[GreenYes] Re: Moby Duck IS Required Reading

[David Biddle <Dbiddle@no.address>]

I second Kendall¹s recommendation. ³Moby Duck² is a joyous read, full of
information, odd cultural connections, and a very interesting balancing act
between celebrating the poetry of mass material culture and pondering its
insanity. At the heart of Hohn¹s essay (yes, it¹s long, but totally worth
it) is the same fascination with stuff that drives most of us recycling &
zero wasters?when you throw something away you¹re not just disposing of
something useful, you¹re disposing of meaning...

I¹m thinking that somehow we need to develop a totemic symbol that combines
two hugging polar bears and a gaggle of yellow duckies floating on an
iceberg. 

Harper¹s deserves the magazine purchase. Go to your local Borders or Barnes
and Noble today. 

db
--
David Biddle, Executive Director
<http://www.blueolives.blogspot.com>
Greater Philadelphia Commercial Recycling Council
P.O. Box 4037
Philadelphia, PA 19118

215-247-3090 (desk)
215-432-8225 (cell)

<http://www.gpcrc.com>

Read In Business magazine to learn about sustainable
businesses in communities across North America!
Go to: <http://www.jgpress.com/inbusine.htm>
on 1/5/07 5:45 PM, Kendall Christiansen at kendall@no.address wrote:

> Friends:
>  
> Catching up on holiday week reading?and just finished Harper¹s January cover
> story, which I commend to those of you with the time for such pleasures:
> ³Moby Duck, or the Synthetic Pleasures of Childhood² by Donovan Hohn, who
> teaches English at Manhattan¹s Friends School (including to a neighbor girl).
> Hohn uses the oft-reported story about rubber ducks showing up on shorelines
> of the northwest beginning a few years ago to weave an insightful essay about
> modern culture ­ including the origins of plastics, its uses with respect to
> toys in the 20th century, how the Pacific Ocean currents capture and spit out
> abandoned plastics from multiple sources, how a sub-culture of beachcombers
> catalog what washes up on our shores, how existing plastics recycling systems
> are inadequate for the global challenge?.long, but written in easily
> digestible sections?.(I also enjoyed his essay last January on ³The Romance of
> Rust², which chronicled a collector of antique tools?)
>  
> Enjoy?
>  
> Kendall Christiansen
>
> Gaia Strategies
>
> 151 Maple  Street
>
> Brooklyn, NY 11225
>
> o: 718.941.9535; cell: 917.359.0725
>
>  
>
> > 






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