November 21, 2009
UTNE READER

Talkin' Trash

(Page 3 of 3)

July/August 2002 Issue
By Davy Rothbart, Found magazine 
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I think mainly it’s two things that makes me love trash. One is the imagined story that comes with it. (Who cut that bear head off the rug? How long did they think about it before they did it? What did they use to do it? Did they think a grizzly bear skin would be less offensive minus the head? What did people say after they saw the rug without the head?) The other is the feeling of rescuing some otherwise overlookable thing from oblivion. This might be a way that I identify with trash. Understand trash. Empathize with trash. I will call it trash. "Found object" is a nice term but it reminds me of when I was in college and looked down on comics so much that I called what I did "drawings with words." Now I’m a cartoonist and a trash lady.

RELATED CONTENT

From Found Magazine #1, a treasure trove of mysterious notes, inane travel journal entries, calls for roommates, children's drawings, and letters pieced together after having been torn to pieces. Discovered in public places, each item suggests a larger story that it's up to you to imagine. The Web site: www.foundmagazine.com includes found audio snippets. Subscriptions: $22.21 (3 issues) from 3455 Charing Cross Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48108-1911.

Lynda Barry, a pioneer of alternative comic strips, is the creator of Cruddy and The Good Times Are Killing Me. Her forthcoming book, The One Hundred Demons, will be published in September 2002.

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