Notes from On Garbage
Notes from "On Garbage" by John Scanlan Copywrite 2005,
From Preface:
"...I take this idea of the fundamental importance of disposal and suggest that if we look for connections amongst the variety of hidden, forgotten, thrown away, and residual phenomena that attend life at all times (as the background against which we make the world) we might see this habit of separating the valuable from the worthless within a whole tradition of Western ways of thinking about the world, and that rather than providing simply the evidence for some kind of contemporary environmental problem, 'garbage' (in the metaphorical sense of the detached remainder of the things we value) is everywhere. Indeed, our separation from it is the very thing that makes something like a culture possible.
It will also be seen that the creation of garbage results from a more or less imperceptible contest between life and death - because death constitutes the human return to matter, and is in a sense, the 'garbaging' of the body. Whis is to say death is that which has to be avoided to maintain life. From this avoidance of death arise a number of paradoxes. Thus, we see on closer examination that when Western societies attemp to use the accumulated knowledge of the working of nature to combat death and disease, and to improve health, the very thing that creates the spur to action (death) ends up a century or so later being seen as almost an affront to life, instead of the necessity that no one avoids.
from back cover:
'garbage' represents more than material waste or the effects of environmental degradation; it is understood also as 'broken' knowledge, useless concepts, and the remainders of systems of intellectual thought. On Garbage show how Western philosophy, science and technology overcame nature by means of a prolonged act of cleansing, which is summed up not simply in the disposal of useless knowledge and redundant objects, but more generally in the separation of the human from the natural, a practice that has driven western progress for thousands of years. In this book we see why 'garbage' - the detached leftover of our progress- is, perversely, the source of all that is valuable. By throwing light on the nature and extent of the wastes we have created, we can gain fresh insights into the accepted truths and deep structures of Western culture. Central to such an undertaking is the belief that we can understand the condition of contemporary life only by examining what we have thrown away.
On Garbage shows that the disposal causes more then the mountains of rubbish we sometimes fear will overwhelm us; it also creates a host of other 'garbage', particularly in the all-too-often abject reality of our disposable lives. It seems, indeed, that we ourselves have become the garbage of our times.
'Garbage and the Uncanny' - explores the experience of garbage in all its forms as illustrating the uncanny reality of an existence that, as history proceeds, seems to become further separated from its natural origin but that never really manages to fully detach itself, and as a consequence creates a present that is haunted by the spectre of garbage. As a result the imagination of the present might be better understood within the material garbage in contemporary society is the physical and objective counterpart of metaphorical garbage.
In other words, these spectres of garbage serve as a stark reminder of what we really are.
From Preface:
"...I take this idea of the fundamental importance of disposal and suggest that if we look for connections amongst the variety of hidden, forgotten, thrown away, and residual phenomena that attend life at all times (as the background against which we make the world) we might see this habit of separating the valuable from the worthless within a whole tradition of Western ways of thinking about the world, and that rather than providing simply the evidence for some kind of contemporary environmental problem, 'garbage' (in the metaphorical sense of the detached remainder of the things we value) is everywhere. Indeed, our separation from it is the very thing that makes something like a culture possible.
It will also be seen that the creation of garbage results from a more or less imperceptible contest between life and death - because death constitutes the human return to matter, and is in a sense, the 'garbaging' of the body. Whis is to say death is that which has to be avoided to maintain life. From this avoidance of death arise a number of paradoxes. Thus, we see on closer examination that when Western societies attemp to use the accumulated knowledge of the working of nature to combat death and disease, and to improve health, the very thing that creates the spur to action (death) ends up a century or so later being seen as almost an affront to life, instead of the necessity that no one avoids.
from back cover:
'garbage' represents more than material waste or the effects of environmental degradation; it is understood also as 'broken' knowledge, useless concepts, and the remainders of systems of intellectual thought. On Garbage show how Western philosophy, science and technology overcame nature by means of a prolonged act of cleansing, which is summed up not simply in the disposal of useless knowledge and redundant objects, but more generally in the separation of the human from the natural, a practice that has driven western progress for thousands of years. In this book we see why 'garbage' - the detached leftover of our progress- is, perversely, the source of all that is valuable. By throwing light on the nature and extent of the wastes we have created, we can gain fresh insights into the accepted truths and deep structures of Western culture. Central to such an undertaking is the belief that we can understand the condition of contemporary life only by examining what we have thrown away.
On Garbage shows that the disposal causes more then the mountains of rubbish we sometimes fear will overwhelm us; it also creates a host of other 'garbage', particularly in the all-too-often abject reality of our disposable lives. It seems, indeed, that we ourselves have become the garbage of our times.
'Garbage and the Uncanny' - explores the experience of garbage in all its forms as illustrating the uncanny reality of an existence that, as history proceeds, seems to become further separated from its natural origin but that never really manages to fully detach itself, and as a consequence creates a present that is haunted by the spectre of garbage. As a result the imagination of the present might be better understood within the material garbage in contemporary society is the physical and objective counterpart of metaphorical garbage.
In other words, these spectres of garbage serve as a stark reminder of what we really are.
posted by Jon at 12:20 PM
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