the nature of regret
DjWillderness
66 Posts
Yes, it bothers me when I don't end up owning every good record that I get the chance to buy. I think about it a lot. Not long ago, I passed up 100-200 funky records, all stuff that I was looking for, due to condition. Later, I thought, maybe I was too critical of condition, I would have really liked to have bought some of those titles. When I saw the collection again, someone had bought most of my pass pile. I bought a few things that I had passed on the first time due to condition. To my horror, they played pretty good. As a result of my regret, I'm more likely to buy a good title even if it clearly has condition problems.
I'm less interested in what records you missed, I'd rather develop a theory as to why the reality that other people end up owning good records that I had a chance to buy first should torture me so much. If I understand the jedi mind trick, perhaps I can release the regret that I feel.
I think that every time I look at records, it builds up desire in me. The records that I own and buy are not sufficient to "quench" that desire. Its not that I need to buy X amount of records to meet my desire. Its that what I really desire isn't a real record, its an abstract one. The records that I own have real properties, they are funky or boring or in good shape or bad shape. No real record can ever meet all of my desires. What happens to my residual desire for records? The records that I passed up on reify that desire. I never got a chance to quantify the properties of those records (even if I found a copy later, not of that specific copy). My mind, filled with desire, makes that record that got away the one that would meet all the needs of my desire, an illusion of a record that is everything that I want a record to be. Once this desire is reified into something quantifiable (whatever record you are fiending after) it opens up a rift in your mental shelf, an empty space that radiates desire. That partially quantified record that got away becomes necessary to close off this empty space and shut off the desire.
Why does record collecting work this way? One theory that I have is that serious record collecting seems to be a serial phenomenon. Collectors work on collecting a canon of music (local privates, classic breaks, whatever). The possession of one record implies a negative space, the rest of the series. That one record is sitting empty in a mental expedit with space for everything else in that genre or label or whatever.
What about a record creates a desire for completion of a series? That's the business model of the music industry. No one record should fulfill a person's need for music. I think that the music industry built the commodity of the LP and 45 with the empty space built in. What specifically encourages collecting to fulfill that void? I dunno, the semiotics of label logos, that suggest the release isn't a thing to itself but just one in a series of releases? Sleeves that list other records released by the label so implicit in the record that you just bought are all the new releases that you still "need"? Even similar sounding genres. The music on the record isn't a thing unto itself, but an abstracting that you must realize by collecting variations on that sound.
I'm less interested in what records you missed, I'd rather develop a theory as to why the reality that other people end up owning good records that I had a chance to buy first should torture me so much. If I understand the jedi mind trick, perhaps I can release the regret that I feel.
I think that every time I look at records, it builds up desire in me. The records that I own and buy are not sufficient to "quench" that desire. Its not that I need to buy X amount of records to meet my desire. Its that what I really desire isn't a real record, its an abstract one. The records that I own have real properties, they are funky or boring or in good shape or bad shape. No real record can ever meet all of my desires. What happens to my residual desire for records? The records that I passed up on reify that desire. I never got a chance to quantify the properties of those records (even if I found a copy later, not of that specific copy). My mind, filled with desire, makes that record that got away the one that would meet all the needs of my desire, an illusion of a record that is everything that I want a record to be. Once this desire is reified into something quantifiable (whatever record you are fiending after) it opens up a rift in your mental shelf, an empty space that radiates desire. That partially quantified record that got away becomes necessary to close off this empty space and shut off the desire.
Why does record collecting work this way? One theory that I have is that serious record collecting seems to be a serial phenomenon. Collectors work on collecting a canon of music (local privates, classic breaks, whatever). The possession of one record implies a negative space, the rest of the series. That one record is sitting empty in a mental expedit with space for everything else in that genre or label or whatever.
What about a record creates a desire for completion of a series? That's the business model of the music industry. No one record should fulfill a person's need for music. I think that the music industry built the commodity of the LP and 45 with the empty space built in. What specifically encourages collecting to fulfill that void? I dunno, the semiotics of label logos, that suggest the release isn't a thing to itself but just one in a series of releases? Sleeves that list other records released by the label so implicit in the record that you just bought are all the new releases that you still "need"? Even similar sounding genres. The music on the record isn't a thing unto itself, but an abstracting that you must realize by collecting variations on that sound.
Comments
"Sizing Up Record Collections: Gender and Connoisseurship in Rock Music Culture." In Sheila Whiteley, ed. Sexing the Groove: Popular Music and Gender. London: Routledge,1997, pp. 3-16.
You might find some interesting responses to what you ask.
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