One theme that has been recurring in Underworld is the theme of waste and garbage. Not only are several strorylines and characters (including a main protagonist, Nick Shay) involved in Waste management, but the more I read the more garbage seems to have a secret but immense effect on human life in the book. The people who work for waste management seem to be in on this secret, however, and admire the influence of garbage:
Nick's life, for example, seems to revolve around thoughts of garbage, even outside of work: "Marian and I saw products as garbage even when they sat gleaming on store shelves, yet unbought. We didnt' say, What king of casserole will that make? We said, What king garbage will that make?" (121) This passage is particularly interesting because this couple immediately sees beneath the newness and wonder what an item's destruction will look like.
Brian Glasssic clearly admires waste, since he looks upon "three thousand acres of mountained garbage" and "felt invigorated, looking at this scene" (184).
Big Sims explains that his job follows him everywhere: "I went to a new restaurant last week, nice new place, you know, and I find myself looking at scraps of food on people's plates. Leftovers. I see butts in ashtrays." (283) And even more strangely, the restaurant puts their garbage in a protective cage "because it's property" (284). This obsession with not only waste management, but the protection of garbage as something sacred... interesting.
And then of course there's Detwiler, a strange garbageologist sort of character, who promotes bringing garbage in the open, even possibly making it a tourist attraction (which seems ludicrous but actually has some merit in the novel; Sister Edgar watches tourists take pictures of the blight and trash-filled city on page 247). Detwiler believes "cities rose on garbage [...] it had its own momentum. It pushed back. It pushed into every space available, dictating construction patterns and altering systems of ritual" (287). This actually suggests that the waste we create dictates our way of life, instead of the new items and products we provide. It is what we dispose of that shapes us.
I don't know, what do you guys think Delilo is trying to say about waste? How does it connect to the overall theme of the book?
I think that one of the sections that was most interesting in this last reading assignment was the part that talked about the strike of the garbage workers. "Everywhere they walked there was garbage stacked in black bags. They were seven days into the strike, which included a number of violent incidents and one private trash hauler nearly beaten to death . . . a hundred bags on one corner and a smell so summer-lush it enveloped the whole body, pressing in like a weather system"(376).
I guess this is another instance where the failure seems more important than the success. No one (except the waste-obsessed in this novel) ever notices garbage when it's collected; people only seem to notice it when it piles up and is thus a failure.
It's clear by now that waste is a colossal theme in this novel. The only thing i can think of is that it's a statement about the human condition--maybe during war time? But that seems like a bit of a stretch.
I think the connection of waste to the condition of life is fairly strong-- the hidden thing that no one wants to talk about, but everyone has to deal with daily. There is no glamour in waste management, but it is a very important job. Also, what about the difference between human waste and nuclear waste? Human waste emits a smell, whereas nuclear waste emits radioactive particles. any connection there?
AND there was that section last reading about Matt's brother who used to read comic books aloud to his neighbors while pooping. what was that all about? (page 210)
The theme of waste goes hand in hand with the theme of shit (human waste), which was important in Gravity's Rainbow as well. Marvin's tale of his "BM"s seems to be significant. He is ashamed of the stench, and takes great care not to let his wife find out how disgusting they are: "But in this case the husband had to take extreme precautions because the odor was shameful, it was intense and deeply personal and seemed to say something awful about the bearer" (310).
Also: "The deeper into communist country, the more foul his BMs" (311).
This definitely makes some sort of connection between waste and the human condition. Marvin is afraid that his waste says something about his condition, and is ashamed, while his waste does indicate something about the condition of the countries he is traveling through.
Yea, the part about Marvin's foul BMs in communist territory made me curious. Conversely, "on the way back to Western Europe his system slowly returned to normal" (313). Maybe his bowel movements are motivated by nervousness from travelling in foreign countries? A sort of manifestation of paranoia? I have no clue...but I really want to know what the correlation is.
Sarawrs, I definitely think you are on the right track. Maybe he also thinks communism stinks, is putrid, is basically living fecal matter. Therefore, since he thinks his BM, which he refers to as "sludge" is so disgusting, maybe to him it is inevitably linked in his mind to something else foul-- Communism.
Despite all the themes about hiding waste and no one wanting to accept the ship of shit, there's definitely a glorification of it at some points. For example Klara's art is all about finding garbage and turning it into beauty. Acey sums it up on page 393, "You take your object out of the dusty grubby studio and stick it in a museum with white walls and classical paintings and it becomes a forceful thing in this context, it becomes a kind of argument. And what it is actually? Old factory window glass and burlap sacking. It becomes very, I don't know, philosophical."
In addition, on page 281 it says, "It did not seem surprising, all these ghost-ship stories, even if they were onloy elusive hearsay, because we'd been told the night before that waste is the best-kept secret in the world." The thing is, you don't keep secrets that are unimportant, secrets are the most meaniingful things that we cannot say for fear or desire to have it ourselves.
Also, when Marvin takes Eleanor down that interesting street in San Francisco he says that the stores there have garbage from the stars. The story makes garbage seem so personalized, as if our story lies in garbage. Which also reminds of the theme of "history by accident."