The "TCB" INSIGNIA blazes
across items such as:
cups&thimbles&beer cozies&t-shirts&bone china&
beach towels&satin jackets&Christmas ornaments&
collector plates&playing cards&so much more
--all constant reminders of Elvis's
practicality,
generosity, and fun-loving manner.
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Some sort of "gathering" around the self and the group--the assemblage of a material "world," the marking-off of a subjective domain that is not "other"--is probably universal. All such collections embody hierarchies of value, exclusions, rule-governed territories of the self. But the notion that this gathering involves the accumulation of possessions, the idea that identity is a kind of wealth (of objects, knowledge, memories, experience), is surely not universal. . . . In the West, however, collecting has long been a strategy for the deployment of a possessive self, culture, and authenticity.Children's collections are revealing in this light: a boy's accumulation of miniature cars, a girl's dolls, a summer vacation "nature museum" (with labeled stones and shells, a hummingbird in a bottle), a treasured bowl filled with the bright shavings of crayons. In these small rituals we observe the channelings of obsession, an exercise in how to make the world one's own, to gather things around oneself tastefully, appropriately. The inclusion in all collections reflect wider cultural rules--of rational taxonomy, of gender, of aesthetics. An excessive, sometimes even rapacious need to have is transformed into rule-governed, meaningful desire. Thus the self that must possess but cannot have it all learns to select, order, classify in hierarchies-- to make "good collections" (Clifford 1988, 218). |
For hard core fans, to make
a purchase at Graceland Plaza is to
make a commitment to the official
story of Elvis,
thus insuring that his or her collection will be "good."
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where YOUR memories live again Collecting silk scarves
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