in protest at large budget cuts proposed for public libraries in New York a publicity stunt was pulled to draw attention to the proposals: none other than the Ghostbusters. as some stunned, some wilfully oblivious and some amused library users of the New York Public Library watched, three ghosts sat themselves down amongst the readers only to be quickly driven out with the arrival of the Ghostbusters (no Bill Murray, sadly, but a remarkably good effort to recreate Harold Ramis).

like all public buildings, libraries fulfil a wide variety of functions: places to read, to write, to study, to congegrate, to pass the time, to take shelter, to pee, to sleep, to dream; they're also symbolic structures, places to engage with the nation and the state and, especially in this case, the city. but it also strikes me that the arrival of the ghostbusters says as much as about the power of the film world's imaginary as it does about New York. the city here becomes self-referential within the film world and those who could make the leap between ghosts and funding cuts (presumably that the reader's will become ghosts if the cuts aren't stopped) will be wondering who - in the non-film world - the ghostbuster saviours will be? perhaps there is some encouragement for the library users themselves and/or a call to arms to otherwordly academics: of the four ghostbusters three have PhDs and the last one (though this isn't mentioned in the film) was originally scripted as being the most educated of the bunch. perhaps I'm deluding myself. the New York Public Library does at least attempt to pull off an act of artistic politics.

but my final thought relates to dress: the classic ghost as sheet with two holes. as Belgium and France push for a full ban for the burqa, I wonder what consequences this has for the traditional ghost? or is the burqa to be ghosted from the West too?