Posted by Bernard Hughes in The Earwig
Taxonomy
I’m re-arranging my CDs, and trying to think of a non-alphabetical system.Borges wrote of a (fictional) Chinese encyclopedia called the Heavenly Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge, in which all animals are divided into the following categories: (a) those that belong to the emperor; (b) embalmed ones; (c) those that are trained; (d) suckling pigs; (e) mermaids; (f) fabulous ones; (g) stray dogs; (h) those that are included in this classification; (i) those that tremble as if they were mad; (j) innumerable ones; (k) those drawn with a very fine camel’s-hair brush; (l) etcetera; (m) those that have just broken the flower vase; (n) those that at a distance resemble flies. |
 The Earwig
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| Following this example, my CDs all seem to be accommodated under the following headings:a) Those I like listening to; b) Those I should like listening to, but don’t; c) Those I never listen to, but like to know are there; d) The first CD I ever bought; e) The last CD I have bought; f) Those I have been given; g) Those I have taken; h) Those with nostalgic associations; i) Morning music; j) Evening music; k) Those featuring friends, which I have had to be nice about; l) Those featuring me, which friends have had to be nice about; m) Ones with a funny picture on the front; n) Discs is the wrong cases; o) Those which might scare my children; p) Those which scare me; q) Those which make me better, happier, wiser. |
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