#adult literacy collection

[meteorologistaustenlonek]

" #ChattanoogaPublicLibrary’s new #adultliteracy collection

A special collection for any adult learner looking to improve their #literacy skills". Those interested in helping to tutor or read with other adults can also apply to volunteer at

[magnetothemagnificent]

The world is so hostile to tweens.....

Like we joke about how our schools growing up would ban the latest toy trends, but that reality genuinely horrific when you think about it. Like maybe 1% of the bans were based on safety, but the rest cited reasoning like

-"kids were bartering for collectibles" (kids learning about economics and product value)

-"kids were wearing them and the colors were too flashy" (kids experimenting with self expression and fashion)

-"kids were playing with them during lunch and recess instead of using our rusted safety hazard playground" (kids utilizing their free time to do what helps *them* unwind).

Play areas specifically geared towards children and especially towards teens are constantly being shut down. "Oh kids today are always on their phones!" Maybe because

-there are barely any arcades left and even less arcades that aren't adult-oriented,

-public pools and gyms are underfunded and shut down,

-"no loitering" laws prevent kids and teens from just hanging out,

-movie theatres only play the latest films and ticket prices are only rising,

-parks and playgrounds are either neglected or replaced with gear only directed at toddlers and unsuitable for anyone older

-genuine children's and young teen media is being phased out in favour of media directed only at very small children or older teens and adults.

-suburbs and even cities are becoming more and more hostile to pedestrians, it's just not safe for kids to walk to or ride their bikes to their friends' houses or other play destinations

Children's agency is hardly ever respected. Kids between the ages of 9-13 are either treated as babies or as full-grown adults, with no in-between. When they ask to be given more independence, they are either scoffed at or given more responsibilities than are reasonable for a child their age.

This is even evident in the fashion scene.

Clothing stores and brands like Justice and Gap are either closing or rebranding to either exclusively adult clothing or young children's clothes, with no middle ground for tweens. Tweens have to choose between clothes designed for adults that are too large and/or too mature for their age and bodies, or more clothes they feel are far too childish. For tween girls especially it's either a frilly pinafore dress with pigtails or a woman's size dress with cleavage. No wonder tween girls these days dress like they're older, it's because their other option is little girl clothes and they don't want to feel childish.

And then when tweens go to school, the books they want to read aren't available because they cover "mature" topics (read: oh no two people kissed and they weren't straight or oh no menstruation was mentioned or oh no a religion other than Christianity is depicted), so kids are left with books for way below their reading level. No wonder kids today are struggling with literacy, it's because they can't exercise and expand their reading skills with age-appropriate books. Readers need to be challenged with new words and concepts in order to grow in their skills, only letting tween read Dr. Seuss and nursery rhymes doesn't let them learn.

Discussions about substance use, reproduction, and sexuality aren't taught at an age-appropriate level in school or even by children's parents, so they either grow up ignorant and more vulnerable to abuse, or they seek out information elsewhere that is delivered in a less-than-age-appropriate manner. It shouldn't be a coin-toss between "I didn't know what sex was until I was 18 and in college" or "my first exposure to sex as a tween was through porn" or "I didn't know what sex was so I didn't know I was being sexually abused as a kid."

Tweenhood is already such a volatile and confusing time for kids, their bodies are changing and they're transitioning from elementary to middle to high school. It's hard enough for them in this stage, but it's made worse by how society devalues and fails them.

We talk about the disappearance of teenagehood, and maybe that's gonna happen in the future, but the erasure of tweenhood is happing in real time, and it's having and going to have major consequences for next generation's adults.

[psychotrenny]

Many Left-Liberals have a very distorted view of "community" as a frame of reference for organisational efforts. And when Marxist-Leninist criticise these sorts of distortions, some people interpret this as MLs being opposed to the idea of "community" itself. Which very clearly isn't true; grassroots community organisation and various associated initiatives are a common feature Marxist-Leninist party agendas.

The agitation and organisation of the working class has to start somewhere, and even minor improvements in life brought about by collective effort can give people faith and confidence in their capacity to go even further. Even if the party itself is destroyed, these local efforts tend to leave an enduring legacy of benefit on the areas they touched; there's a reason people talk about the US Black Panther Party's Survival Programs (i.e. adult literacy classes, free breakfast for school children) to this day. These local grassroots efforts frequently persist or develop even further in a post-revolutionary context, involving themselves in an array of social, economic and political functions i.e. the Dynamising Groups of Mozambique in the 1970s, Peasant's Associations in China in the 1940s etc. The flexibility of such groups and their direct links to the people offer significant advantages when supported and overseen by a more central authority

But that's the key part; they need support. Like on a fundamental level, scale alone limits what these groups can possibly do even under the best of conditions and the areas most in need of organisation and development tend to also be the ones most lacking in the material means to actually do so by themselves. Community groups are also not magically perfect when it comes to ideology or procedure, and can easily make severe mistakes or devolve into petty tyrannies without external guidance and oversight. "Community" has its limits; it cannot be treated as a panacea for all social ills. Anyone who treats it as a magic buzzword to substitute for actual meaningful policies is not someone who should be taken seriously

[forsoobado137]

With the Rise of Modern Education did the nations go to school or is there a school specifically for nations to keep up with modern education

I feel like most nations will just internally know certain things if they're common knowledge. Their education level is tied to how educated a population is. So if a country has like low literacy rates, that will effect their own reading abilities.

But at the same time I do think that adult nations need to periodically take courses either to get a feel for what school is like or to freshen up their knowledge. They can either take private courses designed for them or go to university for a more human experience.

But for child nations, they absolutely need to be educated manually because they're not fully developed yet. They can't easily recall details from the collective memories/knowledge of their people. I imagine that in colonial times, America wasn't taught anything because people just assumed he would automatically know stuff. But then England was like "wait a minute, this boy can't read" and gave him regular lessons/hired tutors for him.

Some governments definitely send child/teen nations to school to spy and stuff. but most of the time, the kid nations are super uninterested and get distracted with their peers.

[ansitru]

Do you love reading? And cross-stitching? And want to help support literacy charities for children and adults around the world?

Then you're going to want to keep your eyes peeled for an exciting launch happening this week. 📚 ✨

This Friday at 9am EST, Spellbound Stitches is launching the Bookmark Book, a collection of 27 beautiful bookmark designs by 27 amazing cross stitch designers, to support literacy charities! ✨

Here's a sneak peak at my design (with floriography, because... of course.) I'll reveal the full bookmark & floriograpy meanings on Friday, when the project goes live.

Proud to be a part of this project, proud to see all the designs that have been made. Y'all are in for a treat! 🖤

[fiercynn]

palestinian poets: yahya ashour

yahya ashour is a touring poet and an awarded author.

ashour was born on april 22nd, 1998 in gaza, where he grew up and continuously resided until september 2023, when he came to the united states to participate in a festival, and wasn't able to go back home since the beginning of the genocide in gaza. he is currently staying in saline, michigan.

ashour was a 2022 university of iowa fellow and is a current 2024 mizna fellow. he has been published in numerous outlets around the world in arabic and in translation, and his first two books were the 2018 poetry collection لهذا ريان يمشي هكذا and the 2021 children's book لهذا ريان يمشي هكذا. he has also taught creative writing and literacy skills to both children and adults at various community organizations in gaza.

on march 29, 2024, ashour released A Gaza of Siege & Genocide: excerpts, a poetry book in english written and illustrated by him and published by mizna. all proceeds from this collection go to helping ashour's nineteen family members escape genocide, so please, please, please purchase this e-book before you read his other poetry, and give generously if you can.

since fall 2023, he has been reading poetry and talking across the united states about the genocide in gaza. his poetry reading is called: “What the World’s Silence Says: A Reading With Gazan Poet Yahya Ashour”. his current tour schedule and and ways to contact him are all listed at his website. he is also looking to be connected with any university, speaking organization, or media outlet around the world that might be interested in having him speak in-person or online about the book, so please get him touch with him if you have any leads.

IF YOU READ JUST ONE POEM BY YAHYA ASHOUR, MAKE IT THIS ONE

OTHER WRITING ONLINE I LOVE BY YAHYA ASHOUR

so the war would know i'm here, short film directed by andrew burgess of ashour reading aloud two poems translated into english

Gaza Under Siege (translated from arabic to english by atef alshaer) at poetry translation centre

From loss to solitude and not the other way around!, an essay in 28 magazine's special issue "coronaphone"

Enjoy the Rain at iowa writers' program

you can find the full list of poets featured in this series here!

[la-cosmonauta-extraterrestre]

How to learn physics as an adult

I'm creating this post in response to some posts @un-ionizetheradlab made the other day, but I'm creating this as a guide to anyone this is relevant for. It's going to be a long post, but pick and choose what to do from this list based on what works for you and what your goals are, whether it's just to gain basic scientific literacy or become a physicist (or something in between). Also remember that it's a journey not a sprint, so it's ok if you don't understand physics at first (and if it makes you feel better, physics was one of my worst subjects in school and now I have a master's degree in physics). Without further ado:

First Thing's First

There are some mathematical methods you need to learn to understand physics; there's no way around this:

Vectors: This is the most important thing to learn for physics, how to use vectors. It seemed every mathematics or physics class I took in my first year of my physics degree started with an introduction to vectors, and for good reason. You can learn about how vectors work on Khan Academy for free.

Matrices and Tensors: Once you've mastered vectors, learn about matrices and linear algebra, and perhaps go on to learning about tensors once you're at it. You can at least get the basics about matrices from Khan Academy, but you might want to invest in a linear algebra textbook.

Calculus: I said vectors are the most important thing to learn for physics, but it actually might be calculus. If you have absolutely no previous knowledge of calculus, you can watch the video "Calculus at a Fifth Grade Level" on YouTube; it's a little more advanced than fifth grade level but can give you a good feel for what calculus is about. Once you've done that, there are multiple calculus courses available on Khan Academy. There's also a calculus course available on Brilliant, but it might only be available through the paid version.

Ordinary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Problems: You don't need to learn these right away, but if you want to do physics at the upper undergraduate level, you'll need to learn these at some point.

2. Learning to Think Like a Scientist

Some suggestions of apps and things to watch if you don't know much about science so you can start thinking like a scientist:

SciShow: If you don't know much science at all, SciShow on YouTube is a good place to start, I used to watch it and as I recall it's more focused on life sciences but there's some physics videos there, too.

Ciencias De La Ciencia: This is sort of a Spanish version of SciShow but it's more physics-focused. At least some of the videos have subtitles if you don't know Spanish.

Cosmos: If you haven't seen Cosmos (either the old version with Carl Sagan or the new version with Neil DeGrasse Tyson), it's very good and at least some of the episodes are available for free online. It's more pop-science and history of science than actual science content, but at least they make a point of using anecdotes from the history of science to illustrate how the scientific method works.

Sabine Hossenfelder: Highly recommend her YouTube channel; she's one of the most intellectually honest scientific communicators in the world nowadays. Her videos are a good illustration of how to think like a scientist. She also has a blog and has written a few books.

Brilliant: This is an app with mathematics and science courses that places an emphasis on problem-solving. Most of the courses are only available on the paid version of the app (but you should be able to get a discount on it if you're subscribed to any mainstream science YouTubers), but even the free version gives you access to a few courses, plus a forum where people post problems. I had this app back in the day and liked solving problems on the forum (no idea if it's changed since then).

3. Books to Study

If you're committed to learning physics you should study from some textbooks:

Physics LibreTexts: This is a whole collection of university-level physics textbooks for free online. It's an invaluable resource for learning physics. Use it to learn classical mechanics, electricity and magnetism, modern physics (but don't jump into quantum mechanics straight away if you're just starting out in physics).

Landau and Lifshitz Course of Theoretical Physics: This was the physics school curriculum in the Soviet Union; it's a little dated now but if you're just learning the basics it can't be beat given the excellent pedagogy. It's easy enough to find copies of it online, especially on Russian sites. Most if not all of the textbooks in the series have been translated into English, but if you know any Russian, the original is easy to follow.

Introduction to Electrodynamics by David J. Griffiths: Once you've learned mechanics, modern physics and some electricity and magnetism get yourself a copy of this textbook; you can get used editions on Amazon for a reasonable enough price. American physics majors are obsessed with this textbook, refer to it as the Bible, and for good reason.

Every Life is on Fire by Jeremy England: This isn't a textbook, but reading it took me back to my statistical mechanics class and it's way more readable than any actual statmech textbook so if you are interested in learning statmech, this book is a good start. It's actually a general reading book about England's ideas about the origin of life, interspersed with some parallels to the Hebrew Bible because England is also a rabbi. He actually has some interesting ideas about the philosophy of science, though they can be difficult to get behind, so if you're interested go listen to a podcast where they interview him (obligatory I don't condone the Kahaneist politics he sometimes promotes).

4. Learn About Research and Experiments

Physics is an experimental science, so expose yourself to some experiments:

Look for PDFs of high school physics labs online. You can find some for free and it should be cheap enough to do the experiments at home.

Read scientific papers on topics that interest you to try and understand what's happening today. If you find them difficult to understand, try reading older papers and go from there, for example, in undergrad I did a research internship relating to neutron stars, but I found some of the recent scientific papers difficult to understand, but reading the 1938 paper "On Massive Neutron Cores" by Oppenheimer and Volkoff helped me to understand neutron stars better. (When I returned to some of those same papers during my master's degree, I was proud to have understood them well.)

5. Take University-Level Physics Courses

You can take university-level physics courses without committing to a degree:

Search online for MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). You can find MOOCs on multiple sites about many physics topics, and they're often free (sometimes you have to pay for them).

If you live in the United States, you can take physics classes at your local community college.

You can enroll in online physics courses through Open University, based in London but you can take the courses from anywhere. It's expensive, but you pay by the credit so you don't have to pay for a whole year of tuition if you're just taking one course.

If you happen to have free time in the summer and the money for it, many American universities (and elite British universities) offer summer courses that one can enroll in even if they don't attend the university. These are usually in-person classes.

6. Get a Physics Degree

Getting a physics degree is ultimately the only course of action if you've decided to become a physicist, the recommended course of action if you're ultimate goal is a PhD in the history of science or philosophy of science, and a good idea if learning physics has made you want a career in science communication of science education. There's no shame in being a non-traditional age student; in both my bachelor's and master's degree in physics I knew students who were non-traditional age. The downside of this is that it's a bad financial decision to get a degree, especially if it's a second bachelor's degree, but there are ways to lessen the financial burden of a degree:

If you attend an American university with American tuition, you can usually get an on-campus job, though that's pocket change compared to the costs of tuition.

On the bright side, if you already have a bachelor's degree you can probably get credit for general requirements at American universities, so a second bachelor's degree in physics might not take long.

You can also do a part-time degree while you work at many universities.

Just some general advice, if you go the American university route go to a university with a Society of Physics Students and get a student membership in American Physical Society; you get all kinds of benefits like access to Physics Today magazine, scholarships, internships, conferences, an honour society induction.

All that said, it's difficult to attend an American university without losing money. For that matter it's difficult to attend any university in the world without losing money, but you can lessen that burden by going to a country where university is cheaper. There the limiting factor is going to be language; although English is the international language of physics and the medium of most postgraduate physics degrees around the world, physics bachelor's degrees are usually in the local language. Some possible exceptions I found to this, for those who are not fluent in a language other than English:

Apparently there are world-class English-medium physics degree programmes in France? I figure there must be some kind of catch given the way the French are about their language, but given the high research output France has in physics, this is worth getting into.

There are English-medium physics bachelor's degrees in the Czech Republic, and tuition there is pretty affordable (for the English-language degrees; it's free for Czech-language degrees if you happen to be fluent in Czech). I don't know Czechia to have a lot of physics research output today, but back in the day Prague was a major centre of scientific research (Einstein briefly lived and worked as a physics professor in Prague), so it you're goal is to do a PhD in the history of science...I'm just gonna say that there's an English-medium physics bachelor's degree programme at Charles University and you'd have time when you're not studying to explore the city and it's history (but you should learn some Czech if you're going to live there).

University degrees in South Africa are usually English-medium, and tuition there is pretty affordable. There's also a fair amount of research output from South African universities. (Though I understand not wanting to live in South Africa.)

[noctivagant-corvid]

thinking abt the upp again .

you are eight years old and your whole life you've been the only one able to see the monsters. but you meet other kids able to see them too, kids who understand what's going on. you band together in dark rooms, on the playground, all the places where the monsters lurk. the adults don't believe you, except for the really really old ones, like your grandmother. she calls the seeing 'true sight'. the name sticks.

you are eleven, and you and your friends are the only ones who know why people actually go missing in these woods. you're the only people who know where to look. you bring back your literacy teacher who's doused in blood like she's being reborn. she doesn't remember anything the next day. you start calling yourself the unwitness protection program after that, because you're all 11, and it's funny then. the name sticks.

you're fourteen when people start throwing stuff at you all in the lunchroom, so you eat in the library. this is a plus- more time to research. six months in you've collectively read every book on the occult the library has, and you're going through again to take better notes. you're also having movie nights almost every friday. it's usually old detective stuff. the librarian starts calling you 'the occult majors', like it's a college degree. the students just call you freaks. that name sticks.

you're sixteen and will's started acting weird. he wants to go deeper into the woods. you all know going into the woods at all is dangerous, much less going deeper than you've already mapped- it's practically a death trap. you try to explain this to him. he nods like he agrees, but he's still got that distant look in his eyes and you know you haven't reached him. when his parents call a search party, none of you are suprised. you all know where he is. you take the normal path to the edge of the woods- the road along the edge- and lo and behold, his sweatshirt, torn down the middle and caught on a jut-out of the cliffs just close enough for you to grab. if you squint, you could probably see his body at the bottom. you don't squint. you don't grab the sweatshirt. you call the cops and you walk to the edge of the woods, and you start sobbing.

crueler kids start calling him skewer-cide boy. the name sticks.

[specialagentartemis]

Public Domain Black History Books

For the day Frederick Douglass celebrated as his birthday (February 14, Douglass Day, and the reason February is Black History Month), here's a selection of historical books by Black authors covering various aspects of Black history (mostly in the US) that you can download For Free, Legally And Easily!

Slave Narratives

This comprised a hugely influential genre of Black writing throughout the 1800s - memoirs of people born (or kidnapped) into slavery, their experiences, and their escapes. These were often published to fuel the abolitionist movement against slavery in the 1820s-1860s and are graphic and uncompromising about the horrors of slavery, the redemptive power of literacy, and the importance of abolitionist support.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - 1845 - one of the most iconic autobiographies of the 1800s, covering his early life when he was enslaved in Maryland, and his escape to Massachusetts where he became a leading figure in the abolition movement.

Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft - 1860 - the memoir of a married couple's escape from slavery in Georgia, to Philadelphia and eventually to England. Ellen Craft was half-white, the child of her enslaver, but she could pass as white, and she posed as her husband William's owner to get them both out of the slave states. Harrowing, tense, and eminently readable - I honestly think Part 1 should be assigned reading in every American high school in the antebellum unit.

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs writing under the name Linda Brent - 1861 - writing specifically to reach white women and arguing for the need for sisterhood and solidarity between white and Black women, Jacobs writes of her childhood in slavery and how terrible it was for women and mothers even under supposedly "nice" masters including supposedly "nice" white women.

Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup - 1853 - Born a free Black man in New York, Northup was kidnapped into slavery as an adult and sold south to Louisiana. This memoir of the brutality he endured was the basis of the 2013 Oscar-winning movie.

Early 1900s Black Life and Philosophy

Slavery is of course not the only aspect of Black history, and writers in the late 1800s and early 1900s had their own concerns, experiences, and perspectives on what it meant to be Black.

Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington - 1901 - an autobiography of one of the most prominent African-American leaders and educators in the late 1800s/early 1900s, about his experiences both learning and teaching, and the power and importance of equal education. Race relations in the Reconstruction era Southern US are a major concern, and his hope that education and equal dignity could lead to mutual respect has... a long way to go still.

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois - 1903 - an iconic work of sociology and advocacy about the African-American experience as a people, class, and community. We read selections from this in Anthropology Theory but I think it should be more widely read than just assigned in college classes.

Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil by W.E.B. Du Bois - 1920 - collected essays and poems on race, religion, gender, politics, and society.

A Negro Explorer at the North Pole by Matthew Henson - 1908 - Black history doesn't have to be about racism. Matthew Henson was a sailor and explorer and was the longtime companion and expedition partner of Robert Peary. This is his adventure-memoir of the expedition that reached the North Pole. (Though his descriptions of the Indigenous Greenlandic Inuit people are... really paternalistic in uncomfortable ways even when he's trying to be supportive.)

Poetry

Standard Ebooks also compiles poetry collections, and here are some by Black authors.

Langston Hughes - 1920s - probably the most famous poet of the Harlem Renaissance.

James Weldon Johnson - early 1900s through 1920s - tends to be in a more traditionalist style than Hughes, and he preferred the term for the 1920s proliferation of African-American art "the flowering of Negro literature."

Sarah Louisa Forten Purvis - 1830s - a Black abolitionist poet, this is more of a chapbook of her work that was published in newspapers than a full book collection. There are very common early-1800s poetry themes of love, family, religion, and nostalgia, but overwhelmingly her topic was abolition and anti-slavery, appealing to a shared womanhood.

Science Fiction

This is Black history to me - Samuel Delany's first published novel, The Jewels of Aptor, a sci-fi adventure from the early 60s that encapsulates a lot of early 60s thoughts and anxieties. New agey religion, forgotten technology mistaken for magic, psychic powers, nuclear war, post-nuclear society that feels more like a fantasy kingdom than a sci-fi world until they sail for the island that still has all the high tech that no one really knows how to use... it's a quick and entertaining read.

[tanadrin]

More notes from Stephen Shoemaker's Creating the Quran: A Historical-Critical Study:

Virtually complete silence from any source on Mecca and Yathrib (Medina) in the early 7th century; these settlements were probably not significant to the wider world at the time.

The prominence of the idea of Mecca as an important center of the spice trade in historical Islamic studies is due mostly to Henri Lammens and Mongtomery Watt, early historians of Islam, which are basically just summaries of (much later) Islamic hagiography.

In Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam, Patricia Crone debunks the myth of Mecca as a wealthy hub of the international spice trade; other scholars have attempted to argue Mecca was indeed wealthy and important based on other economic activity, like mining precious metals, but there isn't evidence for this either, really.

There certainly isn't evidence of the kind of literacy rates we would expect to see in a place carrying out complex financial transactions. Its economy was largely pastoralist (the landscape could support little else), with only a small local trade network, and its population was small--perhaps around 500, with 130 free adult men.

Pre-Islamic Mecca as an important place of pilgrimage is also not substantiated. The most important elements of the hajj are at sites located well outside the ancient city, and discussions of ancient pilgrimages have Mecca itself as an afterthought. Mecca as a component of these pilgrimages seems to be a later development that was part of the Islamicization of these practices. The Ka'ba itself is unfortunately not only off limits to investigation, but was destroyed and rebuilt twice near the end of the 7th century, and is the product of competing interests in the second Islamic civil war.

Whether the shrine of Mecca (if it existed) was pagan or not is unknown. It is nevertheless unlikely to have been of significance to anyone outside Mecca itself. The "masjid al-haram" of the Quran is hard to identify clearly; tradition associates it with the space around the Ka'ba, but Mecca as a haram, a sacred space, is unlikely, and this term may have been associated with the nearby sites of Mina or Arafat, or somewhere else.

"Nor can we even say with any certainty that the Kaʿba and the House of the Qur’an refer to a shrine in Mecca. After all, the Qur’an explicitly identifies the location of the House as “Bakka” rather than Mecca (3:96). Judging on the basis of the Qur’an itself, and not the later Islamic tradition, Bakka clearly seems to be a different place from Mecca. The Islamic tradition is of course desperate to identify this Bakka and its sanctuary with the Meccan shrine still revered by Muslims today. Therefore, in order to remedy the Qur’an’s highly inconvenient location of its shrine in Bakka, many later Islamic scholars simply decided, without any actual historical basis, that either Bakka is an older name for Mecca or else Bakka refers specifically to the Kaʿba itself and its immediate surrounding in Mecca. There is, however, no justification for identifying Bakka with Mecca either in whole or in part other than a determined need to bring the Qur’an fully into agreement with the Islamic tradition.60 Nothing allows us to assume that when the Qur’an says Bakka it means Mecca, particularly since it correctly names Mecca elsewhere." This may in fact be an intertextual reference to Psalg 84:6-7, which places Jerusalem's Holy House in a place named Baka, said to be where pilgrims gathered to make their ascent to the Temple Mount. Early Islam was certainly interested in Jerusalem; early Muslims are said to have prayed in the direction of Jerusalem, and were interested in restoring worship and dignity to the temple there.

Yathrib was likewise small; a collection of settlements around an oasis, where dates and possibly some limited amounts of grain could be grown. It would have been bigger than Mecca, but not dramatically so--maybe a thousand inhabitants in twenty square miles, and the scale of its economy would still have been very small, with very limited trade--the real trade routes of the era were on the Red Sea by ship, not inland through places like Yathrib.

The Quran itself "clearly demands" an audience well-versed in Biblical and post-Biblical traditions; it presupposes familiarity with tropes of that tradition, and opaquely references things it assumes its audience knows well. It is unlikely that the background culture of Muhammad's day in Mecca or the Yathrib oasis was familiar with this literature, and "it seems far more reasonable" to assume extensive contact between Muhammad's early followers and these traditions took place outside the central inland Hijaz. This is in facy why Cook, Crone, et al. locate the beginnings of Islam further north (but this maybe mistakes a later process of cultural contact that was read back into Islam's beginnings as being there from the start. Mecca and Medina were important political centers of Islam from very early on, so if Islam didn't arise there, it would be weird for these small towns to suddenly become important later).

[huntingteeth]

hello, i’m huntingteeth, also known as deerie on ao3, and you can call me claire! i’ve gotten a fair amount of followers here so i thought it was about time to do another intro post.

i write strictly for fun, and my main stomping ground in fandom right now is sleep token. the goal is to write so much sleep token fic that it eclipses the 33 fics that i wrote for teen wolf lmao. sometimes i even mention the original stories i’m working on uh but don’t get too excited i’m much more tender and precious about it than i am with fic

a fun fact about me is that my masters degree is in literacy! that probably answers a few questions and raises some as well

i like crafting! i’m currently in the process of teaching myself to crochet, but i like to knit and cross stitch as well.

my fave genre of book is nonfiction. i like science nonfiction and micro-histories through the lens of food. i read fewer fiction stories lol but i like spooky ones.

here i made you a playlist, it’s still growing put it on shuffle i guess

i have an extensive tarot deck collection. i also have an extensive crystal collection lmao. another thing i collect is teapots, the real round boys.

my birthday is soon-ish (sept 1, the best day in september) and i’ll be 35 which does mean i’m an actual adult so please temper your expectations accordingly

my toxic trait is that i don’t watch movies ahahaha. i do watch movie recaps on youtube though so please infer from that whatever you want. i also like to watch ttrpgs, anything that has to do with high strangeness, and compilation videos lol

as of may 2025, i’ll have been vegetarian for 10 years which is another wild concept. i also have extensive food allergies so sometimes you’ll catch me bemoaning that fact. despite that, i’m definitely into food and cooking, so i post about that often too.

i’m not scary, come talk to me. ask box is generally open and i love being tagged in things 😌

[rudojudo]

Donbrothers Theory: the meaning of the Noto

Donbrothers is a story about a lot of things. It's also kind of about nothing. But I'd say it's really a story about stories. The stories we tell ourselves, the ones we tell each other. It has a lot to say about Super Sentai as an institution.

So what are the Noto? We never get much of an explanation beyond that they're from "a higher dimension" and that they subsist on the mental energies from the world of the story. What does that make them?

They're us. Specifically, adult Sentai fans. The way they fall in with the Donbrothers, and their reasons for doing so, reflect reasons why head writer Inoue Toshiki thinks people watch the show as adults.

Sonoi doesn't understand art, but he knows what he likes. He appreciates Tarou for who he is. He even ends up emulating him for a while, but this isn't how an adult should act about their favorite character. He gets over it and goes back to just spending as much time with him as possible. He shows the sort of romantic connection someone with media literacy can have for a show they love.

Speaking of romance, Sononi is in it for the character drama. Inoue loves writing romance arcs into his shows and it stands to reason that he thinks that there should be a sort of person interested in that part the most. She's the shipper, the fic writer, the one who follows the actors on social media.

Sonoza is just trying to feel some fucking joy in his life. He literally can't laugh. His arc is all about just feeling the raw, uncomplicated emotions of this children's show and working to increase that as much as possible. This is the face of a man who buys merch and decorates his desk.

All three of them satisfy their desires by being in the world of Sentai.

The second trio are a bunch of fucking haters. They don't like the show, they think it's cringe, they think you're a loser for watching a kid's show. But... they're here too, aren't they? They don't want Sentai off the air and they don't want adult fans to stop watching, because if that happened, who would they make fun of on image boards?

The last two are the ones who do want you to stop watching. Sentai is for kids, let it just be for kids. No more toku actress gravure, no more adult collectables, just fucking stop.

It's not a 1:1 situation, it fails to consider the way that they are themselves characters within the narrative and can directly interact with the team in a way that fans literally can't. But I can't stop seeing this.

[onionjulius]

Reading the numbers: 130 million American adults have low literacy skills, but funding differs drastically by state

(March 16, 2022)

[M]ore than half of Americans between the ages of 16 and 74 (54%) read below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level.

The most recent national survey on adult literacy is from 2012-2017, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics as part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). The U.S. ranks 16th among the 33 OECD nations included in this study.

While Feinberg said anyone can have low literacy, adults who have poor reading skills tend to live in underserved communities with few resources, or what she calls a “print desert.” In these areas, she said there is little signage beyond local stores as well as few libraries and bookstores.

“They likely went to schools that weren't supported by a wealthy tax base,” Feinberg said. “And so, they don't have good internet access. They may not know how to use the internet if [they] can't spell very well. You're [going to] have a really hard time finding things.”

Typically, [adult basic education] and literacy programs are federally funded through the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA), Title II of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 1998. Feinberg said this federal funding goes toward communities based on the percentage of people without a high school diploma. The funding is broken into basic funding for adult education and literacy services and the Integrated English Literacy and Civics Education (IELCE) program, which supports English language learners. However, Patterson said this funding is not enough to make sufficient impact. “Within the last couple of years, there's been more of an emphasis on getting additional funding,” she said. “But essentially, when you have the same amount of money, inflation [and] cost of living would imply that it's just going to get worse and worse.”

See also: Which states have the highest and lowest adult literacy rates? - source for map below:

See also: Highlights of PIAAC 2017 U.S. Results

PIAAC will release its next round of data (collected in 2023) next month.

[intothestacks]

Cool Board Games for Your Library

Flourish – $40 CAD

Type: Card Game Players: 1-7 Mechanics: Closed Drafting, Cooperative, Set Collection Playtime: 20-60 min Age: 8+ Skills You Practice: Strategy, Matching, Cooperation

A beautiful, card-drafting, garden-building game in which players plan and build the garden of their dreams over the course of the growing season. Players plan their gardens throughout the game to collect the most points.

Why it’d be good for a library collection:

Not literacy-dependent

Family-friendly

Versatile player number

Older adult interest

Versatile game modes

Simple gameplay

[loveisbraveandwild]

i’m currently a community college student, considering becoming a librarian. was your degree/your job very technology heavy (like, are you working with computers for a large portion of your day)? do you have any advice? would you mind sharing a brief ‘day in the life’?

omg!! i loooove being a librarian!! school was very chill, i did my program online and didnt really build a community, but classes were very easy and i graduated with a 4.0! there’s definitely a trend in the programs and work towards more tech work. my program was also focused on becoming a school librarian, so we did a lot of like teaching digital literacy stuff!! i didnt really like working at the public library. it was very under stimulating for me and i wasnt trained to be a first responder and thats a lot of the work in urban public libraries. i also didnt really like serving adults lol i became a librarian to work w kids. i love love love working at a school. my school is pretty lowkey, but last year the school i was at was very intense. so depending on where you end up you might be teaching all day every day or you might not. my library class structure with the kids are 1-3 books for read aloud related to that grade specific unit and then 15 minutes to browse the school library and check out books. when i dont have students, im planning classes, helping teachers by supporting their digital work or pulling books to support their curriculum, or doing library/collection maintenance! happy to answer more questions!! just ask:)

[thestraggletag]

The Caretaker, Chapter One

AKA: A Rumbelle Sugar Daddy AU... kinda.

Rating: Explicit.

Summary: Belle French had never thought helping came with strings attached, confident that in a community people naturally tended to help each other, until the day she needed help to keep the library open and no one seemed to care. No one but Mr Gold, whose penchant for dealing could always be counted on, even if the price for his generosity was known to be steep.

It felt like it had taken her ages, but she had finally done it. Or almost, in any case. She was one paycheck away from the full amount, and she was getting paid in a couple of days. In the nick of time too, considering the state of the library. It had been months since the heavy spring rains had exposed heavy filtrations in the library’s ceiling, located specially along the still-dilapidated clock tower- she had never quite gotten the council approval to have it back to working order- and her life had spiralled into some sort of ever-growing nightmare.

She had thought at first that it was only a matter of getting Regina to approve the use of emergency funds to patch up the ceiling, but that had quickly turned into some sort of pipe dream. The mayor, clearly, had some sort of strange vendetta against the library and would not budge or release even a bit of funds, not even enough for an estimate on the repair costs. When the first spot of damp had appeared in the corner of the fiction section- meaning the spot had originated inside her closet right above it- Belle had paid for the estimate herself, thinking that a more detailed and concrete plan of action regarding the needs of the library would convince Madam Mayor of the urgency before the spot could get any worse.

She had been convinced, alright, but it had not changed her stance on the subject. She had gone as far as to imply that Belle was responsible for the upkeep of the apartment above the library, and when that had failed she had pivoted to argue that the situation did not qualify for the use of the discretionary emergency budget and the best that could be done is include the repair cost in the discussion of the upcoming budget. But that wasn’t due for months, and as the damp spot grew and began to turn black with mould Belle realised she was not going to make it. The damp would surely ruin books, not to mention her own clothing, which she now kept in a corner of her living-room, as far away from the problem as possible. But above all the damp meant rotting walls and rotting foundations, things that could get a building condemned. And Regina, she knew now, would swoop in at the chance of closing up the library. If the damp forced her to temporarily close up she knew she would never reopen.

She had tried to organise some sort of campaign to force the issue, to trigger an emergency budget meeting, but had found almost no support. No one was interested in signing petitions or, even less, in getting involved in any small way, like calling the town council or even sending a letter, not even when Belle offered to write sample letters they could simply sign.

She was surprised, but tried not to take it personally, that people didn’t think keeping the library open was in their best interest. It was just that no one thought for a moment about all they used it for, its value to both the elementary school and the high school, the computer literacy classes for adults, the many local clubs that used the building as a meeting place, the movie collection people relied on in a town with no video rental and a distaste for paying for streaming services. People just hadn’t considered all they would lose if the damp didn’t get fixed, but it did not deter her. There was time to begin building an awareness of the library’s many valuable resources after the problem was solved.

She then resolved to simply save the money. She earned a very decent salary, and had savings as well, so a few months of scraping by would surely get her where she needed to be. That soon turned out to be more problematic when, two months into her scheme, Ruby came to her in tears, begging for money because Granny and her were short on the rent. Ruby’s car, her baby, had needed a bit of upkeep- and, personally, Belle thought it did not hurt that the new mechanic in town, Dorothy, was exactly Ruby’s type- and she had spent the money, thinking things would be tight but not dire. But then their oven had broken down, meaning Granny had found out she had used their emergency funds on her car and that they would have to use part of the rent money to fix the appliance. It was a series of unfortunate events, and Belle could not in good conscience leave the Lucas women on the lurch. Ruby and Granny had been the first people to make her feel welcome in town, after all.

She had considered getting a part time job after that, something temporary that she could do in her spare time, but there always seemed to be one activity or the other that ate up any free time she had. The local animal shelter was always seeking her out to volunteer- and it was difficult to say no to puppies and kittens-, not to mention meetings to organise school activities that involved the library and town events that needed anyone who could donate their time and attention.

A fundraiser was her next idea, something that would peak the people’s interest. It was hard to get anyone to care, or to truly grasp the urgency of the matter. In the end she had managed to organise a bake sale with Mary Margaret, who taught fourth grade at the local elementary school. Half of the proceeds would go towards a school trip to a nearby farm and the rest would go towards the library. It was not much, but it was something.

That had turned out to be a bust, however. Though originally Mary Margaret had promised a couple of the students’ parents and herself would help her bake, but that got downsized to just Mary Margaret and herself and, a couple of days before the event, Belle turned out to be the only baker still standing, Mary Margaret profusely apologising for forgetting that the weekend they had assigned for the baking her husband had planned a little getaway that could not possibly be rearranged. It meant that, come that weekend, Belle had only herself and a few ingredients guiltily donated by the parents who had stepped down to make everything for the sale. Thankfully Granny let her use the diner’s kitchen, along with their supplies, as a thank you for the money she had lent them. It still meant she had spent over 24 hours baking continuously, but she would not have to dip into her own money to buy supplies at least.

Mary Margaret was back in time for the sale itself, and at first Belle had been glad of it. But then, near the end of the event, Mother Superior had arrived to tearfully commiserate with anyone who would listen to her about an unfortunate- and nebulous- situation that meant the convent did not have enough money for the rent and Mr Gold was surely eager to turn them out the moment the month was up. From what Belle gathered later the “unfortunate situation” was months and months of unpaid rent, which had eventually led the pawnbroker to threaten eviction, as it was his legal right.

Mary Margaret, apparently overcome with generosity upon hearing Mother Superior, announced then and there that the proceeds of the bake sale would go to the convent. The children, she said, would understand, and they would have their field day trip later. She did not mention the library till Belle approached her directly. 

“Oh, you don’t mind Belle, do you? We’ll figure something out for the library later.”

She didn’t, provided further help to the library would come, but it never did, and Mary Margaret soon became perpetually too busy to speak with her. So she gritted her teeth and tightened her belt more, urgency bolstering her resolve as she did away with anything that wasn’t a need, including food outside the essentials and, sadly, heating. Thankfully the chimney on her living-room worked, so she got into the habit of taking walks along the forest when she had some free time to collect fallen branches and the like for use as firewood. Sleeping by the side of the fire was definitely less romantic than she had imagined, but it was doable.

But all that was behind her. After her new paycheck she’d be able to expand her eating habits beyond crackers, tea and stretched-thin soup and turn up her dusty thermostat. Go back to sleeping in her bed, and even treat herself to a bottle of medium-priced Cabernet Sauvignon. The possibilities were endless. And, most importantly, she could finally stop waking up each morning with that pit of anxiety that made it difficult to breathe. She would be able to relax, to move forward.

She was so happy she did not care much when she got a call at 2 AM in the morning. Her father didn’t call often but when he did he always forgot that there was a 14 hour difference between Storybrooke and Melbourne. She had given up on reminding him, especially because it was so unusual that he took the initiative to contact her. It felt nice that he decided to call.

Or it would’ve been, if her dad didn’t sound so angry and panicked, making it almost impossible to follow him. It took a lot of patience and a little shouting to get him to somewhat calm down, at least enough to explain himself. And when he did her stomach sank to the floor, discovering a new level of dread she had not previously known existed. He told her about his flower shop doing poorly for the last couple of years, and how he had been trying to cope but had not been keeping up with his payments well, which meant he had gotten behind on the mortgage and now the bank was threatening to take the house. The house where Belle had grown up, where her mother had spent her last days. The house he had chosen to use as collateral to expand his business later on. A house that he considered precious, but apparently not enough to keep it safe.

“It’s all I have left of your mother, buttercup, I can’t lose it.”

She was all that he had left of her mother, and yet he seldom called, and when he did he did not show any interest in her life. There was always usually a request or other attached to his calls, but never something this big.

“I… I have some savings.”

She tried to will the words back into her mouth, but the palpable relief in her father’s tone kept her from backpedalling. And, after all, the notion of never setting foot in her childhood home did not sit well with her.

“I’ll transfer the money first thing tomorrow. Yes, I promise. No, it’s no trouble. Don’t worry about it papa.”

“I knew I could count on you, buttercup.”

The rest of the week she floated around, as if her consciousness was only loosely attached to her body. She was constantly thinking about the damp spot, picturing it in her mind growing bigger and bigger till it swallowed up the library entirely and she with it. She obsessed over the expanding mould, her eyes starting towards its colonised corner with increasing dread. She reconsidered all of her options, thought about anything she might have missed, but she came up blank.

The one thing she did become painfully aware of, even as the rest of the week passed her in a blur of worry, was how little people seemed to notice about her anxiety. To her it felt like she walked around with all her anxiety written across her face, in the shadows beneath her eyes that no amount of concealer could fully cover, in the sallow look of her skin, a product of little sleep and little food, and in the way she was constantly frowning, distress making her twitchy and tense. But no one mentioned anything. Not Mary Margaret when she came to discuss if the library could coordinate summer reading lists for the kids so as to allocate a portion of the budget for purchases towards extra copies of the books in question, not Ruby when Belle stopped by the diner so the waitress could tell her all about he new crush, even after she was forced to fish around her purse for the money to pay for the tea she’d ordered and kept rejecting invites to go out to the Rabbit Hole, muttering about the expense, nor David when she agreed to fill in for the volunteer who helped put away the sacks of food for the dogs, the effort making her more dizzy than it ever had.

She felt… unseen. Like people stared right past her whenever they didn’t need something out of her, or after they had gotten it. But it was unfair, she told herself. Everyone had their own lives to live, their problems to take care of. It was wrong to be mad that people were not coddling her or rushing to her aid, especially when she was so bad at vocalising her distress. She couldn’t expect people to be mind readers. She was an adult, capable of solving her own problems.

And there was, after all, a universal solution to any problem in Storybrooke. A generic ‘break in case of emergency’ failsafe that she hadn’t allowed herself to even consider for the longest time.

Mr Gold.

Anyone who spent any length of time in Storybrooke knew of Mr Gold, the town’s own boogie man and magician, a man with the ability to do anything… for a price. Belle had been warned about him almost as soon as she had moved into the apartment above the library, first by Ruby and her Granny and later, little by little, by everyone else. People had built Mr Gold in her mind to be a veritable beast, some sort of greedy misanthrope who kicked puppies and stole lollipops from babies. A sombre figure dressed entirely in black, speaking in a soft voice with an uncomprehending accent and striking deals like he was the devil himself.

Their first meeting, in that sense, had been a bit of a letdown. Mr Gold was indeed dressed in black, she supposed, and he had an accent, but the black was paired with elegant pops of colour in the burgundy of his shirt and pocket square and his accent was pleasantly Scottish, a burr that Belle found more than a bit charming. And the man himself, past his prickly exterior, was not what people said either. Cultured and funny, with the sort of sharp sense of humour that some might find off putting or even mocking but that she tended to favour.

And he had always been polite to her. A bit biting in his initial dealings, but gentlemanly nevertheless. One of the few people who consistently visited the library, once a month at least and often twice, either taking out research material for his antiques business or works of fiction for recreational purposes, with an interesting penchant for legal thrillers- perhaps to be expected- and also folklore, a combination that said something about him that Belle was still trying to decipher and reconcile with the rest of him.

When he visited the library he made a point of talking to her. Nothing much, a five or ten minute conversation, related to books, that was sometimes the highlight of her day. He was a delightful conversationalist, allowing her to stretch mental muscles that she seldom exercised anywhere else in town. Still, Belle was aware that in reality she knew little of Mr Gold. Despite having a library card she didn’t even know his name, his file reading simply “AU Gold”, which let her know, if nothing else, that he had either very witty parents or unusually cruel ones. Mr Gold remained mostly a stranger to her, a mystery to uncover, but what little she had glimpsed of the man beyond the mask he wore conflicted with the image the town painted of him.

She hadn’t wanted to go to him for help because, in a way, it would completely change the dynamic of their relationship, as shallow and perfunctory as it was. She did not fear making a deal. Mr Gold never took more than agreed upon, and most of the complaints people had with his agreements seemed to stem from not having read or understood the terms. She wasn’t about to make that mistake. 

There was no other bridge to cross, however, no other stone to turn. Mr Gold was her one and only hope. With that in mind she closed the library the slightest bit early on Wednesday night, freshened up a bit to look less like the mess she felt, grabbed the folder with all the documentation she thought she might need and made her way across the street, where the sign for Mr Gold’s shop was still lit from below.

Mr Gold was alone, as she had expected. No one in town went into the shop for anything other than a deal. Belle did not imagine the business did a lot, or any, selling, but the Scotsman still opened it up at 8AM and stayed even beyond closing time at 6PM, leaving usually an hour or two later. Clearly he did something at the shop, beyond staring at the hoard of things he’d amassed and looking at his property portfolio.

Whatever he did wasn’t evident when she walked in. Mr Gold was near his antique cash register, polishing something with careful movements. It was delightfully toasty inside the shop, something Belle had come to greatly appreciate recently, so he was without his jacket, something she had never seen. Her eyes zeroed in on what looked at first like armbands but she quickly recognised as sleeve garters, something she had never seen someone wear outside a period drama. They were clearly aimed at lifting the cuffs of Mr Gold’s shirt slightly away from his wrists to keep the garment clean as he worked on one antique or the other. 

“Good evening, Miss French. What a lovely surprise.”

It didn’t sound like a surprise at all, and looking at him there was no trace of it on his face. Mr Gold looked like he had been expecting her all along.

“Good evening, Mr Gold.” Her mind blanked as to how to conduct the conversation, whether to make small talk or be straightforward. She didn’t know what he would prefer. “It’s lovely in here. I can’t believe I haven’t been inside before.”

She meant it, of course, and judging by how his eyes softened he believed her too. The inside of the pawnshop was dimly lit, which she didn’t think was good for selling trinkets but added to the ambiance in a positive way. The room felt at first glance cluttered and messy, but looking further revealed a cosiness and a certain order to things. Jewellery together along the curios further from the door, antique toys clustered in a corner, silverware in a far cabinet and the like. The initial chaotic impression seemed almost like an invitation to explore, though Belle could not imagine anyone in Storybrooke doing so. Not when the cave of wonders had a dragon.

“You’re too kind. And what brings you here this evening?”

The opening was kindly given, and Belle was grateful for it. She forced herself to relax and take a deep breath, knowing the words she was going to say next could never be unspoken.

“I’m here to make a deal.”

Trying not to rush or to become emotional the librarian presented the bare bones of the situation: the rains, the leaky roof, the damp. How she had gone to Regina for funding and been rejected, her other attempts at raising money and, finally, her decision to do it on her own.

“I was aware of the basics of the situation, yes. But I thought you would have scraped together all the money you needed by now.” He was nonchalant as he spoke, part of his attention still on the antique he was polishing. Belle thought it looked like a Royal Doulton fox. 

“God knows you’ve been starving yourself long enough to have managed it.”

The comment startled her, and she had to fight the natural impulse to touch her face. She had taken pains to reapply her concealer and add a little bit of blush before she had come, to hide her rather unfortunate complexion. Mr Gold, noticing her bewilderment, ghosted a finger near her cheekbones. She blinked, embarrassed to feel her eyes well up with tears. What a nonsensical reaction.

“Your features have sharpened rather noticeably these past few months. A simple observation.”

An observation no one else had made, but she didn’t tell him that. She had the feeling she didn’t need to. Instead she told him, in the vaguest terms possible, about her father’s late night phone call a few days ago, and his predicament. Surprisingly Mr Gold seemed to react angrily at that, muttering something about parents being the ones to look out for their children and not the other way around. Belle felt the need to defend her father, but could not deny that their dynamic had tended towards her taking care of him rather than the opposite, ever since her mother had died and Moe French had been left adrift. She had done it willingly, gladly, but she did not think that would change Mr Gold’s poor opinion of her father at all.

Finally, haltingly, she told him that she could not come up with any other solution. That she feared that if the problem wasn’t fixed they would close down the library, and make it permanent. That the mayor was rather counting on it, for some reason she could not quite understand.

“You’re right about that. Madame Mayor was never too keen on the library, not since she’s gotten bigger ambitions for the town. I, on the other hand, am partial to keeping it open.” He smiled, a gesture that did not reach his eyes, and she got the idea she was meant to see how shallow it was. “It’s good for property values.”

She supposed she was meant to take offence but all Belle could feel at the moment was validated. She wasn’t imagining things, she wasn’t being paranoid or delusional. Regina Mills was actually out to get her, or at least the library, and she had been right to assume she was running against time to find a way to fix the problem herself before she allowed the mayor the opportunity to strike.

He asked for the budget estimates then, reading over the documentation she had brought with the expert eye of someone used to dealing with property issues, finally commenting that it seemed thorough and fairly-priced. Marco always did an excellent job too, which he could guarantee first-hand. And she was also right that, without the repairs being performed quickly, the building would not pass an inspection, and the cost for the fix would increase the longer it took.

“And how much of the money for the repairs do you actually have?”

She took a deep breath. This was the moment of truth.

“None of it. That’s why I’m here. I want to make a deal for the money.”

Belle watched him as he pulled another trinket to polish from beneath the counter, this time an antique pocket watch. His movements were slow, unhurried, his entire posture oozing nonchalance. While some might have thought it degrading or insulting Belle was rather glad for this, it put her at ease somehow.

“It seems rather silly to become indebted to me to repair a public building that the people of this town don’t seem to appreciate. A building that should be maintained with public funds. A little too self-sacrificial for my taste.”

A moue of disdain crossed his face, and the librarian had the notion she was meant to see it. Mr Gold was a consummate performer when he negotiated a deal, always knowing what part to play to get things to go his way.

“People here depend on the library, they just don’t realise how important it is for the town. It’s my responsibility to keep it open. Besides-” she paused, trying to get a hold of herself, feeling like she was getting too emotional-”I’m doing this for me too. I like the library. And the town. I don’t wish to move.”

As much as she felt a bit let down by her friends and other residents, Belle really did like Storybrooke. She had fought hard the last few years to make it her home. She didn’t wish to leave Ruby, or Granny, or the children from the elementary school who visited often for school projects or for reading time. Or even Leroy, who came to the library sporadically to use the computer and sometimes just for some peace and quiet while he nursed a hangover.

Or even Mr Gold, whose conversations were so fun, though perhaps the deal would change things between them. Looking at him she could almost tell he had softened somehow, though she could not be sure. The man had an amazing poker face, managing to look both completely uninterested in what she was saying but also like he had not missed a word of it.

“Can you help me?”

It wasn’t a matter of whether he could, but whether he wanted to. Still, Belle thought phrasing it in such a way would work against her. For what it felt like forever silence stretched across them, flooding every inch of the room. The librarian forced herself to breathe evenly and wait, let Mr Gold make the first move. And then he did, taking out a notebook and a pencil and detailing sums as he explained to her that the town had discretionary funds for situations like hers, different from the emergency money under Regina’s direct control, and he happened to be one of three town council members in charge of their administration. He could easily get Midas on board to approve the release of the funds for the repairs if he agreed to donate the rest of the money. Midas always liked avoiding bigger expenses in the future and he went with whatever made financial sense. That would leave Albert Spencer, Regina’s lapdog, outvoted. It would all be quick, and work could start therefore as early as next week, if she so wished.

He said all so nonchalant, as if he wasn’t pulling what felt to Belle like a miracle. It was the first time in a long time that she felt the problem could be solved, that there was a solution in reach. The only thing that remained unknown was the price, but she could not imagine anything Mr Gold could ask that she wouldn’t part with gladly.

“What do you want in exchange?” She paused, wondering whether she should offer a few suggestions, let him know what she had that could potentially be worth it. “I-I could pay you back. We could set up a payment plan, with interest rates and-”

“I don’t want your money, Miss French. I have no need for it.”

Dread curled in her stomach, either because she was afraid she had nothing else to offer him or because he was prepared to ask for something else, something that would give her pause.

“So what do you want?”

He paused, leaning slightly over the counter and finally looking at her in the eyes.

“I want your time, Miss French. Any you can spare, whenever you’re not working. For whatever I may need you for. At the shop, during a trip, in my house.”

“Like… like a caretaker? Or a maid? Or a secretary?”

“Something like that. I want your time, for you to be available to me whenever I have need of you, as long as it’s reasonable, of course.”

She knew what Ruby would say. She would paint the situation as sordid, with Mr Gold implying all manner of nefarious deeds that he would have her do. Belle didn’t know whether that would be entirely wrong either. She barely knew Mr Gold, after all, outside their sporadic and brief chats at the library, and his reputation was dark enough to give credence to the less charitable interpretation of his meaning. Still, Belle could not quite convince herself of the worst. And it wasn’t like it mattered. She had no other choice. This was her last chance.

“The library… it would be repaired entirely? No shortcuts or work half-done? Would it be brought entirely up to code?”

“You have my word.”

“Then you have mine.”