IDM Mailing Archive

An interesting post made recently to the John Zorn list

quoted 21 lines From: "David J. Keffer" <keffer@planetc.com>

>From: "David J. Keffer" <keffer@planetc.com> >Subject: dialectical materialism vs record collections >Sender: owner-zorn-list@lists.xmission.com > >>From: Lang Thompson <wlt4@mindspring.com> >>Subject: collections >> >>Umberto Eco had some kind of wiseguy answer to people who ask if he's read >>all the books he has but of course I've forgotten it since it wasn't that >>funny. His point, however, was that these books are his tools and that >>nobody would ask a mechanic if he uses all those various sockets or >>wrenches. Use the word "library" instead of "collection" and see if people >>catch the difference in intention. (Personally I prefer "my stuff.") > >I think these two comparisons between record collections and libraries or >tools >are flawed arguments made in an effort to justify compulsive materialism. >An attempt is made to transfer the value of libraries or tools to >record collections, but the transfer is erroneous. > >Clearly a personal collection is not a library. If we look up the

definition

quoted 33 lines of the word library, we find that an intrinsic element of a library is the

>of the word library, we find that an intrinsic element of a library is the >fact that material can be accessed or borrowed by some body of people. >The public-service purpose of a library is lacking in a personal collection >of books or music. > >Just as clearly, the tools of a mechanic are not a "collection"; tools >are not a luxury item, the way a record collection most certainly is. >The comparison would be legitimate if the record collector relied >upon the listening of any element of his/her collection to maintain >their livelihood, which I doubt anyone on this list would claim. > >Now for Eco, his books may be his tools. Very well. See the paragraph >above on tools. But they are useless tools unless read. I maintain my >original position that the acquisition of 4 or 5 cds per day for years >and years necessarily results in an unlistenable amount of music, which >is useless. > >My advice is to abandon all pretense of disguising the motivation for >a record collection and embrace it for what it is: an unquestioning >susceptibility to the brainwashing inherent in having been raised in a >society of consumers for the dual purposes of comsumption and >propagation of future generations of consumers. > >Yes! How about that for an alternative perspective to record collecting! :) > >David "Drone of a Materialistic Society" K. > > > > >- > >