Collecting: wisdom or madness?

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Catchabula
 
Reply Mon 15 Dec, 2008 02:51 pm
@manored,
 
hammersklavier
 
Reply Mon 15 Dec, 2008 03:23 pm
@Catchabula,
Interesting thread. I would respond that collecting is merely a human response. (To what, I don't know.)

I'm not normally a collector, yet I collect books, and when the time comes, paintings and photographs as well. Why might this be? Could it be said that when I collect books I collect pure ideas? Could it be said that when I collect photographs and paintings, that is, art, I collect pure distilled creativity? Could it be that having spent a lot of time writing during my teenage years I feel myself profoundly connected to these wordmeisters? Could I have an all-permeating desire for beauty that drives my collector's spirit?

The answers are elusive...
 
manored
 
Reply Mon 15 Dec, 2008 03:54 pm
@Catchabula,
Emotions are elusive... not that one shouldnt try to know himself, but trying is like an eyeball trying to look and its own back Smile
 
Catchabula
 
Reply Thu 25 Dec, 2008 10:41 pm
@manored,
MIRABILIA, sive Collectio Philosophica:

[ATTACH]38[/ATTACH]
 
nameless
 
Reply Fri 26 Dec, 2008 04:52 am
@Catchabula,
Quote:
Collecting: wisdom or madness?

A matter of Perspective
it seems
at the moment
a 'sweetprickle madness'...

Do we collect fossils, or are we merely fossils's way of gathering for a few years?
Do we collect skills or are a collection of skills, us?
 
Catchabula
 
Reply Fri 26 Dec, 2008 06:52 am
@nameless,
We are what we collect, we collect what we are. Collections are a mirror, the collection shaping our thinking, our thinking shaping the collection. Is collecting mad wisdom or wise madness? None and both, that may be a matter of perspective. I collect and so does mankind, and imho the motives are the same. For me my collection is a set of dreams and thoughts, for the objects my collection means temporary protection. They gather while I live, and once they will go their own way again. But there will be always dreamers and thinkers, opening for them their house and heart.
 
schloopfeng
 
Reply Sat 27 Dec, 2008 07:40 pm
@Catchabula,
:Not-Impressed: I suppose i have2 collections, musc & bicycles, i find music to be a great source for contemplation, it takes a lot o passion & honesty to write a good song & that allows you to openly tap in to the sonwriters mind openly & havea good rummage around, the bicycles are just all designed for different types of riding so i suppose they remain just a functional requirement for me to aquire headspace ... however i love my collections & hope that i never need to start more so i can spend as much time as possible enjoying the ones i have ........ music keeps my mind going ....bikes keep my body going .....simple
 
manored
 
Reply Wed 31 Dec, 2008 05:00 pm
@Catchabula,
Sometimes I fell a urge to do things then a oportunity arises even thought I think I am unlikely to like doing these things, and I frequently indeed dislike... I wonder if I am inconsciently collecting knowledge Smile
 
Fido
 
Reply Wed 31 Dec, 2008 05:25 pm
@Catchabula,
Catchabula wrote:
In general almost everybody thinks about collectors as being the opposite of philosophers, collectors being petty materialists while philosophers only need the wide blue sky and a wooden cask to live in (the aroma of some noble drink being a fine plus). In my profile in ... I wrote the following:

"Catcha... what? What's in a name? He who is called a fool by another name could be called a dreamer, a seeker of sense, a lover of beauty and a reader of many things. What is the value of collecting? A collector seeks more than just objects, he gathers dreams and symbols, materialized archetypes, mirrors of both ourselves and this world. These objects are alive, they have a soul and an aura, they are loaded with associations and sparkling with meaning. They are signposts in a vast and incomprehensible universe, stories to be read over and over again, recombined like the letters of the Hebrew Bible or the cards of the Tarot. Consciously experiencing these objects is like meditating, it is rediscovering our universe and remembering our destiny. Exploring them is refreshing our heart and renewing our perception, drenching ourselves with a feeling of adventure, with a promise of fulfillment. See Creation in a dusty meteorite and Eternity in a broken clock. Collectors are children for life, singing and dancing in their very own Garden of Eden..."

Now I confess that I was at least a little drunk when I wrote this, but the question remains: can collecting have a philosophical dimension somehow? Can one collect "ideas", "archetypes", "dreams", "stories" by collecting (just) objects? Can objects be interesting companions, and more than something to "let go", to reject full of contempt? Dusting the stuff is killing me, so this question is vital. Thanks for any comment.

I collect books, and it would drive me far effin nuts if I could only half remember a line or part of an argument and not be able to hunt it up... I also have hoisting equipment and about 10 transmissions that I may never use... Lots of old chevy parts I may never use, and tons of books, many of which I have actually read...Ya; its madnasss... But so is philosophy..Kind of like pissing into a hurricane..Its bound to get all over you and make you an outcast...

Something else... I have almost never parted with a book that I did not regret it, even to family... I've loaned them and never gotten them back... I have given them without so much as a thank you or a how do ya do... I am an old iron worker, and that is one of the things I collect, is iron.. Sooner or later you have a pile of short pieces and then, take it all to the scrap yard for a handful of pennies, and next week, guaranteed, I will need a short piece and have to cut it out of a perfectly good long piece... That is something else I love: Iron... I can do anything with it...Iron is soft, and people are hard....and that is the troof
 
 

 
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