The man on the motorcycle is dead.  He was twenty-two, a motorcycle enthusiast, murdered and from Puerto Rico.  His wish was to be embalmed and posed this way and his wish, like the wish of another murdered twenty-four year old in this country (posed standing upright in his mother’s living room for three days), was upheld.  The secret to all of this, said a funeral director, is in the “special embalming”.

However bizarre this may seem, the practice of posing dead people in various tableaux is not new.  It was popular in the Victorian Era when family members couldn’t afford cameras and wanted their dearly departed to be immortalized, although it was also practiced by the wealthy.  It is suggested that upon Prince Albert’s death, Queen Victoria went into such an intense period of mourning that grief, now in vogue,  became literally showcased in the bereaved mainstream.  As a practice,  it can be seen as an extension of memento mori (“remember you will die”), a practice of inserting images of the dead in paintings and sculpture on tombs as well as on cathedrals.  Christianity embraced this sentiment as it is especially moralizing and wishes to teach the woeful idea that life is short, tempus fugit, and you better not sin.

Although creepy through modern eyes, it must not be forgotten that death was a frequent visitor in homes at this period.  Infant and childhood mortality were common and children saw death as a part of life.  Today, death and children are kept as remote from one another as possible as lost ones release their spirits in hospitals and nursing homes.

All of the people in the photographs, save a few, are dead.  The deceased were held upright using special stands with clamps, their eyes propped open or pupils painted unconvincingly on the photographs. The girl at the top of the article is a fourteen year old in her wedding dress.  Her name was Margaret Rose.  The bottom image of a man and child, ostensibly father and  son, are both deceased.

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Khirad
Member

Unto Ashes – Funeral March for Queen Mary; of Purcell, Clockwork Orange fame, reinterpreted in even colder tones:

kesmarn
Admin

The amazing Tim Eriksen:

Chernynkaya
Member

On a lighter note! Woody Allen, “Sleeper”

(Fast forward to 3:06)

Kalima
Admin

Excuse my bad manners, just wanted to let you know that I fixed the MB link before I nod off again.

Chernynkaya
Member

Bad manners and Kalima don’t belong in the same sentence– Thank you!! Sleep well and sweet dreams.

Kalima
Admin

😳

Chernynkaya
Member

Gosh, Kalima– what a beautiful thing to wake up to! Lump in throat– so evocative.

Pepe Lepew
Member

Hee, hee, I went to a little tiny theater (It was literally a giant log cabin) in the mountains to see that movie with a friend when I was about 8, and I thought it was great. My parents would have been horrified if they had known how subversive it was.

escribacat
Member

Part of that was filmed at NCAR in Boulder.

Chernynkaya
Member

*** WARNING– GRAPHIC CONTENT****

This whole thread is a keeper. (Not that what I am about to write will make add to that excellence but I just want to re-participate.)

So in another lifetime I was a biomedical illustrator. There is actually a certification program for that, and I took some classes at UCLA. For our final drawing, we had to illustrate the circulatory system. Our instructor suggested we go to a butcher and try to obtain a cow’s heart in lieu of the human kind. I tried to do that, but was told by a couple of butchers that they are required to slice up the cow’s heart to look for any parasites. Hmmm, what to do?

I got on the phone and called some medical departments at the university, saying that I was a student and explaining my assignment. In no time, I walked into some brain research office and the guy in charge listened to my spiel and said, “Come with me.”

We walked down a few hallways and just before he pushed open some double doors he turned to me and asked, “You’ve been in here before, right?”

“Oh, sure”, I said, having no idea where we were.

As you may have guessed, it was the morgue. Thank God, I didn’t start to giggle, as is my pattern when I get nervous. It was amazing– not at all what I expected. There was row after row of what I can only describe as giant steel breadboxes. Actually, gurneys with stainless steel domes over them.

He opened a couple until he found a cadaver that still had an intact heart. None of these bodies was untouched– it was the end of the semester and the medical students had pretty much messed them up. But here’s the thing– they looked no more human to me than does meat. They were preserved; no blood or gore at all. I’m sorry if this causes nausea, but that’s the truth– or maybe just my way of dealing with my first encounter with a cadaver.

Anyway, he reached into the breadbox-type encasement and gave me a heart. It was smaller than I thought but he reminded me– it’s fist-size.

Before he put it into my art box, he looked at me and said he knew I would treat this with the utmost respect and that I would honor the person who had so generously donated his body. I assured him I absolutely would. Also, I was to return it to him for disposal.

What an experience. I took it home for dissection the next day, but my then-husband freaked when he saw it in the refrigerator. And I had a very hard time dissecting it, but I did get an A in that class. No one else had used a real heart– no one even tried.

Sorry if that was too gross!

kesmarn
Admin

Cher, that was not at all gross! When I take the final nap, I think it would be a great consolation to know that a medical student or medical illustrator was going to make some legitimate use of my “parts.” What else would they be good for at that point?

That said, I have to admit that I find the photos with this article inexplicably creepy. Possibly because — unlike the learning process of dissection or the artistic process of depiction in medical illustrations — these seem to have little or no “redeeming value.” Or if they do, I guess I’m too thick to get it. Maybe they were, in some way, consoling to the survivors. But somehow, for myself, I must say I would be completely weirded out by posing for a photo with a standing, embalmed family member beside me. Just me…

Khirad
Member

That actually didn’t gross me out. It’s pretty much the blood, gore, and actual scalpel work that does.

I also really appreciated that he put importance to respecting the person it came from.

Still, I have more years to deal with this, but I still can’t deal with having my body cut up like that.

I know my shyness will be of no concern then, but imagining it… just takes me to Poescapes.

The weird thing would be the refrigerator. Actually, it was all pretty weird. But, weird is interesting!

I know what you mean about the fist thing. You know it, but still. Never held an actual one though… that would probably give me weird dreams too, like the Telltale Heart or something.

Thanks for the warning though.

I’m a contradiction – drawn to the funereal and vampires, but get squeamish with blood, and when a friend tried to show me the morgue in Oregon Health and Science University, I totally chickened out and got pale.

I can’t figure myself out sometimes…

LiseLives
Guest
LiseLives

LOL – this made me laugh because I guess we always remain contradictions in a way –
I keep thinking I have solid views on many things, esp. those that affect me personally, but then, I’m also apt to change my mind occasionally –
With regards to gore, I’m right there with you and (though I’m not particularly proud of this) 🙂 I can also get grossed out by “too much human” in live folk, meaning, if it’s gross (body odor, bad breath etc.), I get disgusted easily.
Another admission : I wasn’t cut out (no pun intended) to be a nurse or doctor at ALL !
Have no bent toward clinically delving into human bodies, except in that fun way 😉

As for my body parts when I’m gone ?
Have at ’em, but a disclaimer : don’t laugh at my freckles, moles or wrinkles – otherwise, I want my body back !

Khirad
Member

That’s two of us that weren’t cut out (!) for the medical field (especially surgery).

Yes, I’m with you on the body odor and general hygiene. I don’t always judge someone by it (I was stinking the other day with the humidity and airport nightmare when I caught wind of myself) – but if you have access to a shower, – take one. I know I couldn’t wait to.

Donating is the right thing to do. What will I need anything for? I can’t explain it, I just maybe don’t like to think about it – and perhaps maybe I should think more about the person I could help instead, like a non-selfish person.

The thing with my body parts is that I could also try donating my lungs and liver as a joke? 😆

LiseLives
Guest
LiseLives

Fascinating story Cher – very cool about the consciousness toward retaining the ex-live one’s (cadaver’s) respect & very debrouillard (a great French word for which there’s no real English translation, but) meaning : figuring it out & solving it) ….of you to have gone to the actual source.

I think I’d have a hard time seeing the dead, esp. chopped up !, but in the way you describe it, it might seem much more clinical & less macabre than it sounds –

& I agree : a keeper of a thread !

Khirad
Member

I too was once fascinated with this, Q. By the way, ever heard of these guys? What was ancient is now New Age, go fig.

http://www.summum.org/mummification/process.shtml

Chernynkaya
Member

That just seems so egotistical, no?

Chernynkaya
Member

Whoa there Q and Lise! The baby is the one still living, right? You’re so right– we look mahvelous!

LiseLives
Guest
LiseLives

O/T : I got stuck here in the office, watching the Correspondent’s dinner –

You guys HAVE to watch it – President Obama is in top form funny !

Chernynkaya
Member

Obama ROCKED!!

KQµårk 死神
Member

I never understood the whole displaying the dead body thing myself.

My wife and I decided we would both be cremated and turned into lab made diamonds. All that’s left over is carbon and some salts anyway. We both think trying to saving a dead body is just a waste.

I don’t now if you ever caught one of Dr. Boden’s “Autopsy” series episodes where this freak named Dr. Carl Von Cosel kept” his lover’s dead body for decades. There were signs it was “violated” regularly as well.

http://hbopayperviewespanol.com/autopsy/episode/episode_6_the_strange_obsession_of_dr_carl_von_cosel.html

Chernynkaya
Member

Did anybody see this exhibit? It was actually awesome.

Khirad
Member

I’m squeemish at the sight of blood, and that was an informative, but incredibly uncomfortable exhibit to go through for me. Plus, the ethical thing seemed exploitative to me (though none were the dissidents, they said, at least one was of a German woman who drowned herself before the waivers legality). I had bad dreams for like a week.

But, for those studying anatomy, it’d be cool. All I could think throughout was who their mothers, sisters, etc were, and with the young athletes, what untimely demise they had to have met. I couldn’t help but imagine the story of their lives. In the state I saw them, they were so anonymous. I know this was their wish, but I just couldn’t disassociate and compartmentalize cold science from humanity.

This is why being a doctor was never even entertained by me, ever. I don’t have that ability.

LiseLives
Guest
LiseLives

Yes indeed – that’s what tears & grieving are all about –
I wouldn’t want to experience life without even its most grave set-backs. Utopia doesn’t exist & if it did, we might not have been afforded the wisdom to develop empathy & compassion.

LiseLives
Guest
LiseLives

Q – I keep responding to your posts & then they’re gone & mine just sit there, sticking out like a sore thumb !
This one was in regards to experiencing pain in the death of loved ones.
Now, sit still ! 😉

LiseLives
Guest
LiseLives

And at this point, I’m going to bid whoever’s still here adios –
Going home to my warm place, eat some & read my book.
Goodnight all !

Kalima
Admin

Good night Lise, have a great evening, sorry I was called away to break up a cat fight and now I must start to cook Sunday Brunch.

Take care.

LiseLives
Guest
LiseLives

If I were sent such a picture after death, I’d have a strong urge to draw a Groucho nose or Alfred E. Newman face on them ….& think of them smiling, happy & vital in life 😉

LiseLives
Guest
LiseLives

Ooops, to your comment below, Q –

whatsthatsound
Member

What a topic, Q, and such strange photos! Wow! In Japan, it is customary for immediate family members, including the lil’ones, to sleep in the same room, alongside the deceased, until the funeral. By our thinking, we might assume it is to impress upon people the transience of life, but I am pretty sure the Japanese don’t see it that way at all. I think it’s more the feeling that the deceased person has not fully made the transition, and wants to have his/her family around until that happens. So although it might, and frequently does, scare the children, it’s not really about them, but about the needs of the departed. On the other hand, as a foreigner, it’s probably more accurate to confess that I don’t fully understand the practice,

LiseLives
Guest
LiseLives

Though I respect peoples’ choice of tradition, I can’t say I’d feel comfortable with that particular one, if it were with regard to my own kids – strikes me as fodder for early-in-life nightmares ….

whatsthatsound
Member

I think it all turns on how it is contextualized. If the parents tell the kids that they are going to sleep with Grandma’s soul so that she won’t be afraid as she makes her transition, the children might actually feel good about it.

LiseLives
Guest
LiseLives

That’s a very good point WTS – you’re right –

Khirad
Member

This is not uncommon. Three days seems to be a recurring number, as well (for the soul to find its way).

Kalima
Admin

Good Lord Q, I’d rather just be stuffed and mounted!

choicelady
Member

My late uncle, a delightfully attractive and distinguished man with a glorious sense of humor, suggested his wife mount his head, pipe clenched in mouth, and put it over the fireplace with the fireplace smoke curling up out of the pipe.

It would have suited him.

Kalima
Admin

LOL cl, sort of like a trophy, great sense of humour indeed.

LiseLives
Guest
LiseLives

He does sound as though he was gloriously well-adjusted – the concept of death best be approached that way, otherwise, it’d be a bit harder to live with –

LiseLives
Guest
LiseLives

Finally, we’re here in the same zone, if not time-zone – allo, Kalima !

Kalima
Admin

Allo Lise and good evening too!

LiseLives
Guest
LiseLives

Note the interesting photographic treatment in the background of the album cover once you click on it –

Blood, Sweat & Tears – And when I die ….

Embedding not allowed but a good soundtrack –

escribacat
Member

What a fascinating story. I couldn