A Load of Shit

“What makes shit such a universal joke is that it’s an unmistakable reminder of our duality, of our soiled nature and of our will to glory. It is the ultimate lese-majeste.”

John Berger’s essay begins by describing the experience of burying a year’s worth of his household’s excrement. What follows is an extended reflection—at once philosophically detached and engaged with the inescapable stuff of life—on shit as an allegory of what it means to be human.