I hadn't been quite sure what to make of waste in the novel to this point. A few people have mentioned it in their post (whoever found DeLillo's quote about buried plutonium, that was reaaly cool, thanks) but for how much it has shown up in the novel it hasn't been dealt with all that much on the blog. Oh damn. Stumpy just posted something about it as I'm writing this, oh well. ANYWAY, this section, particularly 275 to 345ish dealt a lot with waste since it focussed so much on Nick. I particularly was interested, much like Stumpy, damn you (Just kidding) in the idea of trash as treasure, or waste as beauty.

Sims tells us on page 283 that everything he sees is garbage since working in waste management. At first I thought this was pretty depressing, but more and more it seems like waste in the novel isn't always just waste, it can be beautiful as well. Whether in the form of the subway cars that can be graffitied or the b52s that can be painted, or the 'trash' that would feed people, waste isn't always waste. Garbage, we learn on 284 is still property that needs to be protected, and we see waste being the foundation for cities and societies on 288. We normally see waste as the end of something but in Underworld it also serves as a beginning. Consider the countries that import waste as a form of income.

The section on the baseball memorabilia shop touches on this as well (320ish). Many things here could be seen as waste but instead are hugely valuable - like the movie star garbage of page 319. Trash becomes a commodity somehow to the point that the garbage hauler is killed on page 376.

I'm still not sure what DeLillo is saying about garbage, but this section is starting to give me an idea.