Friday, September 11, 2009

Bad cataloging decision #158

So I'm cataloging a DVD of the movie The Informers; it's based on a Bret Easton Ellis book, so of course it's full of decadent young people doing drugs (and each other, as the jacket copy states) and coming to bad ends. The plot summary in the record, apparently pulled off of IMDb, ends by saying that these kids don't realize that "they are dancing on the edge of a volcano,"a phrase which I understand for what it is, a metaphor for acting recklessly, heedless of the coming consequences. Imagine my surprise when I am editing the subject lines and find "Volcanoes--California--Los Angeles--Drama." I screamed out loud in both mirth and horror. What's even worse is that that subject line wasn't added locally, in our consortium, but came in that way from a national cataloging agency. I spent a while doing some research to make sure that a literal volcano does not play a part in the climax. I'm still a little in shock and a little in awe.

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