Random question that just suddenly decided to keep me up tonight.

[conuly]

Why does Sunnydale High School have a cage in its library?

I mean, duh, they have a cage so they can lock up werewolves and Evil Willow and whatever, but seriously. Why? Like, are there real life libraries with random cages smack dab in the middle of them, like that gym with a floor over a pool that's really real?

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

I forget if an explanation is given. I think it's supposed to be where the books that students are only allowed access to under special circumstances are kept, but mainly, it's Sunnydale Syndrome - people go along with the oddities because their brain refuses to let them pay attention to them.

[dv8nation.livejournal.com]

It was a storage area. It just had a good strong lock to keep people from stealing. I never found it all that odd.

[alessandriana.livejournal.com]

Some libraries have them to lock up rare books-- although it *is* pretty strange for a regular high school library to have one.

[conuly]

Well, given the sort of books they have, I guess that does make sense.

[velasco.livejournal.com]

When I worked in a college library we had a cage in there. Nothing werewolf-proof, of course, but it was for rare books that had controlled access.

[conuly]

The books had controlled access to what?

[steorra (from livejournal.com)]

People! They were very cautious about which people they allowed the rare books to come in contact with.

[conuly]

Sensible. You wouldn't want the books picking up bad habits :P

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

There was a big 'cage' in the basement of my high-school dorm, which had been a private home to start with. Supposedly it had originally been a place to store steamer trunks and such. If only there had been a door on it, it probably could have held a werewolf securely enough.

I think leora hit the nail on the head. The people of Sunnydale appear to live their lives inside a vast Somebody Else's Problem field that covers the entire town and prevents them from perceiving all the weird shit that's constantly going on there.

[conuly]

I think [info]leora hit the nail on the head. The people of Sunnydale appear to live their lives inside a vast Somebody Else's Problem field that covers the entire town and prevents them from perceiving all the weird shit that's constantly going on there.

Which would explain why nobody questions the cage, but not why there's a cage in the first place. Wouldn't Sunnydale Syndrome (erstwhile official term) make them less likely to put a cage in the library in the first place?

[conuly]

But who put the cage in and weren't they affected by Monsters Definitely Not Involved?

[leora.livejournal.com]

I forget when the cage was introduced, but we know Giles is immune and in charge of the library.