nilomis[Omega]
11422
What about Susan Sontag's definition?
Jul 03, 2014,06:24 AM
Susan Sontag "The Volcano Lover" 1992
The Collector is a dissembler, someone whose joys are never unalloyed with anxiety. Because there is always more. Or something better.
You must have it because it is one step toward an ideal completing of your collection. But this ideal completion for which every collector hungers is a delusive goal...
The great collections are vast, not complete. Incomplete: motivated by the desire for completeness.
There is always one more. And if you have everything, whatever that might be, then you will perhaps want a better copy ... of what you have; or with mass produced objects, simply an extra copy, in case the one you possess is lost or stolen or broken or damaged. A backup copy. A shadow collection ...
The collector's need is precisely for excess, for surfeit, for profusion ... Someone who hesitates, who asks, "do I need this?" "is it really necessary?" is not a collector. A collection is always more than is necessary.
I believe that the definition of the late Susan Sontag encompasses almost everyone, the passion, the hunger ... the greed.
Cheers,
Nilo
Note: The Volcano Lover is a 1992 novel by Susan Sontag. Set largely in Naples, it focuses upon Emma Hamilton, her marriage to Sir William Hamilton, the scandal relating to her affair with Lord Nelson, her abandonment, and her descent into poverty.
The title comes from William Hamilton's interest in volcanoes, and his investigations of Mount Vesuvius.