enumerations

there is something special about making enumerations. collected here are a few of my own. none of them are complete.

the infinity of lists

we like lists because we dont want to die

— umberto eco

to include, to exclude.

• descriptive lists - limited by the form of the thing itself
• catalogue lists - unlimited by form; an attempt to capture the infiniteness, indefiniteness of reality
• visual lists - picture galleries as realizations of the concept of “etcetera”
• ineffeable list - an attempt to describe the indescribable (e.g. apocalypse 7.9)
• lists of things - ineffable obssesive collections of objects
• lists of places - ineffable descriptions of place, to situate in space in time
• the pragmatic list - finite, referential, concrete, temporal, immutable
• the poetic list - phonetic
• lists of properties - essential properities (ones it must have) and accidental properties (ones it has, but could lack)
• the non-normal list - a (recursive) list that includes itself (i.e. think of russel’s paradox)

lists as creators of form.

lists as the driver of climax.

lists as a way to reshuffle the world.

• enumeratio - a form of “argumentation, in which all the possibilities are set out and all but one are eliminated.” figure of amplification in which a subject is divided into constituent parts or details, and may include a listing of causes, effects, problems, solutions, conditions, and consequences; the listing or detailing of the parts of something.

lists as wonders

like merveilles.

• mirabilia - wonders, marvels (latin)
• wunderkammer - wonder-rooms (german)

references

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Infinity_of_Lists
• http://marybethginsberg.me/the-infinity-of-lists/

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