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As a practising mortician, Caitlin Doughty has long been fascinated
by our pervasive terror of dead bodies. In From Here to Eternity
she sets out in search of cultures unburdened by such fears. With
curiosity and morbid humour, Doughty introduces us to inspiring
death-care innovators, participates in powerful death practices
almost entirely unknown in the West and explores new spaces for
mourning - including a futuristic glowing-Buddha columbarium in
Japan, a candlelit Mexican cemetery, and America's only open-air
pyre. In doing so she expands our sense of what it means to treat
the dead with 'dignity' and reveals unexpected possibilities for
our own death rituals.
Inspired by the dark imagination of Edward Gorey, Envious Siblings
is a twisted and hauntingly funny debut. Comics artist Landis Blair
interweaves absurdist horror and humour into brief, rhyming
vignettes at once transgressive and hilarious. In Blair's surreal
universe, a lost child watches as bewhiskered monsters gobble up
her fellow train passengers; a band of children merrily play a
gut-churning game with playground toys; and two sisters, grinning
madly, tear each other apart. These charmingly perverse creations
take ordinary settings-a living room, a subway car, a
playground-and spin them in a nightmarish direction. Envious
Siblings heralds a brilliant new cartooning talent and will
captivate readers who have thrilled to the lurid fantasies of Roald
Dahl, Quentin Blake, Charles Addams, Shel Silverstein and Tim
Burton.
Fascinated by our pervasive fear of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin
Doughty embarks on a global expedition to discover how other
cultures care for the dead. From Zoroastrian sky burials to
wish-granting Bolivian skulls, she investigates the world's
funerary customs and expands our sense of what it means to treat
the dead with dignity. Her account questions the rituals of the
American funeral industry-especially chemical embalming-and
suggests that the most effective traditions are those that allow
mourners to personally attend to the body of the deceased.
Exquisitely illustrated by artist Landis Blair, From Here to
Eternity is an adventure into the morbid unknown, a fascinating
tour through the unique ways people everywhere confront mortality.
Fascinated by our pervasive fear of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin
Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for the dead.
From Here to Eternity is an immersive global journey that
introduces compelling, powerful rituals almost entirely unknown in
America. In rural Indonesia, she watches a man clean and dress his
grandfather's mummified body, which has resided in the family home
for two years. In La Paz, she meets Bolivian natitas
(cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skulls), and in Tokyo she
encounters the Japanese kotsuage ceremony, in which relatives use
chopsticks to pluck their loved-ones' bones from cremation ashes.
With boundless curiosity and gallows humor, Doughty vividly
describes decomposed bodies and investigates the world's funerary
history. She introduces deathcare innovators researching body
composting and green burial, and examines how varied traditions,
from Mexico's Dias de los Muertos to Zoroastrian sky burial help us
see our own death customs in a new light. Doughty contends that the
American funeral industry sells a particular-and, upon close
inspection, peculiar-set of "respectful" rites: bodies are whisked
to a mortuary, pumped full of chemicals, and entombed in concrete.
She argues that our expensive, impersonal system fosters a
corrosive fear of death that hinders our ability to cope and mourn.
By comparing customs, she demonstrates that mourners everywhere
respond best when they help care for the deceased, and have space
to participate in the process. Exquisitely illustrated by artist
Landis Blair, From Here to Eternity is an adventure into the morbid
unknown, a story about the many fascinating ways people everywhere
have confronted the very human challenge of mortality.
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Loot
Nadine Gordimer
Paperback
(2)
R398
R330
Discovery Miles 3 300
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