My only experience with the amusingly named artist/author is by watching the cinematic adaptation of his stranger than fiction account My Friend, Dahmer.
Apparently, doubleDerf enjoys sourcing his books biographically, because his next (decidedly less homicidal and way more disgusting) adventure was inspired by real life too. In fact, it seems Trashed started out as a proper memoir and got expanded over the years into this book, which is kinda sorta fictional but inspired by real events and fattened up with a strong and detailed environmental message about the dangers of trash. And, of course, trash is dangerous. And with our society driven by conspicuous consumerism and planned obsolescence and global population ever increasing, people are producing more trash than ever. And then they pile it on their sidewalk or into their dumpsters and forget about it. Well, someone comes to pick it up. And that someone is judging you for your trash. AND that someone later in life might write a book condemning your trash practices. Not that you’d care, because…it’s just trash, right? Just giant piles of trash sitting around in giant trash fields producing toxic gases, taking forever to decompose or never decomposing at all… No one really wants to talk about trash. It’s gross, it isn’t at all sexy, it’s daunting to really contemplate. So kudos to the author for shining the light into that particular dark corner of our existence, but it’s unlikely the book is going to have much effect. For one thing, it isn’t that interesting of a book. Which is to say it doesn’t have much of a storyline to it – more like day-to-day interactions of trash collectors with some asides into the author’s (or the author’s protagonist, depending on how much you’re separating fact from fiction here) life as a 21 and 22 year old college dropout in a small town. Very slice of life, and very, very disgusting, like burst trash bag on a summer day disgusting. The facts, fascinating (and disturbing as they are) are simply layered in. And then, there’s the art. It’s…different. Punky? Weird? Kinda ugly? Long crude faces. Weird looking people. I don’t know. It’s stylish and stylized, but it just isn’t a style I care for. A personal preference sort of thing, you know how it is. Overall, a decent but not overly impressive read. Quite long for what it offered. Then again, I did learn a lot about trash and the business of trash. And learning is good.
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