I suspect that Matthias regards the high-spirited romp of "
Laundry Lists and Manifestoes" as somewhat less serious, less ballasted with gravitas, than the nostalgically historical "Kedging in Time." But it's a lovely thing that he can pull off two such divergent projects in a single volume, and with such assurance and elan.
After all, most halfway-decent studio-art graduate students have
laundry lists of this-visual-device-equals-that-autobiographical-fact (often that's all their work has going for it).
The approach looked too glib, the literary conceit too forced, the tone too optimistic, and the content too burdened with
laundry lists of core technologies, new rules, and business revolutions.
Still, we've seen the
laundry lists of how to handle the media in a crisis: Establish a news headquarters and appoint a single spokesperson...Tell the truth...Take corrective action...and so on.
Labels and
laundry lists - including this list from Gilbert - don't tell you the beliefs that motivate a person's opinions, the convictions that guide his actions.