But let me get one thing straight — if you are talking in a quiet library against explicit advisory from either signage or some semblance of social awareness, you are being inconsiderate to others.

That said, it strikes me as strange to see such animosity surrounding chatter in libraries at Yale. Some people are inconsiderate, sure, but there is also a degree of ignorance that accounts for the rudeness. We should put ourselves in the shoes of the people we find obnoxious and cut them slack. Sometimes. 

I can’t help but pity the people getting torn to shreds on Fizz for talking in libraries, but they are also silly for being loud in Bass. I will never, ever return to that cesspool of academic achievement again, but I’ve been, and I’ve heard what people have to say now, and I can tell you with certainty that place doesn’t even deserve a sliver of discourse.

One of the things I love about this campus is that we can go virtually anywhere, even if access isn’t immediately granted. We’re smart enough to find ways around it with enough willpower, only in theory, of course. I’m just saying that you can find somewhere, anywhere, to study if you search hard enough. 

So if you find disgusting, bad, overcrowded, over-loud study spaces annoying — join the club. 

But you can and should go elsewhere! Find which buildings are unpopulated and at what times. Go to that gorgeous Hillhouse mansion you usually gawk at on your way to Watson. Find a silent nook and cranny in your residential college, or maybe a lover’s or a friend’s. 

You don’t want to be the asshole who tells people to shush it. Or maybe you do. Policing the few third spaces far between this forsaken planet is not my policy, but it might be yours. Or maybe you’re grumpy today and need to take it out on some first years who don’t know better. I could really care less. You won’t find me talking around people studying, but you also won’t find me studying around people, period.

Now, enough about me. 

The dumb thing about the loud libraries discourse is that most libraries aren’t loud, and most libraries also aren’t quiet. Most public libraries contain at least some degree of chatter at peak operating hours, but it really depends on the room, the library, the city, the country and all contingent hell. 

I know I said Bass doesn’t deserve discourse, but interestingly, it is host to a rather loud event — the Pundits’ annual Naked Run. Call it an argumentative cheapshot to mention a time when everyone agrees a library can be loud, even though it isn’t supposed to be, but there’s something interesting here. 

Imagine a group of students so locked in that they remain unfazed in their studies during the Naked Run. As their peers hoot and holler, these students sit around a table together with their noise-canceling headphones, unbothered by any sort of shenanigans, naked or not. They grind throughout the Naked Run. Grind in a studious sense. Not a lewd one. 

Is such a display of mental fortitude worth reprehension? Of course not. But those folks do need to live a little.

What does this imaginary, highly unlikely thought experiment have to do with people bothering their more studious peers by talking in libraries in real life? It responds to the question — does a library inherently have to be quiet? 

I think the answer is that it doesn’t, even if a sign tells you so, even if people are studying, because a library can be loud when we agree on it. When we all agree on it. 

ZANE GLICK is a junior in Ezra Stiles College majoring in Humanities. His work for the News spans the WKND and Opinion desks, the latter of which he is a columnist. He can be reached at zane.glick@yale.edu.