#2am posting means the anxiety is drowned out by poor impulse control

[ash-rabbit]

Everyone has a different 'scariest' episode of TMA, but none have filled me with horror as much as MAG 118 had.

It's not the threat of Elias or the choir of skin puppets that turned my stomach.

It's Martin Blackwood.

Martin and his wanton destruction of historical documents. Albrecht's letter in particular.

Below is just a vent about that letters possible research significance and why it's destruction is devastating from like a small scale. Information Science people could probably say it a lot better, but it is 2 am and still thinking about that.

Working off the assumption that the letter is the Schwartzwald statement Mag 23, well-

It's devastating. Albrecht's letter actually operates as an excellent primary source within the world of Magnus as a study on cursed books. Leitner's library was a known and infamous variable within the supernatural community, and Albrecht's library was essentially a precursor to it.

I'd also like to point out that MAG 53 also offered up another source of cursed libraries and the foul fates of their caretakers

And MAG 127 is a follow up to MAG 23, further reaffirming the assumptions made in 53 regarding the fates of failed archivists.

Even if that's a completely unrelated letter, it was stored in the archive because it was considered relevant for future researchers, archives don't just hoard every gossipy letter, those would go into a separate collection based in the library if anything.

And all of these related statements are all in English, which is kind of insane? So maybe I'm bitter that I've had to change multiple thesis' due to a lack of relevant primary sources, but Albrecht is such a pivotal lore character in universe.

My uni makes history students attend a seminar on how to handle materials from archives and rare book libraries, and the librarian promised great violence on those who would use a stapler or pen anywhere near those texts.

So really, Martin got off incredibly easy for purposefully destroying an invaluable record. Irregardless of sentiment, I think Jonah under reacted. In that situation I think Jonah Magnus would have been more justified in brutal pipe murdering a man then he had with Jurgen Leitner.

There is nothing inherently evil about knowledge, about books and records. The ethics lie within the acquisition of said knowledge, it's usage, and what it's destruction represents.

#the magnus archives #martin blackwood #tma #mag 118 #I can't listen to 118 without being filled with nausea and an unreasonable amount of anger #I was devastated at the lack of diverse secondary and primary papers regarding translatio (christian reliquary theft) so yeah I'm bitter #I needed ten sources for a 300 course. Destruction of mag 23 is the loss of three possible sources. Since you lose the case for alexandria #2am posting means the anxiety is drowned out by poor impulse control #Feel free to discourse. But like. Nothing you say will convince me that Martin's actions were justifiable in that instance #martin negativity #i guess? #I'm not dragging Martin here. But I fundamentally disagree with his course of action