Editing 625: Collections

{{comic
| number    = 625
| date      = August 19, 2009
| title     = Collections
| image     = collections.png
| titletext = You know what really helps an existential crisis? Wondering how much shelf space to leave for a Terry Pratchett collection.
}}

==Explanation==
[[Cueball]] enters, excited that he's managed to buy every one of author {{w|Terry Pratchett}}'s {{w|Discworld}} books for his {{w|Amazon Kindle|Kindle e-reader}}. [[Megan]] says that it seems pointless to her to build a Kindle collection.

Cueball interprets this to mean she thinks it's pointless to build a collection on an electronic device, perhaps due to the DRM ({{w|digital rights management}}) software common on these devices which can (for instance) make it difficult to transfer the files if the device breaks. (This was the subject of [[488: Steal This Comic]] and DRM has been the general subject of [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php?search=DRM&go=Go&title=Special%3ASearch many xkcd comics].)

However, Megan is ''actually'' commenting on the futility of building up any kind of collection at all, since nothing we do can change the fact that we're inevitably going to die. And when we die, we always die alone - i.e. no one else can follow you on that last journey. And no matter how much you have collected (or earned) during this life that will not change. (A {{w|magpie}} is a bird traditionally thought to be drawn to collect shiny objects and bring them back to its nest.)

This view is in line with those advanced by the philosophical movement known as {{w|existentialism}} which theorizes that life has no deep, hidden meaning and hence even things that we personally feel are meaningful (like building up collections) will not change the outcome of life in the end.

Cueball obviously has seen Megan in such moods before (see [[220: Philosophy]]), and excuses himself for not noticing immediately (in the first panel) by the fact that he sometimes mistakes her {{w|existential crisis}} as technical insight. Megan deepens her crisis by pointing out that she sometimes makes the  mistake to think that the {{w|universe}} cares. This is a disguised criticism of Cueball's behaviour, meaning that she would rather want him to care about her existential crisis, instead of simply brushing them off.

The title text points out that ''Wondering how much shelf space to leave for a Terry Pratchett collection.'' (That would then be all his works not just the Discworld series...) is an excellent way to get out of an existential crisis

By the time of his death Pratchett had written 41 Discworld books and more than 70 books in total. The day after Pratchett died [[Randall]] made a tribute comic to his memory in [[1498: Terry Pratchett]].

==Transcript==
:Cueball: I now have every Discworld book!
:Megan: Eh. Building a Kindle collection seems pointless.

:Cueball: Yeah, I know the DRM means I'll probably lose them someday.
:Megan: No, pointless in general.

:Megan: Sure, you satisfy deep magpie-like urges by building neat collections, but you still die alone.

:Cueball: Sorry, sometimes I mistake your existential crises for technical insights.
:Megan: Sometimes I mistake this for a universe that cares.

{{comic discussion}}
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]