h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Today an email from a Perfectionist arrived. It stated it was from a Perfectionist. This is a first. It's enquiring about a second hand CD listed on Amazon at £4.00. It asks if there are any fingermarks which can't be removed or are corroded, if under light any scratches from being cleaned with a cloth are visible, if there's any mould, or defect in the artwork or booklet or anything at all that makes the set ( case, booklet, artwork and CD) imperfect.

It doesn't specify the wattage of the bulb to be used to inspect the disc, nor if a microscope is required to check for mould. It doesn't ask about sound quality or if anyone plays a wrong note in the recording.

Most new CDs aren't perfect. They play perfectly or they get returned but there are often marks on the case, if not cracks, and on the disc. The booklets often have marks on them.

The CD is listed as 'used like new'. It plays like new, it is in as good condition as new CDs arrive in. Is it reasonable to expect perfection by mail order? Is it reasonable to expect perfection for £4?

The reply will simply say, I think, that no defects have been seen but that perfection cannot be guaranteed. Weird email though.

It is a sad task, being a perfectionist. One is hard to live with, even living alone

Perhaps being a perfectionist means being doomed to failure, that would be difficult to live happily with.

I've being trying, and failing, on and off all day to think where perfection might be achieved. And then I thought I ought to check my Amazon feedback - and lo and behold - perfect 100% 5 stars! Totally out of control however. Sellers provide perfect sales service and then get a one star rating because someone doesn't like the music. So not the perfect goal to have.

Feedback is useful, but flawed in itself. It rewards short-term satisfaction. Even Which magazine has dropped the reliability statistics from its tables.

I don't want perfection. I want good quality, reliability, good workmanship, a bit of skill, a bit of style, a bit of originality, a touch of excitement. That'd do. There's emptiness in perfection - perhaps because it can't get any better and is therefore finished. Ended, finite, no room for growth or change.

Anyway, my favourite feedback was the comment that the item was stoutly enough packaged to have achieved a safe landing on Mars. No orders from Mars yet though.

If that feedback was from your perfectionist, you have found a stout ally.

Thomas Hardy was a great supporter of the notion 'The perfect is the enemy of the good'. Tess of the D'Urbervilles was good but rejected by a pillock for having a flaw.

A pillock indeed. You've reminded me we went to see an Indian remake of Tess last year. There were connections in plot but it wasn't convincingly a version of Tess to me.