Writing Prompt #1: La bibliotheque fantasmatique
AWR(F) writing prompt for 25 July 2024. Heavily influenced by Borges' "The Circular Ruins" and personal dreamscape experiences.
Type: Prose
Length: ~400 words
Description: Describe a library. It can be any kind of library you want, but it should have 'A Surprising Element' to it, and should make all of us want to read more.
Prompt given: 25 July 2024
La bibliothèque fantasmatique
It takes on the context of its surroundings. Near a castle, it's a tall stone tower with concentric rings of oaken bookshelves. In a field, it's a marble gazebo, where the shelves are replaced by pedestals. In the city, it's a Brutalist monument, shards of sunlight piercing in from the roof, illuminating the center dais and keeping the concrete shelves in gloom. It takes on many forms and appears in many places, but one thing never changes: its layout is always a circle with rings.
Come in on a lazy day. Or perhaps you seek solace from your tribulations. No matter–the Bibliothèque is phantasy. It cannot harm you. You may browse its selection of readings, from the unsanctioned gospels to the secret thousand versions of The Little Prince (each on its own different planet). The images will speak to you, the words coming to life, creeping, crawling out of the books, coming together in a swarm of symbols until they form a mindscape for you to traverse. You may do so at your own leisure. The Bibliothèque has no closing hours–it simply is, and then is not.
But do not ignore the pièce de résistance, the main attraction the Bibliothèque has to offer. Step onto the dais, and behold the empty book before you. Be still as it flutters into the air, like a drunkard awakening from deepest slumber–it means you no harm. Now, concentrate on those books that you wish to read again, or those wishes-of-books that you wish you could read. Mix it up a little. And see–the scenes flying out from their respective tomes, fragmented or whole, slotting themselves into the empty volume and creating a world no-one has ever set foot in before. A map of an Earth with comically large ships sailing shore to shore. A hidden lake, sparkling blue amid a tropical island, through which dive dinosaurs. The same long-lost room from childhood, revisited in a hundred different permutations. These are the things that the library promises; that the library provides.
And when you are done and your book is filled to the brim, set it down and it will find its place among the shelves, waiting for the next visitor to come by. And who knows: maybe they already have. Maybe they have dreamed this, and the Bibliothèque is its own construction. Wouldn't that be something, now.
Final word count: 394