Interested in Dumpster Diving? Love to pick through trash? Are your greatest treasures found free on the side of the road? Empire of Scrounge is a fascinating account of one man's 8 month odyssey through the trash bins and dumpsters of his town in Texas.
For those 8 months he made his living and took notes of the myraid of things he found--discarded. His stories of rescuing and living off of the abandoned detritus of America became a commentary on the wasteful consumer culture of which we are all a part.
This book asks us to take a serious look at what we consume and how we consume it. It also weaves an interesting tale about the intersection of what is legal and what is illegal as it crosses thresholds with trash dumpsters and found objects.
This book is available from NYU press.
4 comments:
This boook sounds like it would make a good birthday gift for my husband. Wouldn't you agree?
I think my husband could have written this book! :-) He calls the end-of-semester dumping/rescuing frenzy "hippy christmas."
Steph and Sweetcakes
Both your husbands would enjoy this book.
Esme
I read and was enlightened by Travels with Lizbeth, Lars Eighner's book on dumpster diving and living on the street,generally, back in 1994 when it came out. I'll check this out. MKP
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