A rebuilt library destroyed again suffers a doubling of loss

Evidence

During the 2003 invasion, the library had been looted and largely destroyed by mobs — and then restored by neighborhood families who bought back the stolen books and returned them. The library that ISIS burned in 2015 was a rebuilt library, reconstructed from community memory and individual sacrifice after a previous destruction. It had already been destroyed and rebuilt once. The building that burned in 2015 was a survivor’s building, tended by a community that had already paid for it once. This makes the second burning not merely a loss but a double loss — the loss of the thing and the loss of the act of reconstruction. — Jamal Awil, The Whispering Archive, 1172

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the book’s ‘all is lost as second loss’ thesis and generalizes to any rebuilt institution destroyed twice. — connects to: Rebuilt libraries become new formations bearing memory rather than restorations — Jamal Awil, The Whispering Archive: The Complete…, 1402; Print’s abundance made destroyed libraries swiftly replaceable — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 229; Faster European publishing made library destruction less effective as a weapon — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 399 (+2 more)
• SEED: Angle: the second destruction as erasure of a community’s act of reconstruction — applies to restored monuments, rebuilt museums, revived languages.

Related

• Rebuilt libraries become new formations bearing memory rather than restorations (similarity 0.85)
• ISIS burned over 8,000 rare books and manuscripts at Mosul’s library in 2015 (similarity 0.82)
• Louvain’s university library was destroyed by both world wars (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Rebuilt libraries become new formations bearing memory rather than restorations #qualifies (0.45) — Jamal Awil, The Whispering Archive, 1402
• Libraries decline mainly through neglect and redundancy, not deliberate destruction. #qualifies (0.40) — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 18
• Print’s abundance made destroyed libraries swiftly replaceable #qualifies (0.30) — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 229
• Faster European publishing made library destruction less effective as a weapon #qualifies (0.30) — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 399