Surveillance and Data

When someone was discussing the idea of incarcerated readers, it struck me that being in-patient at the Grey Nuns existed in similar ways in that there was a relative monitoring system that happened--sometimes checked on every hour, sometimes every 15 minutes, sometimes round the clock surveillance.

Books were available but donated ones which were surely censored (no Thirteen Reasons Why, unsurprisingly) and then, additionally, there was a library cart that circulated twice a week, manned by a volunteer, The anxieties, then, of having someone observing your choices, your returns, the “reading trails” that sometimes happened through annotated messages in the books or wearing of covers, dogearing, etc. compounded by the eyes of nurses, aides, doctors and other patients. But those people seemed part of the general agreement of being in a mental psych ward.

Coming out of my room to discover a student manning that cart was startling and unsettling. As much as he was covered by a non-disclosure agreement, it felt highly alarming to have my privacy invaded by this outside surveillance.