Lists, lists, lists

11.30.10

I was first drawn to this article because of the tagline "we like lists because we don't want to die."

I was further drawn in by this statement: "The list is the origin of culture. It's part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order — not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through catalogs, through collections in museums and through encyclopedias and dictionaries. There is an allure to enumerating how many women Don Giovanni slept with: It was 2,063, at least according to Mozart's librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte. "

I was finally attached to the interview based on this final word: "If you interact with things in your life, everything is constantly changing. And if nothing changes, you're an idiot."

Today I will be making a pro/con list about the virtues (or non-virtues) of lists....and probably failing at this.