andrew.pilsch.com

There seems to be a trend, ever since the conversion to digital media, towards really excessive packaging of cultural artifacts. I could list a lot of examples, but I suppose the most excessive has got to be The Fun House Sessions, a box set that recreates every single note put to tape by the Stooges during the recording of Fun House. It’s six CDs of outtakes. Frankly, and despite its status as “classic,” I have trouble listening to the final product. That’s beside the point, though. The point is that I almost bought the set when it came out. “Why?” you might ask. That would be a valid question. I find my self attracted to excessive media sets like this. The object that, currently, sparked this discussion is the copy of Dust Devil: Final Cut that arrived in my mailbox today.

For the record, I’ve never seen Dust Devil. Yet I was willing to shell out $30 to get a limited edition, five (5!) disc boxed set that includes the movie, a rough cut of the movie, the soundtrack to the movie, and three short subject documentaries by Richard Stanley. For the record, I really liked Stanley’s other movie (Hardware), but … I don’t know. The same thing happened with the Suspiria set (although, that is now one of my all time favorite movies (and the bonus features are pretty groovy)). Nonetheless, the problem gets more worrisome with things I don’t even want, like the aforementioned Stooges set or Screamin’ and Hollerin’ the Blues (I don’t even like Charlie Patton). Do you think it could be some sort of obsession with plenitude that marks my desire for these overly completest sets? Or is it because I want to be a part of a community of obsessives that can care that desperately about something?

I don’t know. I’m also curious about why such project have only started since the conversion to digital media. While I can imagine it would be hard to get excited about a box of VHS tapes, it still seems like this sort of fervor should have always existed. There just seems to be a really intense feeling of completism driving DVD sales (I think this also falls over to non-obsessives). Correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to remember that most people didn’t own a lot of VHS tapes back in the day, yet everyone I know owns at least ten DVDs. Is it because they are smaller? Arguably less fragile? I find this whole enterprise rather strange.