Dumpster Diving to Save the Planet
Today’s mail brought my contributor’s copies of Going Green: True Tales from Gleaners, Scavengers, and Dumpster Divers, the anthology just published by the University of Oklahoma Press. Its arrival meant I got to take an hour or two off to start reading it.
In editor Laura Pritchett’s effective introduction, she discusses how her family tradition of Dumpster-diving eventually led to her thinking about “the ways our culture does -- or does not -- reuse its resources.” And how those thoughts eventually led to a book. Along the way, they led her through my essay on garage sales, here titled “Good Circulation.”
Pritchett’s concept of the book has long centered on the word “gleaning.” Her notion is that activities such as dumpster-diving represent a healthy (re)use of resources particularly valuable in times of environmental crisis. Unfortunately, for me personally, the word “glean” grates on my ears. Nevertheless, as they were casting about for a title, I remembered a friend who works for a Kentucky newspaper called the Gleaner, and how he one day signed off an email with "well, I have to go write something for the greater glory of the Gleaner." So, figuring that if you’re going to use a word like “glean” you might as well take full advantage of it, I proposed that the title of this volume be The Greater Glory of Gleaning.
In instead choosing “Going Green,” the publishers cemented my reputation for proposing book titles that are just a little bit too much for anyone to take seriously.
By the way, if you want to learn more or commune with like-minded readers, the book has an associated Facebook group.
I'm always interested in feedback, via info at johnclaytonbooks dot com
In editor Laura Pritchett’s effective introduction, she discusses how her family tradition of Dumpster-diving eventually led to her thinking about “the ways our culture does -- or does not -- reuse its resources.” And how those thoughts eventually led to a book. Along the way, they led her through my essay on garage sales, here titled “Good Circulation.”
Pritchett’s concept of the book has long centered on the word “gleaning.” Her notion is that activities such as dumpster-diving represent a healthy (re)use of resources particularly valuable in times of environmental crisis. Unfortunately, for me personally, the word “glean” grates on my ears. Nevertheless, as they were casting about for a title, I remembered a friend who works for a Kentucky newspaper called the Gleaner, and how he one day signed off an email with "well, I have to go write something for the greater glory of the Gleaner." So, figuring that if you’re going to use a word like “glean” you might as well take full advantage of it, I proposed that the title of this volume be The Greater Glory of Gleaning.
In instead choosing “Going Green,” the publishers cemented my reputation for proposing book titles that are just a little bit too much for anyone to take seriously.
By the way, if you want to learn more or commune with like-minded readers, the book has an associated Facebook group.
I'm always interested in feedback, via info at johnclaytonbooks dot com
