Recently, Harvard sent out this mass mailing about their fantastic library system. It came in a neat oversized crimson folder with a little box containing pamphlets with information about all the various libraries. It also came with this inset booklet with all sorts of artfully tasteful photos of books and globes and Greek sculptures, all trying to motivate us to use the plethora of libraries on campus.

I was struck, first, by the incredible waste of paper this process required, (simply to increase the confidence of Harvard students in their own libraries), and second, by the marked resemblance between the ultra classy photos with fancy font words like "PROGRESS", and the images often seen accompanying those great anti-motivational posters, like the ones with a photo of an iceberg poking its head out of the water which says something like "PROBLEMS", "No matter how great they may seem now, remember that you've probably only seen the tip of them"

Since the resemblance was just too much to resist, I decided to turn the library pamphlet into a similar set of anti-motivational posters with relevant epithets. Seriously, they were just way too perfect. In any case, here they are as captured by a hi-res digital photo. Anyway, enjoy ...

Andy Friedman 10/30/02