> …I know. But I like the colors

Went to the American Library and it wasn’t a great start. I fear the worse for the days weeks to come since I’ll be spending most of my time there…

First, there is the librarian. I get there and try to explain what I want to do, in ENGLISH (writing in English is one thing, speaking is another); that I don’t really know what issue of Vanity Fair magazine I need for my “thesis” [mémoire], that, no I can’t be more specific, there are no summaries online or index that could help me say “I want the November issue of 1923″, and if he could give me issues from 1913 to begin with… He smirked and asked: “Okay, Vanity Fair, but what do you search for, what’s the subject?”. Okay… It’s not really your business is it? [I didn't say that]. “I don’t look for documentation about Vanity Fair, I just need the back issues”. He gave me a red file and asked me to look for the issue. Erm, way to uncomplicate the situation since I DON’T KNOW WHAT ISSUE I WANT. I found the page saying that back issues before 2007 had to be claimed at the desk. Oh, goody, I didn’t know that!.. I came back and he wasn’t too please to see me (yeah because he’s the one paying about 60 euros for membership – which, by the way, does not include the right to take home the books AND only lasts til May. Not he just works there, he just gets paid for helping people. Or not.) He asked if I found what I was looking for. I gave up and asked him for the issues published in 1913 (the first issues). He looked at me as if I was really dumb:

“Nineteen thiiiirrrrteeeeen?”

“Erm… Yeah, nineteen… thirteen…”

“Treize?”

“Yeah! Nineteen thirteen, treize, mille neuf cent treize!! One thousand thirteen!”

I was losing patience with Papy Nova.

Anyway, he sighed *again* and more or less crawled to a room at the back, and made a sign so that I would follow him (yes, asking politely would have been too… I don’t know, polite?). He gestured toward the shelves of books and just said that I needed to go back to the reception to fill a yellow form. Okay, that made sense. SO, I went back, filled the damn form and I waited in the reading room. Eventually, I got the anthologies from 1913 and 1914.

I don’t know why he felt the need to smirk again. I really wished he understood that I felt deeply sorry for disturbing His Majesty. Yeah, cause helping people is actually just a hobby, not his actual job, right?

Aside from that, corsets, silversmiths and millinery – whatever that is – have no more secrets for me. The studying session was cool and useful. Here is a line from the first issue of VF that sums up the concept of the magazine:

“A record of current achievements in all the arts and a mirror of the progress and promise of American Life”

Though, today, the letter from the editor has been more about debunking the Bush Administration and commenting on the current fallout of the American Way of Life (see healthcare system, the debt, the financial crisis, etc).