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 …
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco is an Italian novelist and semiotician (someone who analyzes systems of communication). And a fan of the humble list, as I am too.
This is an excerpt from an in-depth 2009 interview in which Umberto talks about lists in the history of culture and the pitfalls of Google searches.
Typed with a 1950’s Groma Kolibri on salvaged kraft packaging paper from an online delivery.
