Having worked my way through the summer reading list, I have turned my literary attention in a couple of new directions. I will be teaching a class on theology and media culture in a few weeks, so I have been reviewing my thoughts and ideas about that subject and delving into new works exploring that very large topic. The other direction is lists--I am quite fascinated by lists--I actually dont make that many, I tend to avoid them most of the time--I have top ten lists for instance, but I also recognize that they play a significant role in helping us--not only get things done in life, but also in making sense of life itself. Umberto Eco has a book on lists--of course he does! He's a semiotician! It's belongs in the company of two other books he has published fairly recently (The History of Beauty and On Ugliness--both of which I have enjoyed and used in a number of environments), and is called The Infinity of Lists. The book reflects on why we make lists and categorize things and Eco, explores this trait throughout human history.
Eco's thesis is that our cultural 'infinity of lists' is connected to an uncertainty about our identity--we make lists, to determine, in some way or another, who we are. That's an interesting equation to work with. It's a lush book, filled with a wide array of images, and available cheap on Amazon.
By the way, my favourite book of the summer, was not one on my reading list. Douglas Coupland's biography of Marshall McLuhan, You Know Nothing Of My Work, was by far the most interesting read of the summer for me.
Hmm, makes me think of all the lists in Bret Easton Ellis' "Glamorama."
Posted by: Grant | 28 August 2011 at 07:06 PM