Dusk Beyond the End of the World

Episode 7

This week on Dusk, our protagonists discover banned books and the people who love them. Banned manga and the challenges being faced by librarians is something we've even talked about here on ANN, interestingly enough. But getting back on track, it was very funny when all the booksellers lit up at the mention of banned books, and all proceeded to show off their trophies. I was surprised to see the subject matter wasn't just limited to history—we also saw them take out books on (among other topics) electrical engineering and PC security. Enough to make it clear that OWEL isn't just suppressing the study of history, but also, the study of what seems to be anything that might eventually lead you to AI.

Moreover, as the booksellers discussed, the raids on the relevant reading materials were a fairly recent event—they don't give a precise time, but one of them calls it “pretty recent” so the obvious thing to speculate was that it happened shortly after Akira woke up. This calls into question what book bans looked like in an OWEL-operated world before this. We know they've been pretty hardcore about suppressing knowledge of the AI War, and the impression the anime has left is that this has been going on for some time now, but now it's hard to say. And also, how long have they been suppressing tech knowledge? At the very least, it seems OWEL's efforts have been ramping up in the advent of Akira's waking up.

My current theory is that they've been suppressing knowledge of the AI War (and probably history more broadly, too) more or less the whole time, and tech to a lesser extent. Still, we've met characters like Yokurata, who demonstrate that even if it's only within OWEL, at least some of that information has still survived, even if only fragmented. But the arrival of Akira prompted them to revitalize their efforts, hence OWEL's renewed efforts in book banning that manifested in the recent raids. They're obviously afraid that Akira knows something that spells danger for them, but it's still hard to speculate on what, specifically, that could be. It's almost certainly related to Towasa, sure, but that's about all we know. That being said, to me, the next question being raised is whether or not they seek to kill him. If so, why not kill him while he was in cryo-sleep? Did they not know he was there? And if they didn't, how then did they learn about his waking up? Or do they need him alive for some reason, but don't want him awake, so they seek to put him back in cryo-sleep? For the first time in several weeks, we saw the other androids closing in on our protagonists, so I'd be willing to bet this is something we'll be learning sooner rather than later.

And that leads us to the end of the episode, and Akira's encounter with the librarian in what's basically her own private rare book room, that eventually leads to a library fire. If she's so concerned about the condition of these books, then why is she so carelessly handling a whip and visibly damaging them herself? I wish I knew what to tell you. Still, inelegant as it might sound if you've never looked into it, you'd be shocked at the gargantuan amount of history we've lost to fires. They're the real history-destroying deal. For example: Remember how a couple weeks ago I brought up Sir Gawain and the Green Knight? To refresh your memory: Today it's one of the most important pieces of medieval writing, of which there is but one sole extant manuscript. And yet, for hundreds of years, it flew under the radar of librarians, who hadn't noticed there was anything in the book it was in behind the Pearl poem.

What I didn't talk about, however, was the Cotton Library fire of 1731—the thing that makes Sir Gawain's survival go from being “just a matter of time” to “downright miraculous.” To put a long story short: The Cotton Library (or Cottonian Library) refers to Sir Robert Bruce Cotton of England's collection of historic books and manuscripts, which today is considered to be one of the most important collections of books and manuscripts of all time. 1731 was well after his lifetime (he died in 1631), and still roughly a century away from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight's rediscovery.

Fire struck the area the collection was stored in (I called it the Cotton Library fire for convenience, but in actuality it's called the Ashburnham House fire), and it destroyed and damaged several priceless, irreplaceable pieces of history. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was lucky to escape this perilous episode relatively unscathed, but alas, the same couldn't be said for many other precious pieces in this collection. Most notable among the pieces to sustain more substantial damage was the Nowell Codex, aka the Beowulf manuscript (there's more in there aside from Beowulf, but that's by far the most well-known and important thing in there). Despite the trials and tribulations it's endured, however, the manuscript—which, also like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, is the sole extant manuscript from which we have this text—is still around today (also housed in the British Library). Some pages have fared better or worse than others, but it's still plain to see just how badly the edges have been burned no matter which page you look at.

And this isn't exactly the kind of thing that only happened back in the abstract, distant past. The modern day is more flammable than you give it credit for. Ask any film historian sometime about their opinions on fires, and I'm sure they'll have plenty to talk about. In 2013, the Library of Congress estimated that 75% of silent-era films are irretrievably lost. There's a number of reasons why we've lost so many early films—including, but far from limited to, those sparsely surviving silent films—but fire ranks higher on that list than you'd probably expect if you're largely unfamiliar with film preservation or film history. For example, more than 40,000 reels were destroyed in the 1937 Fox Vault fire. And while numbers like “75%” and “more than 40,000” already sound huge enough on their own, it can't be emphasized enough that it's impossible to quantify the profound level of damage this has done to the legacy and our understanding of the early days of film and those who made them.

But to finally get back to Dusk, I have my gripes but this was easily one of the better episodes we've had. Not only did we learn a little more about the world, but now Akira also has a better idea of what, specifically, he should be looking for—banned books, especially if they happen to be written by Towasa. So especially with the way this week's episode ended, that puts us in a potentially good place for next week's episode to pick right back up. Do I dare to admit that I'm actually looking forward to seeing more?

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Dusk Beyond the End of the World is currently streaming on HIDIVE.