In The Infinity of Lists, Italian scholar Umberto Eco makes reference to the epitaph on Immanuel Kant’s tombstone in the Kaliningrad Oblast, “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the more often and steadily we reflect upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.”, to describe an infinity that can neither be grasped by our senses nor embraced by our imagination.
Making an almost perfect list wishing for something that we cannot have is “an uneasy pleasure which makes us feel the greatness of our subjectivity.” While we attempt to overcome our own limitations through thinking, the pretence brings an uneasy pleasure.
This work is a list about lists. Please take a pen and write down your desires to enjoy the “uneasy pleasure” brought by this list.