson to people who do not hear or are not present here.

I owe a duty of gratitude to this beautiful town where I was born and where I spent my happy childhood for the undeserved tribute that I have received by giving my name to the old street of the church. You can all believe that I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and that when in Madrid or elsewhere I am asked where I was born, in newspaper surveys or anywhere else, I say that I was born in Fuente Vaqueros so that the glory or fame that falls on me also falls on this very nice, on this very modern, on this juicy and liberal town of Fuente.

The inhabitants of this town have a native artistic feeling that is very palpable in the people who have been born here. An artistic feeling and a sense of joy, which is the same as saying the sense of life.

I have visited hundreds and hundreds of small towns like this one, and I have been able to study in them a melancholy that is born not only from poverty, but also from hopelessness and lack of culture. People who live only attached to the land have only a terrible feeling of death without anything that raises them towards clear days of laughter and authentic social peace. Fuente Vaqueros has won that. Here there is a longing for joy, or rather for progress, or for life. And therefore an artistic desire, a love of beauty and culture.

I have seen lots of people from other fields come home from work, and, tired, they have sat still, like statues, waiting for another day and another and another, with the same rhythm, without a longing for knowledge passing through their souls. People who are slaves to death without even having glimpsed the light and beauty that the human spirit reaches. 

Because in the world there is nothing but life and death and there are millions of people who talk, live, see, eat, but they are dead. Deader than stones and deader than the true dead who sleep their sleep under the earth, because their souls are dead. Dead like a mill that does not grind, dead because it has no love, nor a germ of an idea, nor a faith, nor a longing for liberation, essential for all people to be able to call themselves such. This is one of the issues, my dear friends, that most concerns me at the present time.

When someone goes to the theatre, to a concert, or to a party of any kind, if the party is to their liking, they immediately remember and regret that the people they love are not there. 'How my sister and my father would like this,' they think, and they no longer enjoy the spectacle except through a slight melancholy. This is the melancholy that I feel, not for the people in my house, which would be small minded and selfish, but for all the creatures who, for lack of means and through their own misfortune, do not enjoy the supreme good of beauty, which is life and goodness and serenity and passion.

That is why I never have a book, because I give away as many as I buy, which are infinite, and that is why I am here honoured and happy to inaugurate this town library, surely the first in the entire province of Granada.

Humans can not live of bread alone. If I were hungry and helpless in the street, I would not ask for a loaf of bread, but I would ask for half a loaf of bread and a book. And I violently attack from here those who only talk about economic demands without ever mentioning the cultural demands that are what the people are crying out for. It is good that all people eat, but let’s ensure all people know. Let them all enjoy the fruits of the human spirit because to do otherwise is to turn them into machines at the service of the State, it is to turn them into slaves of a terrible social organisation.

I feel much more sorry for a person who wants to know and cannot than for a hungry one. For a hungry person can easily satisfy their hunger with a piece of bread or some fruit, but a person who is eager to know and has no means suffers a terrible agony because they need books, books, many books, and… where are these books?

Books! Books! Here is a magic word that is equivalent to saying: 'love, love', and that people should ask for as they ask for bread or as they long for rain for their crops. 

When the famous Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky, father of the Russian revolution much more than Lenin, was imprisoned in Siberia, far from the world, between four walls and surrounded by desolate plains of endless snow, and asked for help in a letter to his distant family, he only said: 'Send me books, books, many books so that my soul does not die!' 

He was cold and did not ask for fire, he was terribly thirsty and did not ask for water: he asked for books. That is horizons, that is stairs to climb to the summit of the spirit and the heart. Because the physical, biological, natural agony of a body due to hunger, thirst or cold lasts a short time, very little, but the agony of the unsatisfied soul lasts a lifetime.

The great Menéndez Pidal, one of the most true sages in Europe, has already said that the motto of the Republic must be: 'Culture'. Culture because only through it can the problems of today's people, full of faith but lacking in light, be resolved.

That is why you cannot imagine how happy I am to be able to inaugurate the public library of Fuente Vaqueros! A library that is a collection of books grouped and selected, that is a voice against ignorance; a perennial light against darkness.

No one realises when they have a book in their hands the effort, the pain, the vigil, the blood it has cost. The book is without a doubt the greatest work of humanity. Many times, people are asleep like the water of a pond on a windless day. Not even the slightest tremor disturbs the soft tenderness of the water. The frogs sleep at the bottom and the birds are motionless on the branches that surround it. But, suddenly, throw a stone and you will see an explosion of concentric circles, of round waves that expand, running over each other and crashing against the edges. You will see a total shudder of the water, a bustle of frogs in all directions, a restlessness on all the banks and even the birds that slept on the shady branches jump off in flocks throughout the blue air. Many times, people sleep like the water of a pond on a windless day, and a book or some books can shake them and disturb them and show them new horizons of betterment and harmony.

And how much effort it has cost a person to produce a book! And what a great influence they have, have had and will have on the world!

In the materials of nature there are, no doubt, the palliatives for many incurable diseases, but what combination is the right one for the miracle to work? Rarely in the history of the world has there been a more important event than the invention of the printing press. Of much greater scope than the other two great events of its time: the invention of gunpowder and the discovery of America. For if gunpowder put an end to feudalism and gave rise to great armies and to the formation of strong nationalities previously divided by the nobility, and the birth of America gave rise to a displacement of history to a new life and ended a thousand-year-old geographical secret, the printing press will cause a revolution in souls, so great that societies will tremble to their foundations. 

And yet, how silently and timidly is it born! While gunpowder was exploding its fiery roses across the fields, and the Atlantic was filling with ships with sails filled by the wind, coming and going loaded with gold and precious materials, quietly in the city of Antwerp, Christopher Plantin established the most important printing press and bookstore in the world, and finally, he made the first cheap books.

So the old books, of which there were only one or two or three copies left, piled up at the doors of the printing presses and at the doors of the houses of the learned, clamouring to be published, to be translated, to be spread over the whole surface of the earth. This is the great moment of the world. It is the Renaissance. It is the glorious dawn of the modern cultures with which we live.

It was from that little house with its ivy-covered courtyard and its leaded glass windows, from where light came out for everyone with cheap books and where a great offensive against ignorance was being hatched, which must be continued with real zeal, because ignorance is still terrible and we already know that where there is ignorance it is very easy to confuse evil with good and truth with lies.

Naturally, the powerful who had manuscripts and books on parchment, laughed at the book printed on paper as something despicable and in bad taste that was within everyone's reach.

The book ceased to be an object of culture for a few and became a tremendous social factor. The effects were not felt. Despite persecutions and often serving as fuel for the flames, the French Revolution emerged, the first social work of books.

For persecutions are of no use against the book. Neither armies, nor gold, nor flames can defeat them; for you can destroy a work, but you cannot cut off the heads that have learned from it, for there are thousands of them, and if they are few, you do not know where they are.

Books have been persecuted by all kinds of States and by all kinds of religions, but this means nothing compared to how much they have been loved. For if a fanatic oriental prince burns the library of Alexandria, on the other hand Alexander of Macedonia orders the construction of a very rich box of enamels and precious stones to preserve The Iliad, by Homer; and the Arabs of Cordoba make the marvel of the Mirahb of their mosque to keep in it a Koran that had belonged to the Caliph Omar. And despite who it may bother, libraries flood the world and we see them even in the streets and in the open air of the gardens of the cities.

Every day that passes, the many publishing houses strive to lower prices, and today the book is within everyone's reach in that great daily book that is the press, in that open book of two or three pages that arrives smelling of restlessness and wet ink, in that ear that hears the events of all nations with absolute impartiality; in the thousands of newspapers, true heartbeats of the unanimous heart of the world.

For the first time in its short history, this town has the beginnings of a library. The important thing is to lay the first stone, because I and everyone else will help to build the building. 

It is an important event that fills me with joy and I am honoured that it is my voice that is raised here at the moment of its inauguration, because my family has cooperated extraordinarily with your culture. My mother, as you all know, has taught many people in this town, because she came here to teach, and I remember as a child having heard her read aloud so that many could hear her. My grandparents served this town with true spirit and even many of the songs and music that you have sung have been composed by some old poet from my family. 

That is why I feel full of satisfaction at this moment and I am addressing those who are fortunate, asking them to help in this work, to give money to buy books as is their obligation, as is their duty. And those who do not have the means, let them come and read, let them come and cultivate their intelligence as the only means of their economic and social liberation. It is necessary that the library be nourished with new books and new readers and that teachers strive not to teach children to read mechanically, as so many unfortunately still do, but to instill in them the meaning of reading, that is, the value of a period and a comma in the development and form of a written idea.

And books! Books! It is necessary that books begin to arrive at the little library in La Fuente. I have written to the publishing house of the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid, where I studied for so many years, and to Editorial Ulises, to see if I can get them to send their complete collections here, and of course, I will send the books that I have written and those of my friends.

Books of all tendencies and of all ideas. The divine, enlightened works of mystics and saints, as well as the fiery works of revolutionaries and men of action. Let the Spiritual Canticle of Saint John of the Cross, the crowning work of Spanish poetry, be compared with the works of Tolstoy; let The City of God by Saint Augustine be compared with Zarathustra by Nietzsche or Capital by Marx. Because, dear friends, all these works agree on a point of love for humanity and elevation of the spirit, and in the end, they all merge and embrace in a supreme ideal.

And readers! Many readers! 

This library has to fulfill a social purpose, because if the number of readers is cared for and encouraged, and little by little it is enriched with works, within a few years there will be a noticeable, and do not doubt this, a higher level of culture in the people. And if this generation that hears me today does not take advantage of all that books can give due to lack of preparation, your children will take advantage of it. Because it is necessary that you all know that people do not work for ourselves but for those who come after us, and that this is the moral sense of all revolutions, and in the last instance, the true sense of life.

I am sure that Fuente Vaqueros, which has always been a town with a lively imagination and a clear and cheerful soul like the water that flows from its fountain, will get a lot out of this library and will serve to bring to the consciousness of everyone new desires and joys for knowledge. May this modest and small lesson serve so that you love them and seek them out as friends. Because people die and they become more alive every day, because trees wither and they are eternally green and because at all times and at all hours they open to answer a question or provide comfort.

And you must know, of course, that social progress and revolutions are made with books and that the people who lead them often die, like the great Lenin, from studying too much, from trying to encompass too much with their intelligence. That weapons and blood are of no use if ideas are not well oriented and well digested in the minds. And that it is necessary for people to read in order to learn not only the true meaning of freedom, but also the current meaning of mutual understanding and of life.

And thanks to you all. This public library is now a reality.

And a greeting to everyone. To the living and the dead, since the living and the dead make up a country. To the living, to wish them happiness and to the dead, to remember them fondly because they represent the tradition of the town and because thanks to them we are all here. May this library serve as a source of peace, spiritual restlessness and joy in this beautiful town where I have the honor of having been born, and do not forget this beautiful saying that a 19th century French critic wrote : “Tell me what you read and I will tell you who you are.”

Full speech in its original Spanish here.