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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.
Can we give Grandma a Viking funeral? Why don't animals dig up all
the graves? Will my hair keep growing in my coffin after I'm
buried? Every day, funeral director Caitlin Doughty receives dozens
of questions about death. Here she offers her factual, hilarious
and candid answers to thirty-five of the most interesting, sharing
the lore and science of what happens to, and inside, our bodies
after we die. Why do corpses groan? What causes bodies to turn
strange colours during decomposition? and why do hair and nails
appear longer after death? The answers are all within . . .
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'Unforgettable . . . a hilarious,
poignant and impassioned plea to revolutionise our attitudes to
death' Gavin Francis, Guardian From her first day at Westwind
Cremation & Burial, twenty-three-year-old Caitlin Doughty threw
herself into her curious new profession. Coming face-to-face with
the very thing we go to great lengths to avoid thinking about, she
started to wonder about the lives of those she cremated and the
mourning families they left behind, and found herself confounded by
people's erratic reactions to death. Exploring our death rituals -
and those of other cultures - she pleads the case for healthier
attitudes around death and dying. Full of bizarre encounters,
gallows humour and vivid characters (both living and very dead),
this illuminating account makes this otherwise terrifying subject
inviting and fascinating.
Every day, funeral director Caitlin Doughty receives dozens of
questions about death. What would happen to an astronaut's body if
it was pushed out of a space shuttle? Do people poop when they die?
Can Grandma have a Viking funeral? In the tradition of Randall
Munroe's What If?, Doughty's new book, Will My Cat Eat My
Eyeballs?, blends her scientific understanding of the body and the
intriguing history behind common misconceptions about corpses to
offer factual, hilarious and candid answers to thirty-five urgent
questions posed by her youngest fans. Readers will learn what
happens if you die on an airplane, the best soil for mummifying
your dog and whether or not you can preserve your friend's skull as
a keepsake. Featuring illustrations from Dianne Ruiz, Will My Cat
Eat My Eyeballs? will delight anyone interested in the fascinating
truth about what will happen (to our bodies) after we die.
Everyone has questions about death. In Will My Cat Eat My
Eyeballs?, best-selling author and mortician Caitlin Doughty
answers the most intriguing questions she's ever received about
what happens to our bodies when we die. In a brisk, informative,
and morbidly funny style, Doughty explores everything from ancient
Egyptian death rituals and the science of skeletons to flesh-eating
insects and the proper depth at which to bury your pet if you want
Fluffy to become a mummy. Now featuring an interview with a
clinical expert on discussing these issues with young people-the
source of some of our most revealing questions about death-Will My
Cat Eat My Eyeballs? confronts our common fear of dying with
candid, honest, and hilarious facts about what awaits the body we
leave behind.
Armed with a degree in medieval history and a flair for the
macabre, Caitlin Doughty took a job at a crematory and turned
morbid curiosity into her life's work. She cared for bodies of
every color, shape, and affliction, and became an intrepid explorer
in the world of the dead. In this best-selling memoir, brimming
with gallows humor and vivid characters, she marvels at the
gruesome history of undertaking and relates her unique
coming-of-age story with bold curiosity and mordant wit. By turns
hilarious, dark, and uplifting, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes reveals how
the fear of dying warps our society and "will make you reconsider
how our culture treats the dead" (San Francisco Chronicle).
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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