Collectors of the world unite

[AndyM-migration]

This cropped up in the Sunday papers today and thought it might be of passing interest.

 

http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/biography/story/0,,2269309,00.html

 

Ostensibly it's about stamp collecting but there seem to be some behavior patterns that might seem somewhat familiar (e.g. the guy who spend £10m on his collection, although telling his wife he 'only' spend £800,000). On the plus side I guess you need less space for a stamp collection.

[Norrin_Radd]

Thank you for posting the article. Yes, it's true. To know one type of collector is to know them all. It's the same drive to collect. The same emotions and foibles.

 

 

My favorite quote from the extract.

 

"The urge to collect only becomes pathological or perverse for collectors when they really can't get any satisfaction from it. If their central experience is that they can't get enough and someone else always has more and they are always unhappy and envious and driving themselves to financial ruin, then that doesn't work out quite so well."

 

 

Thank God, I'm more of a comic reader than a collector.

[silverage12c]

Thank God, I'm more of a comic reader than a collector.

Amen, brother! (thumbs u

[valiantman]

"The urge to collect only becomes pathological or perverse for collectors when they really can't get any satisfaction from it. If their central experience is that they can't get enough and someone else always has more and they are always unhappy and envious and driving themselves to financial ruin, then that doesn't work out quite so well."

 

[brasseye]

Several times during this period, I looked at my stamps in a new way. I began to question again why I collect at all. What was the thread that tied my love of stamps and my collection of Elvis Costello records and London Underground maps? Perhaps it was a birth defect or a disease acquired when young. I had been keeping myself well by fulfilling a physiological need, much as my younger son, Jake, injected insulin for his diabetes. There is no use asking: 'Why me?'; a gene mutates and you just have to get on with it. There was little evidence of a genetic inheritance from my parents, but sometimes it skips a generation: my maternal grandfather, a dentist, collected teeth and dental impressions (all dentists did this to some extent, but he went beyond, taking them home and displaying them to guests after dinner in glass cases).

 

Jean Baudrillard has observed that 'what you really collect is always yourself' and sometimes this makes vague sense to me; these were the things I loved and I wanted to surround myself with them. And sometimes Baudrillard's comment explains the whole story; afraid of losing things, I wanted to hold everything close, to say: 'This is mine, this rare thing. You will not take it from me until I see fit.' It had much to do with safety and security, which also explains the great importance I placed on protection and albums and cabinets.

 

At ground level, we are all collectors. We satisfy our thirsts and hungers in literal ways - the shopping lists add to our food stores, our wardrobes house this season's collections. When we travel, we gather passport stamps and photographs and stories. At work, we collect contacts and experience. Freud classified three collections beyond his antiquities: his case histories; his dream texts and analyses; his Jewish anecdotes laden with world-weary lessons and wisdom. If we maintain a diary or a blog, we want to remember or be remembered, and we offer up a collection of events and opinions that record diversity.

[jordanscott]

 

 

Thank God, I'm more of a comic reader than a collector.

 

say it again, brother!

[1koko]

'what you really collect is always yourself' .

 

So am I a super-hero or just comic?

 

Don't answer that

[Korvac Saga]

A great and insightful read!! Thanks (thumbs u

[CDaBruce]

Thanks for linking this. The psychology of collecting is fascinating.

[Shield]

Bad Spellers of the world untie!