Saturday, June 21, 2014

Rite of the Sitting Dead: Funeral Poses Mimic Life - NYTimes.com

Rite of the Sitting Dead: Funeral Poses Mimic Life - NYTimes.com


There's not much to say about this creepy and freaky trend. People with cash to burn will always find a novel way to do it. No doubt, the dead don't care, and it matters less to them. It's certainly no skin off my, or anyone else's nose.

But---, what does it say about people that the ancient rite of a funeral is being turned into an exercise in what could almost be called human taxidermy? The once controversial "Bodies" exhibit from China, where human cadavers were sliced open and propped into crowd pleasing displays and shown for fun and profit can certainly be viewed as the macabre precursor to this odd and off-putting funeral trend.

Of course, funerals are for the living, not the dead. Under the guise of "last wishes", anyone can now take one last parting shot at old grandma, and prop her up at her knitting table, or on a bar stool having one last shot for the road before the last call (and I do mean last call). One last photo op with a son or daughter, not to worry about the waxy countenance, it can be cleaned up in Photoshop later.

We've poured cremains into the sea, shot them into space. Burned bodies on rafts set afloat on the ocean, and built pyramids to house them. Just when you might think there is nothing new to done with funerals, some enterprising morticians come up with an idea that just knocks 'em dead.

Museum displays, presidential libraries, even Disneyland are all natural locations where this would really be an unnatural natural. I mean, if it's good enough for Roy Rogers' horse Trigger, it only seems now that we are closing in on the stuffing of freshly dead people for the amusement of those that remain.

Step right up...


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