Worn Collars - Part Fifteen (D) - "Density" (C)

Worn Collars

Part Fifteen (D)

"Density" (C)

            Using the Moebs’ model (Part Fifteen [C]), the consideration of (old rare book room) density takes a transitional form.  The flat formula of “an old book’ in ‘an old book room’ is... how about... ‘altered by warp speed’ (to change something following its usual course... fast.).  The standard ‘density’ commonly (and previously; Part Fifteen [B]) referenced as ‘deep stock’; “HE HAS A DEEP STOCK”, is the simple old book room book shelf view of those shelves being ever most absurdly packed full of... ‘old rare books’ meaning ‘everything and anything’ ‘rare book’.  One goes into the room and the

            Denser

            The amount of stuff in overview sight... immediately... generally ‘tells the story (tattle-tail).  Moebs and I (“WE”) ramp this up into a, for example, forty year overview.  This view is a “BOOK ROOM... THIS GUY... CAN HE... STAYING POWER... DENSITY... FORTY YEARS... STARTING NOW... DAY ONE... to... FORTY VISITS LATER”.  “Can I smell it (gut feel)?”

            And since the this of this is that THIS (any given old book room) IS a... ‘game in town’... we cut it some slack and go for it... “LONG RUN”... ‘anyway’.  What this means is go outside and walk up the street of your suburban neighborhood and ... pausing beside each roadside mailbox... LOOK up at the “HOME” at the end of the driveway and ask yourself “DO THEY HAVE A RARE BOOK ROOM FULL OF RARE BOOKS IN THAT HOUSE?”.  “Do they have rare books in that house.  Do they have books in that house.  Do they have ...A... book in that house.  Do they?

            NO THEY DO NOT.

            “GAME OVER” and “NEXT” house “TRY THAT”.

            NO.

            “Ain’t gonna happen.”

            So... especially in Maine in January... Arlington St. John’s freezing cold old rare book room “starts to look pretty good” in the local rare book radius.  Expand that to forty years.  Keep at it... (working it over by ‘visiting’)... using that expansion of perception for forty years.

You WILL WIN (‘find a rare book’).

            Even within the Arlington St. John’s... old... rare... book ...room.

            Bibliomania is “like gum disease and tooth decay?”  No... but... similar.  FOR EXAMPLE... with Arlington.  AFTER the initial foot feel of  the ‘he shows up’, et al (1969) WHAT DID HE.. actually DO?  Well... the one thing he actually did was... go around “LOOKING FOR” (poking around for) “OLD” “BOOKS”.  And he did “FIND THEM”.  Being concise:  Arlington DID know what an old rare book is.  He did know WAY MORE than those mail boxed-driveway-their house ‘up street’ people.  HE DID “poke around” for old... rare... books CONSANTLY.  He did ...not shut up about his “OLD BOOKS” interests and... HE DID DO THAT (not shut-up) in just the right way to NOT ‘put people off’ ‘to their face’  He was actually highly skilled at this last.  For real; ‘people liked him’.  SO... he enjoyed a “MR. OLD BOOK GUY” local status.  HE was NOT ... unwelcome in the local ‘old books’ circles and

            “DID... HE ACTUALLY BUY SOMETHING?”; actually...get rare books?

            Yes he did.

            NOT THAT ANYONE IS GOIING TO NOTICE but over forty years Arlington managed to fill a whole room of his home... that was ‘down in the basement’... ‘next to the furnace’ FULL of BOXES... and boxes... of... boxes of... old books, ET AL... that he ...ah... “GOT”.  Say ‘bibliomania’ again.

            These ‘what he got’ he put in boxes, filling boxes and closed up those boxes and... he never looked at them (the old book content of the full boxes) ever again (with that meaning to include not even right after he purchased them; that is... he only looked at them (his new acquisitions) ‘the once’ when ‘poking around’.  This means... “so; like” when he went to the Historical Society’s July Fourth “BOOK SALE” and... “Oh you can go in early Mr. St. John WE KNOW YOU” and he ah... “BOUGHT”... THREE old books “ah...”... he took those home and put them in a box in the basement and never... ever... touched them again.  WHY?  Remember “Pretend” and “Flee” (Parts Two and Three).  I’m not done with those.  MEANWHILE... that room of boxed old books gets fuller and fuller... AND.... AND AGAIN... he did ‘actually knows about’ “OLD BOOKS”... TOO.  He did this (poke around for old books)

            “UNTIL HE DIED”.

            But right here the point is that EVEN THIS GUY... a rotten book collector... in a rotten old book room... is ...in January too... “AT IT” with “RARE BOOKS” so makes the Moebs’ “LONG RUN” cut of “VISIT HIM”.  Understand this and apply this “across the board”.  For decades.

            “Your gonna win” (find old rare books).

            And density may almost ‘be damned’.  Well... softened.  Except that it is, naturally, dense:  Bibliomania IS dense.  You know... :  “HOARDER”.  “And stuff”.

            Smelling salts?  You fainted?  I didn’t.  I don’t.  The more (bibliomania) the better.

            “WIFE HATES YOUR BOOKS?  COOL!”.  And it goes from there.

            Bibliomaniacs ...don’t ‘stop’ so... “HEY BUDDY:  I’ll PUT IN A FLOOR DRAIN”. (I buy) “A few boxes here and there along the way:  YOU WON’T MISS ‘EM”.

            They don’t.  I just show up with a whisk broom, dust pan and EMPTY TRUCK.  I ‘visit’... for forty years.

            Have I cornered this?  No.  I have just presented the foundation view for a person who is WITHIN the bibliomane complex.  I review.  The precept of old rare book man at old rare book desk in old rare book room filled with old rare books I established.  The closed state of that whole to the non-old rare book person (‘normal people’) was then denoted and applied.  This book interest (obsession) was turned to be shown (viewed from a different angle) to be ‘bibliomania’.  Bibliomania was shown to NOT be a ‘peculiar’ but to be a relished state... of being ... for an... old rare book man...  This “that” is furthered, at the least, by being not understood (“appreciated”) by the (all of them) non-old rare book persons.  “Obsession”, “problem”, “hobby gone wild”... etc... THEY say.

            This I have turned again: “WE” close the door on “YOU” to establish that this whole state; bibliomane, old books, book room, desk... and book man... is a state of great interest, denotation, pursuit, appreciation and... ‘hunt and gather’.  That the bibliomania book room is... as if chancing upon a pink Lady Slipper in the forest; a ‘special’ and ‘guarded’ ‘forever’.  This status is expanded to be all inclusive of ‘any’ bibliomane effort for, I have shown, these ‘this’ as ANY effort IS SCARCE so “WE” appreciate THIS.  TOO.  And... protect it (as if it was a pink Lady Slipper that we do not want ‘any’ ‘normal people’ stepping on).

            THAT consideration is turned to action to ...further... exclude non-bibliomanes AND enhance their ‘them state’ (a biblio ‘norm corps’) that is to be understood by ALL bibliomanes to be a ‘the enemy’.  This last may seem a ‘pushing it’ until one is reminded that the bibliomane realm spends no time dwelling on this for... it has nothing to do with ‘old rare books’.  This ‘exclude’, understand, is a ‘shit happens’ ‘over there’ from the ‘of-bibliomania’ station:  The closed rare book room door of the “does not want to see”...

            ‘Does not see’.

            It (excluded non-bibliomanes) does establish the borderland for ‘forty years of visit’.  For boxes of books ‘everywhere’.  For all... including rotten... ‘old book collectors.  For their collections and

            Their death.

            Although I absorbed and practice the Moebs’ ‘living’ old book room forest dwelling lifestyle... I prefer dead bibliomanes and their.... forest?  Actually they are mostly old rare book ‘wood lots’; private lots within the old book forest.  The whole thing (bibliomania) and any them (a dead bibliomane) has very visible boundaries.  Working a living bibliomane in their woodlot of old books... it’s.... “ok fine” but... DEAD

            “Without heirs”

            Now we’re talking ‘empire’.

            It (the old rare book room) is, as I have previously denoted (Part Fifteen A)... the body of the (bibliomaniac) man.  Density is paramount.  My eyes ‘paramount’ THAT.  A known dead man’s books... I have ‘already considered’ density... often.  My preference is for discovering an unknown bibliomane with all the trimmings.  I... with rapid roving eyes and a sympathetic ear for the mournful lament of the ‘normal people’ heirs about the “ALL THESE BOOKS WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO”.  And a strong ‘say nothing’ poker face.  And the

            Get it out.

            Density:  The more obsessive-crazy-book zombie-DENSE the “THIS GUY” the... more carefully I ‘attend’ the ... ‘archive’.  That is the word... for the body... of the bibliomaniac... whole.  I want... and I have found... and I have purloined... and I have... now written about multiple times... “THIS”.  Returning to my 1974 ‘first one’ I commend you to understand how much I have ‘improved’ my ‘acquisition’ poise.  Specifically I... while all the while watching for and fighting back against ‘holes’ appearing in the whole archive... very briskly ...as a very ordered whole... remove all of the archive without, preferably, disturbing ANY of the original bibliomaniac’s own “THEIR WAY” craftsmanship.  That is key

            Very key.

            If the body is intact and ordered ‘as found’... in boxes... in the barn... for a decade... or two... it is “the same” “undisturbed” “as I found it”.  It is ‘opened’ and ‘explored’ with this fine consideration.  The more “DENSE” the archive; the ‘more stuff’ there “IS” the more interested I am and the more carefully I act.  For example... decades may pass ‘doing this’ to one old book room purloined.  Consider, for example, a ‘clutch’ of early American Lord Byron or (Sir Walter) Scott imprints (editions)... that I ‘pick up to look at’ when my eye was ‘going by’.  I do... understand... EXACTLY the “I REMEMBER” the “FINDING THOSE” ‘in-under’ Benton Shelby’s desk “together” in a shoe box where he’d “set them off” over the years (decades) ‘as he found them’.  I... found them... ‘there’.  I look at them.  I study them.  I do not change them (their collected arrangement).  Because I ‘don’t know yet’... “WHY?”

            He (his rare book room) filled one hundred and twenty-seven boxes.

            I have ‘started it’ (to ‘look at it’; look in the boxes).

            And you (the normal people)

            Are not there;

            “It’s too dense”.

            (“Must go through the one hundred and twenty-seven boxes

            You say?”)