Copoclephilist
by Bob on July 9, 2007
Copoclephilist. Not a usual word we read, see, or hear. But an interesting word. It is the word for a collector of key rings.
Still doesn't ring a bell ? No pun intended.
Well, frequently whilst on the train on the long trip back, I notice people in the crowded train at evening rush hour, a time of day and rushed behaviour I do disdain, reading books avidly. More seem to read books on the train in Boston than in my hometown of New York City. One can only wonder why. No good answer yet.
Evenings are different than mornings on the train during rush hour. In the morning people are all seemingly reading the newspapers of the day. In the evening they read books on the train. Kind of like in the Beatles brilliant 1967 song, "A Day in the Life".
Nevertheless, skipping this seeming enigma, I find it rather interesting to look at the book covers that people are reading on the train as kind of a barometer or tell-tale sign of our times. And their facial expressions as they read them in concert with this. I usually read the people rather than a book. Must be my old NYC train habits superimposed on this reality.
It's an interesting heuristic I've found for measuring societal consciousness and interests.
Look at the book titles that are being actively read (one might include just books carried, but that's not very engrossing visually usually), note them, and see if there is a theme for our times.
Like being a collector of key rings. A copoclephilist.
It's not quite as interestingly complex as Jung's Synchronicity, although that is an interesting excercise, also, on the crowded train. It's aural, though. See if people's words converge in a seemingly acausal manner. But I digress in these interesting but eccentric occupations.
So, if we just collect what book titles people are reading on the crowded train, will we get any insight into what society-at-large is thinking and feeling ? Perhaps. Usually it does say a lot about our world.
Today I noticed three books from my seat, a rare treat since I am not usually able to get a seat. They were today: "Blaze" by Richard Bachman a.k.a. Stephen King (this is New England after all), "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert, and "The Frog Prince". Now I couldn't see the author's name on the last book, but it may very well have been the classic tale "The Frog Prince" by the brothers Grimm. I didn't think it was the 2005 novel by Jane Porter. But maybe it all converges anyway.
So we have in this sweep and gathering of our societal ..
1. Eat, pray, love
2. Blaze
3. The Frog Prince
What does it all mean conjoined as a theme ? What does it tell us about what's on people's minds ? And society ? And metaphysics ?
"Eat, pray, Love" a 2006 book by Elizabeth Gilbert has a subtitle of "One woman's search for everything across Italy, India, and Indonesia". Now that's fascinating in itself. Her book is a non-fiction book about a spritual quest for healing, a kind of wanderlust, on a journey after a harsh and painful marriage divorce in New York City. The randomness of unfettered travel as a healing mechanism and spiritual device. Excellent. Ms. Gilbert has done us well in our quest for thematic coherence on the train's booklist.
"The Frog Prince" by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (really collected by them from all over the countryside in their monumental quest for meaning in folk tales of a country and people) and whose title is really in German "The Frog King", tells us of a frog who was befriended by a bit of a spoiled princess, and who after either kissing the frog, or throwing it up against a wall (as originally in the Grimm's version), the frog turns into a handsome prince for her and they go off into his kingdom into eternal bliss. The deal was that the prince had been previously enchanted by a wicked fairy who turned him into a frog until someday he might sleep three nights in the bed with a princess as a frog and then the spell would be broken. Fancy that. The bit about her kissing him and his changing into a prince from being a frog may have been a later invention.
Of course, this gave rise to the popular adapted expression, "You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince". Hmm.
So far we have Elizabeth Gilbert going off on a broken-romance-heart healing journey to Italy, India and Indonesia. Then we have a fussy princess who sleeps with a frog for three days in her castle, and he turns into a handsome prince and they live happily ever after in the prince's kingdom. Not bad. It works as a theme. Ms. Gilbert and the Brothers Grimm are not totally off centre.
We continue our thought experiment.
We now have the 2007 book, "Blaze" by a "Richard Bachman", but that is a pen name for Stephen King. Supposedly the book was found in the attic. We seem to be losing it. But let's get serious about it all. The theme is about a person, Clayton Blaisdale Jr, a small-time con-man, who kidnaps a millionaire's child for a ransom but soon bonds with the child. As he does so his plan kind of falls apart. He hears voices from his old deceased partner in crime, George. There is a psychic element. Of course, it's Stephen King after all. Hmm. A bit of a redemption theme here, or a sub-thema.
So the meta-theme and message: redemption, malice, a catharsis of a hurt heart in the unknown of foreign lands, and a beauty from within in the fairy tale.
Malice turns into redemption and pain into a cathartic journey of healing.
That's not quite random. That's a wrap.
It pays to look around you when you're on a crowded train. It tells us about life. In the here and now. If there really is a here and now and not just a "being" as time falls apart under the microscope of Philosophy.
And frogs make out okay in the end. That's not a bad deal. And we demonstrate the utility of being a societal Copoclephilist in the train. We are always looking for rings onto which we will connect and collect these key seemingly unrelated themes of life. Dr. Jung would have been proud of our journey.