The general concept of a list, I think, connects it with the mundane and a style that is art-less. To-do lists, laundry lists, shopping lists, and wish lists are useful, but not something that we usually invest any craft in—they're functional, not artful.
Yesterday evening, lists came to my attention because of the incessant posting of one particular follower to one particular Twitter account, the owner of which had invited responses. I stopped following, but also started thinking about other lists, ones that I have actually admired.
Among writing techniques, the list is not one that is necessarily taught. It figures importantly in Umberto Eco's Foucault’s Pendulum, but it is more a plot device there. The list as an artful type of sentence is something else.
The list as art first came to my attention not in fiction or poetry, but in a work of history, when I took a course called "History of Europe: 1500–1680" and read a portion of The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, Vol I by Fernand Braudel, translated from French by Siân Reynolds. The work includes lists frequently, sometimes in a long sentence with extensive description separated by semicolons, as when he categorizes types of towns, and sometimes in a briefer, yet still evocative way, which I think we can probably attribute to Braudel, despite the fact of translation:
"India and the Far East welcomed coral and saffron from the Mediterranean, opium from Egypt, woollen cloth from the West, quick silver, madder from the Red Sea."
Braudel communicates luxury and opulence quite neatly and succinctly here.
A more familiar example to many (though I didn't meet it until after college, myself), and with a contrasting effect, is this:
"Rows of spotless plates winked from the shelves of the dresser at the far end of the room, and from the rafter overhead hung hams, bundles of dried herbs, nets of onions, and baskets of eggs."
Did you recognize it? It's a portion of the description of Badger's house given just after Ratty and Mole arrive there after having gotten lost in the snow in the Wild Wood in The Wind in the Willows. In this case, the list conveys a feeling of ordinary, everyday comfort and a homey, safe atmosphere: a place where everything is planned and ordered that contrasts sharply with the Wild Wood.
Do you have a favorite artful list?