[How About This Book] The Warp and Weft of Civilization... The Dirty Truth Trapped Within

'Textiles' That Led the 18th Century Industrial Revolution
Now Must Reflect on Excessive Reality
An Era of Discarded Clothing and Food
Meanwhile, 820 Million People Are Starving

"Threads have been abundant for the past 200 years."

This is a passage from page 86 of "Fabric," written by American journalist Virginia Postrel. The word "fabric" has two main meanings: the first is textile or cloth, and the other is structure.

The original title of Fabric is "The Fabric of Civilization." The title reflects a double entendre, encompassing both the meanings of fabric as textile and as structure. Postrel examines human civilization through textiles. Textiles, which function as clothing to cover the body, have been essential to humanity. Sometimes they were also ornaments or luxury goods. Humanity has only been able to use such textiles abundantly for just over 200 years since the Industrial Revolution.

The content of British journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis's book "Waste Land" can be summarized as "threads have been too abundant for the past 200 years." Franklin-Wallis investigates the serious environmental pollution problems caused by today's overly abundant material civilization. He thoroughly examines the reality of all discarded items, including food waste, industrial waste, and nuclear waste. The issue of fast fashion, recently considered one of the most serious culprits of environmental pollution, is also addressed.

Postrel shows that cloth has always been with humanity and has greatly influenced the course of history. Although the first era of human history is classified as the Stone Age, textiles were already in use then. For example, Stone Age humans tied handles to stone axes with cords to make axes and spears. Sheep, the first domesticated animals along with dogs, evolved in ways desired by humans who needed textiles. In the Neolithic era, sheep's wool was brown and did not continue to grow. However, through domestication by humans, sheep's body size and horns became smaller, and their wool turned white and evolved to grow continuously.

Textiles were even used as currency. During the Tang Dynasty in China, there was a constant shortage of coins in rural areas. In 732, the Tang government declared hemp and silk as legal tender to solve this problem.

The fundamental cause of the American Civil War (1861?1865) was cotton. The war arose from conflicts over the continuation of slavery, and the South could not give up slavery because of cotton production. The United States is the world's largest cotton exporter, accounting for 35% of global cotton exports. Cotton is mainly produced in the so-called "cotton belt," which includes 17 southern states stretching from Virginia to California. Cotton production is labor-intensive. In the movie "Gone with the Wind," the heroine Scarlett O'Hara works in the cotton fields after her family falls into ruin. To hide her family's downfall, O'Hara dresses lavishly and meets Rhett Butler, but her roughened hands reveal the truth to Butler. Southern white plantation owners did not hesitate to resort to kidnapping to avoid hard labor. The Academy Award-winning film "12 Years a Slave" is based on the true story of a black violinist who was kidnapped and forced to work as a slave on southern cotton plantations for 12 years.

The Industrial Revolution in the 18th century was also caused by textiles. Just before the Industrial Revolution in Britain, one weaver needed twenty spinners to produce thread. There were frequent cases where weavers could not work due to a lack of thread, and to solve this bottleneck in the spinning process, the spinning machine was invented, dramatically increasing production. Postrel's claim that threads have been abundant for the past 200 years is based on the Industrial Revolution. However, now is the time to consider whether threads have become excessively abundant.

Franklin-Wallis's Waste Land begins with a massive garbage landfill. It is the Ghazipur landfill in India, where 2,500 tons of waste are dumped daily. As a result, 14 million tons of waste have accumulated into a mountain. The landfill covers an area of 284,000 square meters (about 84,700 pyeong) and the waste pile reaches 65 meters high. Flocks of birds searching through the garbage cover the sky, and ragpickers flock to the site. Sometimes, the garbage mountain collapses, causing casualties. Statistics show that more than 150 people worldwide lost their lives in 2017 alone due to collapses of landfills like Ghazipur.

With the advancement of technology, production has increased rapidly, and today humanity experiences an extremely abundant material civilization. Correspondingly, the amount of waste discarded is also significant. In the case of textiles, which became abundant after the Industrial Revolution, 12% of production is discarded before even becoming products. Additionally, 25% of produced clothing remains unsold, becoming a headache. Franklin-Wallis exposes that some clothing companies burn unsold products. It is not only clothing; one-third of the world's food is discarded, while 820 million people suffer from hunger.

Franklin-Wallis tours waste disposal sites worldwide, including abandoned mines in the United States and nuclear waste disposal sites in the United Kingdom, exposing how much waste is discarded globally today and the disasters such waste causes. He also emphasizes that environmental issues can no longer be postponed and that awareness must be raised.

Postrel also warns about the seriousness of problems caused by excessive production. At the end of her book, she states, "Environmental concerns have become culturally essential. Textiles have become an attractive playground for ambitious scientists," indicating that environmental issues have emerged as a key agenda even in the textile industry.

Fabric | Written by Virginia Postrel | Translated by Lee Yurim | Minumsa | 536 pages | 22,000 KRW

Waste Land | Written by Oliver Franklin-Wallis | Translated by Kim Moonju | RH Korea | 480 pages | 24,000 KRW