Via BoingBoing and MeFi, here's a crowd that call themselves the "Ministry of Reshelving", whose muddleheaded oh-look-at-us-we're-so-transgressive-and-arty-and-cool approach to some sort of undefined protest is to go into large chain bookstores, locate copies of Orwell's "1984", and move them to the "Current Affairs" section.  (And then, evidently, take self-congratulatory pictures of themselves doing so.)

Incidentally, my girlfriend B. works as a bookseller at one of the aforementioned large chain bookstores (she'd like to work at an indie, but hey, dental insurance is nice).  And I winced on her behalf when I read about those folks.  Because they don't seem to realize that underpaid booksellers are their natural allies...so why piss 'em off?  Because this means more work for them, who have to clean up after your crap.  They've got enough hassles to deal with in picking up after everyone else who wrecks the store unwittingly -- you have to give them more to do?

(And yes, I see that they're "helpfully" flagging the shelves with a notecard to let people know where the book is.  Still creates more busywork for people making just above minimum wage.)  If you're just so all fired up to protest, why not attend a vigil?  Or demonstrate in Crawford?  Or donate to organizations that run advocacy ads?  Or join the ACLU?

Memo to the "Ministry of Reshelving":  if you make it easier -- not harder -- for people to actually read 1984, maybe the ideas within will have greater propagation.

Comments

[Kevan Mayor]

I can remember back in 1977 in England , when The New Musical Express (then the vanguard of punk) published a thrilled account of how The Clash trashed a luxury hotel room during a food fight, thus exhibiting their anti-establishment credentials.
I couldn't enjoy the author's excitement, as I knew one of the chambermaids that was ordered by management to stay late to clean up afterwards. The Clash clearly weren't fighting their revolution for the underclass. Gesture politics is just that, somebody taking a stance, not a stand.

[Ayelet]

As a former large chain bookstore employee, I can't say I'd be too happy to clean up the mess left by the Ministry of Reshelving. But that doesn't mean I don't get a chuckle out of their antics. Where can I write with my list of other books that require immediate reshelving? :)