The Naughty Librarian

Naughty librarians happen to be one of my favorite fantasies, and I am by no means alone. The trope makes regular appearances on our buddy blog, The Larryville Chronicles. Here are a couple more examples:

Note that in the costume the skirt is made out of books, albeit without any too creative selections: Moby Dick, of course, the Joy of Sex, and The Scarlet Letter.

Anyway, this past summer Quentin Tarantino gave an interview with Elle magazine where he attacked the trope, saying, "If someone is inhibited in life, they tend to be inhibited in bed. If they have judgmental rules in life, they'll have judgmental rules in bed." On the one hand, yes, he's attacking one of our most treasured fantasies, but, on the other hand, he's not telling us anything we don't already know. And knowing it's not true gives power to the fantasy.

But the naughty librarian is not just any fantasy, she fits into a paradigm that is man's answer to the Cinderella complex. Whereas many women imagine that one day the perfect man will ride up and sweep them off their feet into a world of perfect romance, that he will love and care for them unfailingly into eternity, men have a different complex. Many men imagine that they will ride out into the world and discover a woman in whom they will awaken an unsuspected and insatiable sexual desire, a woman that will fill their days with endlessly variable, endlessly exciting, and tireless sex.

The naughty librarian, by virtue of beginning as a symbol of the proper, unreachable, and asexual that is then corrupted into a lusty voluptuary, reenacts this essential fantasy. Consider, for example, the beginning of Horny Licking Librarian:

"It was Polly Prentiss’ first day on the job. The newly appointed head librarian of the exclusive and private Hardwick School knew she ought to keep her mind on her work, but it was difficult to ignore how horny she felt.

She’d never had this problem before. Polly had always been so wrapped up in her career that she’d never had time for men and sex. Then, at twenty-eight, she’d decided to treat herself to her first real vacation, a Caribbean cruise. And on the cruise she’d gone to bed with a man for the very first time. Just a few love-making sessions with Mark Wells, and she was hooked on sex."

(Quote and image courtesy of xNovel, "classic adult novels for free")

And then, of course, Polly goes on to be the titular naughty librarian.

Although I agree with Tarantino in fact, in spirit I am more akin to Borges' narrator in "The Library of Babel": "I pray to the unknown gods that a man--just one even though it were thousands of years ago!--may have examined and read [her]. . . . Let heaven exist though my place be in hell. Let me be outraged and annihilated, but for one instant, in one being, let Your enormous Library be justified."