Chronicle of Higher Ed goes Gothic: Google as Snidely Whiplash

The Chronicle of Higher Ed has many issues when reporting on technology, but this article offers a new twist, starting with a headline:

Librarians Accuse Google of Using and Discarding Them

Google the Cad, Google the Rake.  Google twirls its mustache, leaving behind a weeping Library.  Library as fallen women, Library as waif, as wronged, virtuous, yet soiled woman.  Splendidly Victorian Gothic rhetoric!

What next?  Library tied to a train track?  Librarians immured in ancient towers?  Google as evil monk, predatory lord, Frankenstein's monster, or vampire?  Talk about search engine optimization.

Previous posts on Google Gothic: ominous Googling, FOG (Fear of Google), chilling search term suggestions, Google anxiety fiction.

Comments

[Ed Webb]

I love the vision of Google as melodramatic villain. But the same headline could be read as Marxist discourse: Google as exploitative capitalist, librarians as honest proletarians, used up and tossed on the slagheap of history. Post-industrial society must have a class dynamic, no? Google owns the means of dissemination, whereas librarians and other knowledge workers own only their own (knowledge) labor, and are thus vulnerable. Google has transcended its insurgent status and is a fully signed-up member of the global plutocracy. Complete with top hat, cane, and twirly mustache, of course - facial hair matters in both versions.