"I didn't play at collecting. No cigar anywhere was safe from me."
~ Edward G. Robinson
I would never say that the things that i own define me. Not in any shape, form or function. Though I am an avid collector and the things that I own can define periods of time, they do not mark any right of passage or great travel that my life has undertaken. That being said, you can certainly tell a few things about my tastes and the time I have spent on such trivial trinkets.
As I look around the room, I see an evolution of interests. I wouldn't necessarily say that my tastes have evolved as much as I would say that things that I enjoy have evolved over the duration of my collecting them. My small but powerful little group of Transformers is a prime example. When I got my fist, it was 1984. Without researching, I believe that they were introduced around this time. As a child, I was amazed by these damned things. They were, at once, both a puzzle and a play thing, as you had to figure out how to make them robots, despite whatever form they came packaged as. Some were cars and trucks, other were jets, guns, even insects and mobile fortresses. They were amazing (and still are, if I'm to be honest). I do believe that my most recent was...right around the start of last semester. The evolution come into play at any given time in between those two periods. I have some that don't transform at all; they merely stand there as robots, fully poseable and immaculately detailed. On the other hand, I have quite a few that bear the stamp of the 1980's and are cheaply made children's play things. These are worth quite a bit of money, but I'd never get rid of them. They're all a part of this "missed childhood" thing that I have going on.
My collection isn't merely limited to the physical figures, either. At one point, I had the entire run of the original television series on DVD. I have a tattoo of the Decepticon (the "bad guys") emblem on my right forearm. At any given point, I've had computer wallpapers, icons, sound bites, key chains, ect. Hell, about 20 minutes ago, Erica ordered me a black t-shirt with a bunch of Sharkticons displayed around the bottom of it.
I guess that in a sense, my love for this series has at least followed me every step of the way. I wouldn't go so far as to road map anything based on this enlightenment, but I am...obsessed. In some way, I think the entire world is probably obsessed, as well. They keep making movies, cartoons, figures, car decals. So it's not just me.
Or is it?
Just read the Hollandaise piece. That got me going--here, though, I'm totally at sea. Never seen a Transformer AFAIK.
ReplyDeleteThe default setting for a writer who has even a whiff of a hint that his reader may not know about the item in question is to fall back on human (as opposed to Transformer) interest. I think you sense or know this and you drop in stuff about missed childhoods and collecting in general and so on to reach beyond the Transformaficianado to the general reader.
What would you say to an edit like this:
Not in any shape, form or function do the things that I collect define me. Those things can define periods of time, but they do not mark any right of passage or great travel in my life. Such trivial trinkets do certainly tell a few things about my tastes. As I look around the room, I see an evolution of interests--not an evolution of tastes exactly, as much as an evolution of things that I enjoy collecting.
Some of Brads Transformers:
Deletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/23998863@N08/6785800209/
If you want me to to do a rewrite, I can do it solely about something else. I don't much feel like talking about Transformers anymore at this point. But then again, maybe that's not the point. Anyway, it's totally up to you.
ReplyDeleteYes, rewrite not the point. Conversation about writing is. Don't let a teacher put you off. The proper response IMO to someone who's critiqued your stuff is: "FUCK HIM! I'll show that asshole. I'll write a piece about Transformers that will make him laugh, cry, puke, and pop his dumb eyes right out!"
ReplyDeleteBut not out loud to me, of course....