Anyone who has been subjected to a reading of mine in the last couple of years knows that I often begin with a series of confessions.  More than confessions, the transgressions that I often list are simply this: a list.   This is one of my transgressions: the listing of things, the creation of dictionaries, the collection of random images of the day.  As a kid one of my favorite books was The Book of Lists by David Wallechinsky.   At a conference last year in Mexico I confessed that my need for making lists comes as the result of being an unrepentant border crosser: as a constant border crosser I find the making of lists a necessity for keeping order out of disorder.

In a recent interview Umberto Eco spoke of the making of lists as a part of the origin of culture.  Only he goes further than my own ironic confessions by stating, "we like lists because we don't like to die."

1. "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."
   

Gawker offers a good summary of the interview here.  For the whole thing, and for Eco pointing out why he likes lists ("I like lists for the same reason other people like football or pedophilia.") go here.