Why one should not read this blog...

Finally, William A. Cohen made me realize why John Scanlan quotes a New York Dolls song (wrongly, as John remarks). This light bulb moment, which is the kind of the researcher's compensation for a nerdy low-income life in the libraries, made me start this blog and scream it warningly into the world:

"Trash, don't pick it up - Don't throw your life away"

No, don't pick it up, because it's gluey, it's sticky and you won't get rid of it again. Or to say it with the more complicated words of William A. Cohen: "By the time one has encountered and repudiated filth, it is too late - the subject is already besmirched by it. In this way, filth challenges the very dichotomy between subject and object. It does so according to a psychoanalytic logic, whereby repulsion and attraction unconsciously converge, and phenomenologically as well: the filth of the object defiles the subject who, identifying it as such, has had to rub up against it."

What does that really mean in practice? Do you have to touch the filth, to see it, to feel it, or is it even enough to just read and write about it? It indeed is: Read Laporte's 'History of Shit' and you'll know what I am talking about. Exhibit 'the handling of waste in history' and people will call you 'Mag. Muell' (in case you have academically studied the phenomenon). Start a PhD on rubbish and you'll get information on (what's hot and) what's not every other day. The topic is sticky and it won't leave you, so beware!