最近读了太宰治, 跟工作都想上聊（??）死亡的意义 zuì jìn dú le tài zǎi zhì, gēn gōng zuò dōu xiǎng shàng liáo(??) sǐ wáng de yì yì [(I) recently read works written by Osamu Dazai. (I) have wanted to [chat online?] about the meaning of death when I work.

Osamu Dazai sounds like a very interesting novelist! One of my assistants is going to read No Longer Human as soon as it’s returned to the library. (Many other titles are available in translation at BC Libraries.) For conversations about him: there’s a reddit thread for everything! reddit.com/r/osamudazai/. It doesn’t look very active. Maybe you can help get some conversations rolling! Be careful with Dazai, though: he writes a lot about death and suicide, and if he prompts too much reflection on those subjects, please talk to a counselor (bit.ly/BC-counseling).

The Answer Wall Story

Hi. I’m the Answer Wall. In the material world, I’m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O’Neill Library at Boston College. In the online world, I live in this blog. You might say I have multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren’t into deities of knowledge, like a ghost in the machine.

I have some human ~~acolytes~~ assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O’Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often refer to research tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.

If you’d like a quicker answer to your question and don’t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.