29/3/2020
S1 and S2 are standing in the road. They've put their bags and litter-picking tools down. A few items are scattered on the verge. It is a fine day, with a light wind. We find them deep in conversation, oblivious to a huge tractor which has just rumbled by, inches away.
S1: Litter is a surface phenomenon. If you take a shovel and dig, anything you discover buried in the ground is a find. The bottle cap a detectorist finds three inches down, whatever else it might be, is not litter.
S2: No, I disagree. Remember that litter is an ascribed character. The bottle cap can be explained as having been litter. A 1950s fish paste bottle retrieved from the gravel bottom of a river can be explained as something thrown casually away; as having been litter.
S1: But that is the point. When you reach down into the river and tease that bottle out of the gravel, it is a find. The ascription "litter" is in the past tense: It was, or may have been, litter when it was cast away; but in the present it is a find. In the Present, litter is something that is observed and which obtrudes into view precisely as not belonging where it is, in the here and now. It may be hidden, it may have been overgrown by a dock leaf, or half buried by a build up of decaying leaves and drifting soil under the hedgerow; but it is on the surface, it sticks out, it appears as you walk along as a litter-picker, or stand as a tourist to admire an unusual flower. Being out of place on the surface of things is a fundamental characteristic of "litter".
S2: But the fish paste bottle comes to light in the gravel below the surface of the river precisely because it is out of place, in the here and now: there is something in the shape and the way it catches the light, even when it is largely buried in the gravel, which draws your attention to it. It is the same phenomenon as seeing a metallic glint among dock leaves, investigating, and finding a beer can. You can't deny that you experience that as a "find", and in some instances even as a discovery. That is part of the "kick" of being a litter-picker. But you invest it with a story of having been thrown away, and you determine it as being out of place, and therefore litter. The only difference between the two is what you do next. For example, a blue milk of magnesia bottle you discover half-buried in the verge, which attracts your attention because you know blue glass is rare in the scheme of things, has abraded raised lettering you recognise as a character of age; and you have a fascination for such things, so it goes into your pocket; to take away, research and save. It's a find, and not litter. On the other hand, a green beer bottle you discover in a ditch a few meters away sits, in your taxonomy, on the surface - literally on the surface, but also on the surface of "time" as you see it; it is recent. So it is "litter", and goes straight into your recycling bag. If someone came along and told you green beer bottles with that particular shape went out of production in 1953, it would change your appreciation of it entirely. It wouldn't go into the recycling bag, it would also go home with you. If you knew enough about coke cans, and if you knew that one particular production run was exceptionally rare and interesting, and you came across one while picking up litter, that would go into your take-home pocket as well. "Litter" is entirely a function of framing. It is not a "surface" phenomenon.
S1: Litter sits on the surface and violates the background. A 1950s fish paste bottle calls out to you from within the river differently. Yes, you notice it, but you notice it in place, and you characterise it as a find and you remove it from that place. You can not know whether it was originally litter, or whether an old village rubbish pit, from the days before landfills and publicly-funded removal, has been eroded, and its contents gradually taken away by the river. You can not know whether it is in the river because of the invasion of a house or hamper by flood. You do not know, and you do not encounter it as litter. You encounter it as a positive discovery.
S2: What about that old tire? What about the remains of that dog, in a black plastic bag, both in the river? Or the pastic drinks bottle?
S1: I think this is the start of a new conversation. I think this is the end of our first one. Our first one began with litter as a surface phenomenon. You're talking now about ascription. We need to talk about the same thing, or we will be talking at cross purposes. And it is fine in weaving to have threads crossing; that is the nature of a woven fabric. But at this stage we are still spinning our threads. At this stage we need the fibres to lay at least in the same direction. I suggest we start with ascription in our next conversation. I suggest you take the lead.