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You know the infamous "Spock's Brain" episode of Star Trek?
It seems that searching the galaxy for your buddy's lost brain is period, dating to at least the Renaissance.
I only found this out this week, while reading Umberto Eco's _The Infinity of Lists_ which is, surprise, a collection of literary lists.
You can read the appropriate canto from _Orlando_ here
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/orl/orl34.htm
beginning at:
block quote begin
LXXIII. He, that with other scope had thither soared,
Pauses not all these wonder to peruse:
But led by the disciple of our Lord,
His way towards a spacious vale pursues;
A place wherein is wonderfully stored
Whatever on our earth below we lose.
end block quote
And here is a brief description of some of the lists in Eco's book:
begin block quote
The history of literature is full of obsessive collections of objects. Sometimes these are fantastic, such as the things (as Ariosto tells us) found on the moon by Astolfo, who had gone there to retrieve Orlando's brain. Sometimes they are disturbing, such as the list of malign substances used by the "witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth. Sometimes they are ecstasies of perfumes, such as the collection of flowers that Marino describes in his Adonis. Sometimes they are poor and essential, such as the collection of flotsam that enables Robinson Crusoe to survive on his island, or the poor little treasure that Mark Twain tells us Tom Sawyer put together. Sometimes they are dizzyingly normal, such as the huge collection of insignificant objects in the drawer of Leopold Bloom's kitchen sideboard in Joyce's Ulysses...
block quote end
from _The Infinity of Lists_ by Umberto Eco
I only found this out this week, while reading Umberto Eco's _The Infinity of Lists_ which is, surprise, a collection of literary lists.
You can read the appropriate canto from _Orlando_ here
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/orl/orl34.htm
beginning at:
block quote begin
LXXIII. He, that with other scope had thither soared,
Pauses not all these wonder to peruse:
But led by the disciple of our Lord,
His way towards a spacious vale pursues;
A place wherein is wonderfully stored
Whatever on our earth below we lose.
end block quote
And here is a brief description of some of the lists in Eco's book:
begin block quote
The history of literature is full of obsessive collections of objects. Sometimes these are fantastic, such as the things (as Ariosto tells us) found on the moon by Astolfo, who had gone there to retrieve Orlando's brain. Sometimes they are disturbing, such as the list of malign substances used by the "witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth. Sometimes they are ecstasies of perfumes, such as the collection of flowers that Marino describes in his Adonis. Sometimes they are poor and essential, such as the collection of flotsam that enables Robinson Crusoe to survive on his island, or the poor little treasure that Mark Twain tells us Tom Sawyer put together. Sometimes they are dizzyingly normal, such as the huge collection of insignificant objects in the drawer of Leopold Bloom's kitchen sideboard in Joyce's Ulysses...
block quote end
from _The Infinity of Lists_ by Umberto Eco