A Load of Shit by John Berger

I bought this on Saturday from a Radical Book Fair in Goldsmith’s, and though it is definitely a pamphlet and though my comments upon it are doomed to solely be “notes”, I’m not including this in my “notes on a radical pamphlet” series, because I don’t consider this to be radical, though it is a pamphlet, and Berger probably does approach a radical perspective in other writing.

(This text includes a brief critique of “elites”, which – in a piece originally published in fucking Harper’s about emptying the cess pit from your rural pile by a fucking famous fucking public intellectual – comes across as misguided (or there’s context I’m missing, e.g. I’m meant to presume that because Berger has to empty and bury the poo from his own cesspit that he can’t be that elite – he’s just like me, normal people, who have land but don’t have servants, right? Right? Cuz we all have land but no servants???)

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This pamphlet was published by Eris Press, and it’s a lovely little edition. Crisp. Physical. Tidy.

I wish I’d found this piece of writing when I was putting together my Poo Anthology a couple of years ago, it would have fitted in!

It’s a witty piece, where Berger explores the metaphors of shit, and its global cultural importance… How “shit!” is an expressive curse in most languages, how only those with servants want to pretend shit doesn’t exist, how it’s important, how it’s funny, how it’s central, how it’s life.

A nice little piece. A very nice little piece. But it’s short and this is all you’re getting on it from me. I’ve got laundry to hang and a holiday to pack for!

More details on the Eris Press website here

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