The Literature of Waste

[Nicole Bennett]

I should add, in *TCoL49*, I think Pynchon is intensely concerned with who
gets to count as "us" and who counts as "they" in the U.S. In *Gravity's
Rainbow*, I think he takes a more global look at the ways in which
colonialism played its own role is the "us/they" game.

On Sat, Feb 2, 2019 at 6:34 PM Nicole Bennett <nlbennett at gmail.com> wrote:

> In my mind, it recalls the "wasted humans" that Laura Kelber mentioned and
> about which sociologist Zygmunt Bauman has written. Members of W.A.S.T.E
> are marginal on a number of levels (racially, politically, economically,
> mental healthfully, etc.) and whenever we're talking about those within, on
> the edges, and outside of dominant social structures, then waste comes to
> serve as a powerful metaphor to describe and keep marginal/excluded the
> people who "don't belong."
>
> Mary Douglas (a mid-century structural anthropologist popular now among
> discard studies people) theorizes waste (or, in her terms, "dirt") in these
> ways in her book *Purity and Danger*: "As we know it, dirt is essentially
> disorder. There is no such thing as absolute dirt: it exists in the eye of
> the beholder. If we shun dirt, it is not because of craven fear, still less
> dread of holy terror. Nor do our ideas about disease account for the range
> of our behaviour in cleaning or avoiding dirt. *Dirt offends against
> order*. Eliminating it is not a negative movement, but a positive effort
> to organise the environment."
>
> The same can basically be applied to how we determine our social
> environment by distinguishing the "they" against the "us," discursively
> including and excluding particular humans from our social accounting.
>
> On Sat, Feb 2, 2019 at 5:13 PM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> The rebellious postal service and its acronym. There are endless ways to
>> riff on "waste" in TRP's books, but what of its meaning related to
>> W.A.S.T.E.?  How does "waste" figure in COL49?
>>
>> David Morris
>>
>> On Sat, Feb 2, 2019 at 4:02 PM Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > One of my favorite comments on the subject.
>> >
>> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKqpaWUFHdo
>> >
>> > On Sat, Feb 2, 2019 at 10:00 AM Laura Kelber <laurakelber at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> > > I've always associated the use of the acronym W.A.S.T.E. in COL49 as
>> > > perhaps a double reference to getting "wasted" and to wasted human
>> lives,
>> > > i.e. to those that are marginalized from the presented mainstream. I
>> > never
>> > > read it as connected to the waste of consumerist society on an
>> > > environmental level - though the opening Tupperware party is a warning
>> > > sign. Just curious how/if the novel poses and illuminates
>> environmental
>> > > issues (though I see that discard studies covers more than the
>> strictly
>> > > environmental).
>> > >
>> > > Laura
>> > >
>> > > On Sat, Feb 2, 2019, 11:43 AM Nicole Bennett <nlbennett at gmail.com
>> wrote:
>> > >
>> > > > I have this book and, as an English lit. academic interested in
>> discard
>> > > > studies, use it often in my research. Unfortunately, the author
>> > overlooks
>> > > > the centrality of waste in books like *The Crying of Lot 49* and
>> > > *Gravity's
>> > > > Rainbow* (she works mostly on medieval literature). There is some
>> > > > interesting stuff on more recent authors (Beckett, Calvino, Eliot
>> > > > [obviously]), but I also found the style of the book to be a bit
>> > > haphazard
>> > > > for my tastes. It's more of an observation of the different ways the
>> > > > concept of waste functions across a vast range of literature.
>> > Definitely
>> > > a
>> > > > great reference, though, for those who can afford it. Academic books
>> > are
>> > > so
>> > > > stubbornly and frustratingly pricey.
>> > > >
>> > > > On Sat, Feb 2, 2019 at 8:41 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> > > >
>> > > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------
>> > > > > From: Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>> > > > > Date: Sat, Feb 2, 2019 at 9:34 AM
>> > > > > Subject:
>> > > > > To: Me at G <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
>> > > > >
>> > > > >
>> > > > >
>> > > > >
>> > > >
>> > >
>> >
>> https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?index=books&linkCode=qs&keywords=9781137394446
>> > > > > --
>> > > > > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> > > > >
>> > > > --
>> > > > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> > > >
>> > > --
>> > > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> > >
>> > --
>> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> >
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>