On Garbage
Distribution by the University of Chicago Press only to customers in the USA and Canada. Customers elsewhere should visit the UK website of Reaktion Books.
Distributed for Reaktion Books
208 pages
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40 halftones
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5_1/2 x 8_1/2
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© 2004
How do we decide what is junk? The discarded remnants of our daily lives may no longer be useful to us, yet John Scanlan proposes in On Garbage that our trash is actually a treasure trove of artifacts that reveals intriguing insights into the modern human condition and the evolution of Western culture.
On Garbage is the first book to examine the detritus of Western culture in full range—not only material waste and ruin, but also residual or "broken" knowledge and the lingering remainders of cultural thought systems. Scanlan considers how Western philosophy, science, and technology attained mastery over nature through what can be seen as a prolonged act of cleansing, as scientists and philosophers weeded out incorrect, outmoded, or superseded knowledge. He also analyzes how disposal not only produces overwhelming mountains of waste, but creates dead bits of useless knowledge that permeate the reality of modern Western societies. He argues that physical and intellectual debris reveal new insights into the basic tenets of Western culture and, ultimately, that the abject reality of our disposable lives has led to us becoming the "garbage" of our times.
On Garbage is the first book to examine the detritus of Western culture in full range—not only material waste and ruin, but also residual or "broken" knowledge and the lingering remainders of cultural thought systems. Scanlan considers how Western philosophy, science, and technology attained mastery over nature through what can be seen as a prolonged act of cleansing, as scientists and philosophers weeded out incorrect, outmoded, or superseded knowledge. He also analyzes how disposal not only produces overwhelming mountains of waste, but creates dead bits of useless knowledge that permeate the reality of modern Western societies. He argues that physical and intellectual debris reveal new insights into the basic tenets of Western culture and, ultimately, that the abject reality of our disposable lives has led to us becoming the "garbage" of our times.
"Rather diverting . . . The story of rubbish, as Scanlan persuasively argues, is the story of culture. . . . Cheery references to everyone from Heidegger to Blur make this fun reading."--The Guardian
"There is such a fine Montaignesque scope to On Garbage . . . … [a] little masterpiece… this reverence for and fascination with humankind marks Scanlan as an essayist of the first order. Like Montaigne, he is willing to search among the oddments of language and logic, to follow a vein of thought wherever it leads, to test the sound and sense of writers before him, and assay his own experience and memory for what rings true about the species and the planet we occupy; about the things we create and dispose of, treasure and reject, prize and piss away. . . . Scanlan's inquiries cast some light among the shadows in the dark. Like a wide-eyed miner up from the underworld, what he tenders in On Garbage looks like gold."--The Times (London)
"This thought-provoking work will be of interest to readers in areas as diverse as cultural studies and social theory, public health and the environment, as well as those who are interested in the aesthetics of contemporary art."--Green Places
"Highly different, intellectually intriguing and happily stimulating stuff."--The Glasgow Herald
Contents
Preface
1. Garbage Metaphorics
2. Garbage and Knowledge
3. Garbage Aesthetics
4. Garbage Matters
5. Garbage and the Uncanny
Afterword
References
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photographic Acknowledgements
Index
1. Garbage Metaphorics
2. Garbage and Knowledge
3. Garbage Aesthetics
4. Garbage Matters
5. Garbage and the Uncanny
Afterword
References
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photographic Acknowledgements
Index
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Earth Sciences: Environment
Philosophy: General Philosophy
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