This article examines the temporal dimension of waste in Henry Mayhew's London
Labour and the London Poor as an instance of how modernity has produced a
largely hidden domain of the non-identical and indeterminate. Through a
consideration of the phenomena of uselessness, decay and poverty I argue that the
temporal dimension of waste is constituted as a corrosive or malign `Deadly Time'.
In placing such emphasis on time directed towards death, I aim to show that Mayhew's
undisciplined researches can be seen as a valuable source for understanding why
modern thinking struggles to come to terms with waste.
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