Today I went down to the library and read the Seattle health officer's "Annual Report of the Health Officer for the Year Ending December 31, 1899." Here are a few gems:
Unsanitary Localities: One cesspool of vast magnitude and long standing, covering the greater part of two squares on Jackson Street between Second Avenue South and Fourth Avenue South, has engaged our attention at different times, but without any improvement whatever. The region is a disgrace to the city, and time only adds to the magnitude of a nuisance which, in summer especially, is a serious menace to the health of the community."
Among the health officer's other concerns and suggestions were installing public urinals downtown to provide a "great convenience and remove a disgusting and oft-complained-of nuisance in the shape of filthy alleys"; forbidding peddlers to yell because their yelling tormented the sick; requiring scavengers to register for licenses and finding "some rational means of disposing of garbage" so that no one should have to deal with massive mounds of rubbish.
Another serious concern of his was the fact that even though there were public sewers being dug around town, no one was connecting their house to the sewers.
Which all reminds me of what I recently read in Slavoj Zizek's Parallax View: “one definition of being-human is that disposing of shit is a problem” (194). Of course it's not just about shit, although it is partly that, but aren't we learning more and more all the time about how much trouble our garbage is?
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3 comments:
It's the age old question for utopians and anarchists alike: mais qui videra le pot de chambre?
Have you read Mating by Norman Rush?
Haha, I haven't heard that question before.
I haven't read Mating, but I've seen it around quite a bit, and thought it looked interesting. Have you read it?
really wish i would have launched my F+S II final with that quote
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