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A carregar... From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death (edição 2017)por Caitlin Doughty
Informação Sobre a ObraFrom Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death por Caitlin Doughty
A carregar...
Adira ao LibraryThing para descobrir se irá gostar deste livro. Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro. Doughty is about as quirky as they come in her fascination with this most macabre of subjects. And yet her no-nonsense approach to it helps her reader to get past immature squeamishness to seriously consider the way North American society in particular handles death. It would seem that other traditions may have a lot to offer that ours does not. Reading this book promotes some healthy introspection (and you may find a few laughs along the way). From Here to Eternity is a funny and enlightening travelogue as well as a deeply moving book about the nature of death, and the world of funerary practices the world over. It is also a passionate plea for western funerary practices to become more loving, more sustainable. Doughty believes (and observes in various cultures) that ritual which allows for grief is natural and that we shouldn't shy away from the dead. This will make you reconsider how our culture treats the dead. I observed, while reading this, that as an Eastern Orthodox Christian, I'm perhaps more comfortable with death than others. In our faith, we venerate bones of saints (and even whole bodies), our funerals emphasize connecting and praying for our departed and we even kiss our love ones in their caskets, and our faith encourages natural burial. Still it was neat to learn about other funerary practices around the world. I've been fascinated by death (and undeath) ever since I watched Michael Jackson's Thriller video at the tender age of three. And for just as long, I've been terrified by the subject, too. This push-and-pull dichotomy has created a feeling of compulsion, bordering on obsession. All that to say that I now read just about every book on the topic I can get my hands on, and I watch every zombie movie from behind my interlaced fingers. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY is one of the best takes on the subject of death rituals I've ever come across. Doughty takes an almost loving approach to examining the way other cultures care for their dead. She's open-minded and non-judgemental, and she allows for the possibility that other people's death rituals, as bizarre as they may seem to North Americans, are no less valid and perhaps much more... dare I say it? Humane. I particularly appreciated the chapter on Biolivia's natita culture - and the people's strong belief in magic, ritual, and spiritual faith. I was delighted to see that Doughty didn't disparage these folks for their beliefs, but treated them with respect and understanding. I can't recommend this book highly enough! I'm excited to read more by the author. I also just discovered she has a YouTube channel (WHAT? How did I miss this?!) and I'm eager to dive into more of her work. sem críticas | adicionar uma crítica
Distinctions
Fascinated by our pervasive fear of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for the dead. 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. 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 Días 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. 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. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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From Here to Eternity is the third book that I have read by Caitlin Doughty. This book focuses on death and grieving practices from around the world, whereas Smoke in Your Eyes deals with the author's experiences working in a crematory, and Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs has questions and answers about dead bodies.
I really like the information that the author provides in her books. She traveled around the world as a part of her research and witnessed some truly interesting things. I appreciate the author's work in demystifying death practices and her efforts towards changing the modern death industry into being more personal and family involved, so that people have more options with how to grieve their lost loved ones and more choices about how their own bodies would be handled after death.
There were two things that I didn't like in this book. First, I thought it was in poor taste to describe the sentiments of grieving people as platitudes (i.e., women that suffered miscarriages talking about how their babies were now angels in heaven.) To some that idea wouldn't mean anything, but to others it is their way of coping with tragedy. The second thing that I didn't like was the insert of politics, even though it was very minimal. Apparently I don't like my books about death customs to be tainted by unrelated politics. ( )