Bodies to bling
I’m on holiday. I don’t want to court controversy for a couple of weeks (the weather will stop me getting hot under the collar.) But it never did any harm to be a little provocative in the interest of animated debate. So, I say, good taste will always hide behind convention because it is too […]
Sam
The trees are coming into leaf Like something almost being said I read those lines of Philip Larkin at the funeral of a 16 year old boy who’d died of cancer. They were just right for all sorts of reasons. It was May. Sam, a good artist, had a thing for painting trees. All through […]
The mind is its own place
The Guardian ran a short piece on Saturday about those who work in the death industry. One of the themes was humour as a coping mechanism. One of the interviewees was Andrew Leverton of Leverton’s, by appointment undertaker to HRH the Queen. Asked if he found aspects of his work darkly funny he replied, “I […]
Gift or garbage?
What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? […]
How to watch your brother die
How To Watch Your Brother Die For Carl Morse When the call comes, be calm. Say to your wife, “My brother is dying. I have to fly to California.” try not to be shocked that he already looks like a cadaver. Say to the young man sitting by your brother’s side, “I’m his brother.” Try […]
Light, like the sun
Here’s an interesting photograph taken by Maeve Berry of a body burning in a cremator (for US readers, a retort). It is one of a series which tracks the process from start to finish. What do you think? Hellish? Or clean, purifying and beautiful? See the rest of the series here.
Dead right
“I regard this body of mine as being mine in life and it is for me to say in what way it should be disposed of after my death. I regard that as an absolute … For example, I would have the gravest reservations about any organs from my body after my death being used […]
Bloggus interruptus
Everyone’s got a book in them. Best place for it. Throw away the key, I say, you’ll embalm the illusion that way. Illusion? Almost certainly. You think you’ve got something precious and important to impart? You think there’s a lot of tosh coming off the presses, surely someone’ll print mine? Try getting it published. First […]
Transitus, gloria mundi
The Transitus festival held just over a week ago was a success. Lots of people came to find out about death on a sunny day when they could have been off picnicking. Considering the financial risk the organisers seem to have exposed themselves to, success must feel especially sweet. Because Transitus explores ideas and experiences […]
Best in show 3
I wonder what people who visit graves think their loved one looks like now—or whether they think about it at all. I was talking last week to Ken West, the man who gave us natural burial, and he opined that they think of them as uncorrupted. People shut their eyes to decomposition, whether violent and […]
