The Library Policeman (1990 Novella) | Repressed Memories and Toilet Frogs | A Great UndertaKING 

​When I read this I remember really liking it. The Library Policemen as a metaphor for trauma is an interesting one.

This is actually one of my favorite novellas that I have read so far. Super dark and disturbing. It also gave me some It vibes as well.

Nice effect with the book pages blowing in the background! You really take Stephen King videos many notches above 99% of the other Stephen King RU-vidrs. You're still a hidden treasure. You deserve 10k subscribers!

This was a tough one. Excellent video! Sharing your own catharsis moved me to tears, especially voicing that feeling of freedom to put the bastard out of your head. Far, far too many of us have a Library Policeman somewhere in our youth, and it seems like it's a much bigger shared experience than we ever realized. The silence of decades has convinced so many that we're alone in our pain and terror. It's powerful to know that not only are we not alone, but that we're finally slowly breaking down the culture of silence that keeps these bastards safe in the first place. Nolite te bastardes carborundorum

Man, these just get better and better. I cannot come close to the frog pooping story, but I do have a library story of my own. My first job (at age 12; my mom had to sign some waiver or something so I could work before I was 14) was at a tiny branch of the main library in our small town. I mean this place was miniscule. There were only three women who worked there. Two were middle-aged and one was about 103. I loved to read as a kid, and while I was "shelving books" I used to hide whichever book I was reading in the library cart, and read the shit out of it while hiding in the stacks. The library ladies would always be like "Ooh he does the shelving so fast!" (??) while I'd be back there hunched over Lord of the Flies or A Separate Peace. I think they were just shocked to have a boy working there. Come to think of it, that's probably why I became a nurse. But I digress. So one day the 103-year-old lady brought in some fudge. Even though I weighed about 43 pounds and was 5' 6", I used to eat everything in sight and fudge was my ABSOLUTE favorite. We only had it about once a year because we had no money. This woman (I wish I could remember her name) told me to help myself to some fancy fudge. I went back there to the break room and politely sliced off a tiny piece and ate it. It was so good that I did this again. And again. Before I knew it there was about a centimeter left of the original fudge log. Dear God. I didn't even remember eating it all. I started sweating and turned cold and panicked as only a child can when it feels like the world is going to end. I knew I had to hide the evidence (that being a plastic knife, tissue paper, and a white cardboard box - the fudge's former home). So I did what any genius would do. I buried the knife deep in the break room trash can, shoved the rest of it down the front of my pants, and went into the restroom off the 3-ft square break room. I proceeded to rip it into tiny pieces and flush it down the toilet. It was an old bathroom and it took four flushes. I should have known that this was foreshadowing. I went back to reading in the stacks. About 30 minutes later the first cramps hit. Suffice it to say that I went back into the bathroom to have the worst diarrhea of my young life. I think I time traveled. They had to call my mom to come pick me up because I genuinely could not leave the bathroom. Think they figured out who ate the fudge? 😂😂😂 Thank you for reading to the end of this incredibly drawn-out, anticlimactic story. Back to work!

Nice graphics Don Doyle, it reallly makes for a good story ambiance. Libraries are scary (I dont know why). The automatic blocking/erasing of harmful memories of the brain its one of the most interesting traits of psychology. Stewie really doesn´t left any terrain uncovered on the human trauma inferno.

Wow this was intense. I remember this story terrifying me way back because of the abuse part. You got a new subscriber. On repressed memories: I was abused as a child, SA is a bit of a murky area for me personally right now. But in places where we gather there's a general consensus that most of us don't remember large portions of our childhood. Coming to some kind of terms with what happened is a strange experience. Often, memories will come back, but it's not like they were never there. It's often more like a memory will bubble up, and you recognise it, but you understand you misfiled it, because you made up this whole other fake narrative where that didn't happen. Or, you will have a memory come back that you don't know, but that will slot in around other memories and suddenly the narrative of all those other things makes sense. I don't know if I'm making sense here. But I've had devastating issues all my life. I'm not sure, like you said, that it's possible to totally forget something, have a totally normal life, then suddenly "regain" that memory. The reality of regaining memories is a bit more.. nuanced. At least for me.

I saw the title of the video and was having trouble remembering Toilet Frogs in the novella but now it makes sense.

I didnt even realise how small this channel is. Keep up the good work man this video was amazing.

Was not expecting a poop frog story. Happy surprise!

This story disturbed me. Enjoyed it, but extremely distrubing.. great video! So glad I found you!

Wow...great story man. Although I've read Four Past Midnight I remember every story accept The Library Policeman...speaking of suppressed memories, isn't that odd? I realize now that I was always returning books way over time because I hated to go to the local library but it was mandatory because of school to read some books. I can't recall such thing as a Library Policeman but I do recall as soon as I set one foot in this local library it felt like I was entering some sort of twilight zone. There was always that nasty old woman sitting at the return counter ready to lecture me about my overdue books in an unpleasant way like raising her cold blooded piercing voice so everyone could hear what a dumb fool I was. I think I've might suppressed this awful youth trauma and that this nasty old woman was my Library Police stand-in. To be realistic, if I've been cautious of returning my books on time I probably wouldn't have this f*cked-up suppressed and repressed experience at all. Anyway I'm definitely going to re-read Four Past Midnight and see if anything further comes in mind haha. Thanks and keep up the good work!

And this is why I'm pushing your show on my social media Keep it up

Very cool transition with the book cover!

I never had any fears of the library policeman. I always had a great experience at the library. The Blockbuster policeman though, that is a different story, lol.

Library Policeman is definitely one of my favorites in the novella collection, mostly cuz I find the idea of a boogeyman that stalks the library bookshelves and will punish you over a minor thing is a bit of a cool and creepy concept, especially when you add in that part of that monster is a figment of your own trauma that stems from a demented individual, and also because a lot of the story reminds me of IT, what with all the childhood trauma and the main character coming back to face his fears, or in this case trauma, as well as the fact that it also delves into the whole angle of how things in the past can affect how you act in the future (I believe that was touched on in IT but my memories a bit foggy on that bulky book atm, been a while since I’ve read IT), not to mention King writes about the hidden dark side to the town in the novella, which he usually does really well, and if I remember right, the setting for this novella also makes an appearance at the end of Needful Things, so yeah, there’s a lot that I like in this book. That said, while I like the childhood trauma angle, I hate that king had to make it sexual. There are other ways to express childhood trauma without sex, maybe instead of a predator, the face of the library policeman vaguely reminds him of a childhood bully, or an abusive parent, or even just any kind of unpleasant person that he’s had to deal with that traumatized him but didn’t do it on a sexual basis. Point is, there’s a better way to do it, and I kinda hate when he makes it sexual. (Hated THAT scene in IT, hated the trauma here) On an unrelated note, did not expect that poop frog story, kinda came a bit out of nowhere but I kinda found it a bit funny, I’m sure the frog was fine though 😂

It actually terrified me because I've experienced trauma like what's mentioned but I'm surprised it's not talked about much because I honestly though it was quite a good story because of how it manages to be scary and suspenseful the entire story plus it's super disturbing.

This childhood secret was the most hilarious thing I've heard in years. Leaving floaters for whomever needed to use said lavatory, and you are concerned with how that frog made out...

Thank you for this review and video

Hypnosis can also recall false memories. As a teenager, I caught a bunch of kids vandalizing our family car at night in a dark empty parking lot. I recognized one of them, and my parents took them to court to pay for damages. But the parents provided proof that their child was home, so they didn't have to pay. Was it somehow a false memory that I thought I recognized his face? Or did the family fabricate false evidence? Memory is a fragile thing, especially in traumatic experiences.

I remember video rental stores like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video had late fees. You'd get like 3 days to watch the movie then you had to return it or late fees would start to accumulate daily I think. Then Netflix had rental via the mail with no late fees. Of course they made more profit the longer you kept the videos since you paid a monthly fee. The less they had to pay for postage, the more profits for them. I think once the late fees at a video rental store reached the value of the video, they would stop accumulating, and you could keep it once you paid for it.

Good news. On Twitter I suggested to the Losers Club podcast about having Ben Stiller on the pod for an update on Rat and they responded with, “We see you”. Here’s hoping it happens, Ben Stiller is one of my favorite actors and I hope he does his Rat movie

1987 I went under hypnosis and remembered being abused by my brother in law, then they gave me ECT to get rid of them! It didn't work, I did forget to paint and play bass guitar but the memories remain. My family knew it was happening so I went to therapy from 1987 to 1994

I was never threatened by the Library Policeman (or I have repressed that memory) but last night I recalled a memory with my nephew when he was a young lad of about 10. He was misbehaving at CVS, so I told him that I would call the CVS Police Man to arrest him if he didn't behave. He broke out crying. He doesn't remember this ... perhaps repressing the trauma.

the more King stories i learn about, the more i'm beginning to think SK needs to have Chris Hansen to tell him "to have a seat".

I wasn't ever told about the library police but growing up seinfeld was fucking everywhere and one of the pretty early episodes, s02 maybe, there's an episode about this Library Detective that comes for Jerry over a book he rented in college (in cannon this was like a decade or more past) and the guy was like really intense.

You could probably make a whole video on weird toilet related things in Uncle Steve's work

I stepped away for 30 minutes and returned at 10:08 and I forgot you were reading King's words describing himself, and you said "I clearly remember discussing them with Peter Straub and his son Ben", and I thought "You know Peter Straub???"

The weird thing about those pages turning from a breeze is that the pages appear to be infinite. It looks real but now I'm wondering if it's computer graphics and the pages will flip forever.

I remember as a kid my mom returning a library book about 10 years late. I forget what the fine was but she paid it. I believe the fine was more than the value of the book. This was the 1970s and I'm thinking the fine was about $20 ... like $2 for every year late, which is reasonable. $20 in 1976 is worth $53 today so it was a lot of money. But it was many lessons: (1) We should take responsibility for our actions (2) Do the right thing (3) Follow the rules (4) Pay what we owe

When I was a kid (1970s) the library police was a thing something like a boogeyman

I read the story. The boy should definitely have returned the book on time. Read for yourself.

Honestly the only thing that made this story memorable to me was the SA scene when Sam was a child, 4 whole pages of child SA will forever be stuck in my head. Cocaine is a hell of a drug

Is this your longest video?