Worn Collars - Part Twenty-Four - "Part of That"

Worn Collars

Part Twenty-Four

"Part of That"

            If the opposing maelstroms (Part Twenty-Three) are defeated by the... cunning... of the old (rare) book room’s own maelstrom opposition... cresting as the simple ‘being there’ and ‘closing the door’...

            And I have recorded the perchance of bookman’s flee to ‘within’ AND I have bottomed out that ‘within’ by dutiful comparison of the ‘finders’ ‘old books’ for the most part being ‘of a nothing’ and... horrifically similar to cheap ‘it’s GOLD’ bangles flaunted (Part Twenty-Three)... may there be a ‘worse?

            Of course darling.  Flaunt, lie, self delusion and other ...small... expectorant (spittle) has no-further-to-go than... phony... “old books”.  And that ‘this’ begins by reminding that publishing; publishing a book... and that ‘of empire’ TOO does that TOO... to... ‘flaunt, lie, self delude and... other small... that actually has now become a standard of the self sure who “my books” onward to the... their Devil’s “my library”. 

            Okay so Salinger (J. D.) does show up right here with his treatise on phony of being “a SALINGER?  SURE!” in the ...old... rare... books... ‘collected’ “IN DUST JACKET.  And ‘glassine wrapper’ protecting the that... dust... jacket.  “GOSH:  THAT ONE’S GREAT!  Where’d you ever find one?  Huh?”.  Don’t worry... they... are... around (copies obtainable) (collector grade).

            “I don’t need one (a hard cover copy) THAT GOOD.  You know:  It’s just the SHELVES.  Over there”.  Don’t come to me for help with this.  Further... it is better for the art eye ...of I... to ‘see what you did all by yourself’.  It’s like the reverse of striptease; the more old books YOU choose that YOU like or, especially “think are important”... the more NAKED you get to I... “my eye”.  I mean:  “Yeah... WOW!” to your old book shelf craft.

            “Opps”.  No... you can’t back out.  OK... take them all back to the old (used) book sale and... try again.  START OVER.  THIS TIME use Mr. Wallet with someone who DOES KNOW.  Don’t worry; I KNOW your not going to do that... so... like..

            “Opps”... you cannot back out.  And they look the same; the books look like each other... sitting there spine ends out.  You know; CATCH 22, in dust jacket.  Paul Prudhomme Louisiana Kitchen... in dust jacket.  Sailboats rounding the mark... in dust jacket.  Vintage automobiles... w/jacket.  Poems ‘collected’... w/dj.  Goethe/dj.  Flaubert.  Early Flaubert has the ...symbolic... French ‘plain’ or ‘printed’ ‘paper wrappers’.  No...dj.
 

            The Catcher In the Rye.  Did you actually read that?  Or did you DREAM you did?  A Perfect Day for Bananafish? (Nine Stories).  I didn’t.  Except when I was in high school.  Then... Salinger told me I didn’t need to ‘read that shit any more’.  He was at the post office in Windsor (Vermont).  He said he ‘didn’t write that shit any more’.  Okay so he split some wood and then looked out the window down the (Connecticut River) valley when he ate his lunch.  “He really used a Catcher dust jacket for place mat?  How do you know that?”.

            Well... you see... the FIRST edition is like... ‘yeah’ but “SAME TIME” the Book Club first edition... has his photographic portrait on the back side of the dust jacket and like... he was rip shit about that (having his ‘picture on the book’) so all those dust jackets ‘came back’ except the million-march that had ‘already got out’ so... ‘that’s the hip one’... ‘to have’ (the first book club edition with the photographic portrait on the back of the dust jacket).  Like...

            You know?” 

            So you don’t have to worry about that happening too much because everyone is on to that anyway and.. like I said... he used them for placemats for fifty years so, like... whittled down (New England Yankee superlative) the ‘available’.  NOW the publisher has “Ah we hold the copyright” “issued” a full fledged “Catcher” facsimile including dust jack; a brand new book that is the ‘identical’ to the hardcover ‘true first’ “Yeah”.... I don’t see that on the shelves either but I do... ‘see it around’.  Ok... so yours actually doesn’t have a dust jacket because... what?  You chucked it?  That’s what you were suppose to do with a ‘dust’.. ‘jacket’.  Actually... honest-alone-with-self... you didn’t “READ” ‘hardcover’ anyway.  Right?  It was your friend’s beat-up paper back copy.  That’s ok... it’s not a lie... or spittle;  it’s ‘true-you’.  Same as, like.... “ON THE ROAD” for the ‘you too’?  Same... for Catch 22 too?  So the hardcover... dust jacket “copy” on the ‘shelf”... is

            A lie.  You didn’t read it.  It is ‘spine end out’.

            Wow are we having to re-group?  Form a circle and share?  No.  Just try to understand that a “shelf of books” (even of just... like... six books) that are ‘shelved by you’ IS saying something other viewers may ...READ.  So don’t fake it because it looks like that:  FAKE.  “Phony”.

            Now... “pervasive infestation” is next.  Very most book shelving folk... innocently and unconsciously do that ‘this’ (shelve their books) that way?  (“Ah...”... and cutting slack...)  Well... you know... for redundant ease I’ll do that; ‘they are innocent’ and I ‘cut slack’.  Quickly the pervasive infestation steps to... conscious ... book shelving folk.  This passes off quickly to ‘proud of this’ most book shelving folk... doing this (shelving their “books”).  Ok you can see where I’m going so let us go there.  You, now, become me... with my “eye” (“I”) ‘of the spine ends and sure enough

            You notice right off that when I, of the old (rare) book room, cross the borderlands I rapidly encounter caches of shelved books even on my own ‘walk to the kitchen’ and... you... denote that the ‘these shelved’ are... like.. “oh wow”.  Yeah... even in my own house... that bad.  Ok so one ‘of books’ (bibliomania) may live for a ...half century with (biblio) idiots..  and... that... ‘just keeps going’ TOO.  Down to the sugar cookies at the Holiday book sale ‘at the library’... and... abysmally worse.  For example, does one ‘think’ that a working bibliomaniac does NOT notice a lone “I’m reading this?” paperback ‘corners curled’ book... on the backseat of the car that YOU drive to pick IT (the bibliomaniac) up in?  And... does thee not denote that this backseat chucked tome may TOO... be a fake?  A phony?

            That’s the moon walk:  It is that far away and you (the bibliomaniac) does not ‘know’ if I’ll ‘get back from there’ (to the ‘my’ (their) old (rare) book room). “Every time I go out”.  This is what it feels like... outside the ‘safety’ of the old book room... in the land of all the ‘idiots’ and the (old) books they ‘shelved”.  So...

THEN (next rung up the ladder)

            One actually encounters shelves of spine ends INTENTIONALLY shelved to “SHOW” the spine ends in order to (1) “decorate” (verb)... and/or (2).... “impress” (verb).  Yeah:  Don’t think you have not ‘seen this’.  You have.  Yeah... like... “even on TV” but including the ‘next door’.  I mean...

            There is trouble when one, ‘walking to the kitchen’ fundamentally discerns that ‘fake’ (“phony”) ‘old’ (rare) books are

            Most all of the books

            You (I) see.

            AND... the “nice” “book people” come with that... TOO.

            AND all this means... IN... REAL ... DOLLARS and CENTS (sense) TOO.

            (You thought I was joking about the cheap gold bracelets?) (Part Twenty-Three).

            So... here I am... with the establishment of old rare book room bibliomania and its resident bibliomaniac and ... the rest of the (“I LIKE OLD BOOKS”) world realms that ‘take’ ‘old books’ as self serving suppositories (“They make my ass feel SOOOO good.”) (“my ass LOOK so good”?) 

            The ‘end’ is ‘now becomes’... that bibliognostes, bibliomanes... bibliomaniacs and ... bibliomania are... not... the chaos.  “The other (“I like books”) people are” (the chaos of ‘old books’)

            I’m sane

            Arlington St. John was sane

            The “your” is... “not” (sane).  Just look at the ‘spine ends out’ shelves.  Or lack of shelves.  Or the paperback on the back seat.  Or the dust jackets.  Or the

            Self serving finger point-at ‘that’ (bibliomania)

            Bibliomania, quietly and behind closed doors... intentionally... spends its time bringing order to this ‘old book’ chaos... literally one book at a time.  Shouldn’t one want to be ‘part of that’?

            As I view it, if I am seen reading an Emily Dickinson bibliography while seated in a ‘Food Court’ “at the Mall”... and sipping an ice coffee while I wait for a “what ever” “They” to “Shop”... I really have “my shit together”.  I am out on a biblio foray and have a very secure position.  WHO... is going to ‘over run’ my position of ‘reading’ an Emily Dickinson bibliography.  WHO?  In the last forty years... and more... I have NEVER had “anyone” mention a Dickinson bibliography to me EVER.  At all.  EVER.  Even write here write now... I... am mentioning it... to... YOU.  It is not you... mentioning to... me.