@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
