About this Blog
When I started this blog at the end of January 2010, I intended for it to be, as advertised at right, “A compendium of all the intriguing detritus, all the irresistible bargains, and all the wondrous objects that might clutter my studio today if I were a hoarder.” I figured that if I could take pictures or write about the objects that seemed to beckon to me, I might save scarce space and money, and even free myself from what I have always feared might be my destiny: that of a crazy cat lady hoarder…
Since then, the blog has morphed into something more like a repository of links, images, and photos I find about hoarding, and a collection of my own memories and reflections about the contemporary discourse. Like most interesting things, I’ve found that the more I think about hoarding, the more there is to think about.
Part of the reason I find hoarding so interesting may be that it resonates strongly with my personal history: my father might be described as a hoarder, and my grandmother would certainly be. The latter, who passed away in 2005, wrote poetry throughout her life. I’ve posted some of her poems that reveal an almost-pathological frugality and a fascination with various objects. Most of her poems, however, are concerned with her children, grandchildren, and dogs, and with her house in Maine—I don’t post those here. I think the bulk of her poetry is scattered amongst various boxes in Maine, but I’m not sure when I will next be able to get there and start perusing…
When I’m not blogging, I’m usually working on my dissertation, which is very tangentially related to the subject of this blog—though my main focus is on modern and contemporary Italian narrative. During the Spring 2010 semester I taught “The Collector, the Killer, and the Capitalist” and this semester I’m teaching “Fetishist, Collector, Hoarder.” These courses have provided an opportunity to reread a number of literary precursors to the contemporary discourse, and to think through many of the themes discussed here with remarkably bright and engaged groups of Berkeley undergraduates.
I would be grateful for any comments or suggestions you might have for this blog. You can contact me by email at zoltanella@gmail.com. Alternatively, you can submit a question through Tumblr, but do note that I won’t be able to respond except by publishing the answer on the blog. If you don’t want your question to appear on the site, it’s better to email me directly.
If you have a photo, story, video, or quote you would like to share on this blog, you can do so here.
If you want to look the part of a would-be-hoarder, I sell t-shirts, tote bags, and bumper stickers at the If I Were a Hoarder store on Café Press. I also opened an aStore on Amazon.com, where you can find many of the books and movies I refer to on this site.
Thank you for visiting If I Were a Hoarder!
