My Funeral Triumvirate

Ok, I need to write about three different death rituals, give a summary of each and post some nice pictures about them. Lucky for me, I have three options for my remains once I die, and so, I can use this three options and write about them! What are the odds? I can give a brief insight of my death preferences AND do my assignment at the same time! Delicious!

Each option is supposed to be from a different culture, but, alas, those are not as fun. I could say that each my option comes from a different culture, but that'd be overstretching the concept. I will overstretch it. My options are: Space Burial, Mummification and one which does not exist but is portrayed in one of my favorite movies, "Dreams" by Akira Kurosawa. I'll explain each of them briefly and why I like them so much.

The first one is just what it sounds like: You get buried... in space. Yes, it is THAT great. Your remains are stored in a little capsule which is then sent to space using a rocket. There's not a lot of complexity in the burial itself, not taking into account the huge amounts of money it costs and the hassle it is to do the arrangements. Sending 1g of one's ashes to space has varying costs. If I wanted to send my remains for a round trip to the Earth's orbit, it'd be around $1,300 USD, and I say round trip because as it is in earth's orbit it shall re-enter earth after some time. If I wanted to be much cooler and send it to deep space, it'd cost about $12,500 USD, and my remains would go past Pluto and to infinity and beyond. This people can help you arrange it: Celestis

The second one is much more known, yet as unpracticed as the first. Mummification. Egyptians, and several other cultures, were known to have this fantastic burial techniques. In the case of the Egyptian, which are my favorite, this happened because they thought that the body was essential for afterlife. They buried their people with different artifacts, spells, jars with their organs known as canopic jars, etc. It was necessary for the deceased to have of of his belongings, including body and inner parts, to be able to go through the dangerous way of afterlife and into Paradise. Furthermore, Egyptians thought they'd have their heart balanced against a feather by the Gods once they died, and the feather had to be lighter, sign of a pure, clear heart, hence the fact that the only organ not placed into a canopic jar was the heart, which remained in the body. This process also included the complete dehydration of the body, which was immersed in a pile of salt for 70 days, and then carefully covered with linen bandages. I really find this method fantastic as it keeps your beautiful body "intact" for thousands of years. Mummies are one nice way of seeing the results of this method.

Finally, the last, and my favorite, death ritual is the one portrayed in the movie "Dreams" by Akira Kurosawa during the last dream "Village of the Watermills". This ritual is peculiar because even if it's a funeral, people are not mourning, they are celebrating. They celebrate the good end of a well lived life. I really love this funeral, it is full of colors, music, jumping and dancing. This is going to be a must in my funeral. Not one person is dressed in a gloomy black disgusting suit, but they are all dressed in beautiful colorful attires. I find this funeral absolutely gorgeous for that reason: it gives a whole new sense to death, it takes away the sad and horrible part  and makes it as human as it can get. Also, it does not celebrate the going of a person to another life, in which I do not believe, but it celebrates the ending of a life. What's wrong with celebrating endings? It should be a more common practice.

I really like also, about all of the three options, that none of them -have- to be celebrated as a religious ritual, not even mummification, which can be done for sole sake of it's evoking of immortality and such. They are just beautiful, interesting ways of celebrating the end of the longest thing one did: Live. They have don't necessarily have the sad duel most of the other rituals have. I really hope my family gives me one of this once I die. I'd curse them from wherever I am if they dare give me a religious celebration. Even better, I could go further myself and pre-arrange my death rituals. Yes, I shall do that; if you want something done, you have to do it yourself.

"Hello Death, come in. Would you like a cup of tea?"

My views on death  are probably something I've pondered for quite some time. They are not the usual views on death, and I believe that they actually manage give me a sort of tranquility I've seen lacking in some people. First of it all, I don't fear death, I don't loath it or anything of the sort, and so, I don't have any problem with the topic. To be honest, I actually welcome death and I could even say I yearn for it to come one day. This should not be misinterpreted with "I want to die", but I really have no problem with thinking about dying; it is the only adventure you'll ever have. The only real one at the very least. I'll explain this in more depth in a second.

Other than the previous, I'm an atheist. I really don't believe in heaven or hell, and thus, I don't have any problem with my possibilities for an after-life. I don't believe in some kind of being judging me after I die. Some people ask sometimes if the absolute uncertainty of such a belief is not brains-shattering, and no, it is not. This leads to my point about death being the only -real- adventure you'll ever have. It follows the next though chain:

Even if you can think of the most wild situation you'll ever experience in your life, no matter how improbable it might be, fact remains, you can think of it. You can actually create a possible scenario in which it is capable of happening. This cannot happen with death. It is so uncertain, it has such a vast range of possibilities that it's not possible for you to grasp how many things can happen after you die. It just might be nothing, as well as it might be the most incredible thing you've never imagined. (This of course does not take value out of the regular adventures you might have during your life, nor it means that death will definitely be more fun or interesting than life itself, but it's still a fun uncertainty to have)

Now that I've explained how death might be the only real adventure you'll ever have, I can go ahead and say that with this mindset, it is not lunatic to believe that one might long for death as one longs for a trip to Europe or any other special date. Who knows, it might just happen to be as fun.

I really like the way I view death. I feel it takes a weight I'd otherwise have clinging on to my neck. I remember how years ago, when I was more of a child (Not that I'm not one as of now), I used to fear death as the moment in which god was to judge me and to weight the goodness of my actions. Taking into account I really found good some of the things religion found bad, It was dreadful. In a nutshell, one of the things I despised most about religion, specially in my then childish mind, was how it became a terrorist group which roamed my mind with ideas of hunting demons and excruciating pain as one roasted to the eternal flames of hell. 

I'm happy that when I rejected religion I was able to reject the now irrational fear of the unknown, and learned how to welcome mystery as a dear friend into my doorstep. To me, fear of death is just another way of fear of the unknown. As the popular phrase catches on "When death smiles to us all, the only thing we can do, is smile back". So smile.

My contribution to The Great Gatsby Audiobook.

I have to help create an Audiobook for Fitzgerald's The Great Gatby. Here's my share:

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Mickey Mouse, the 20's critter.

I have a new assignment. I'm supposed to create a very short documentary about a character I find interesting and influencing which appeared during the 20's. I think Mickey Mouse accomplishes all of these characteristics, and so, I've picked him to be the topic of my micro-documentary. I've worked with a friend of mine. We've divided the work. Here it is:

Mickey Mouse, the 20's critter.

Suppose.

He thought he'd seen her run past the  big oak, and suddenly, supposed she was behind the thick foliage that enclosed the garden. He ran towards it only to find a very high wall, made of dirty, vine covered bricks which stared at him with reproving eyes. He backed up in panic. He'd remembered. His schizophrenia had been worsening for some years now. He could barely remember who he was or who he was chasing anymore except during the little moments of lucidity in which the abominable reality crawled up his neck. When gone, he couldn't even remember that she, who he'd been chasing over the now flower-less garden was long gone. Gone on behalf of the fear; fear of the faceless illness that afflicted her lover. Illness which had taken his laughter, smile and love, and had returned empty bark full of echoing memories which now had no name or face but just the fake continuous loop of the garden chase the evening before he'd been diagnosed as the madman he now portrayed. He ached for lucidity to vanish; he shed a couple of meaningless tears and wiped them just in time to notice her running past the big oak.

Felix is THE Cat.

To continue with my 1920's/The Great Gatsby spree, I shall now write about a character, quite peculiar I dare say, which in my opinion represents the spirit of the Roaring 20's, and even if he doesn't roar, he meows. Felix The Cat is my character of choice.

Felix was created by Paramount Pictures in 1919, drawn by Otto Messmer and Pat Sullivan, and was the first cartoon character popular enough as to create movies in which he was the staring character. To me, he's a clear reflection of the 1920's. And why? Well, because, in a nutshell, he was intended to be.  Felix portrayed most of the roaring twenties attitudes, steretypes, opinions, etc. He had comic strips and movies on the prohibition, on flappers, on the Russian Civil War and whatnot. He was a clear example of mockery of common practices and he was often portrayed with famous celebrities of the time such as Charlie Chaplin.

Something that never ceases to amaze me and that, I believe, has been partially lost is the animator's ability to evoke feelings and such with only music and actions, no dialogue whatsoever. Just in case it is not obvious, Felix the Cat was a silent cartoon until the end of the 20's, when Mickey Mouse forced vocal chords down his throat due to competition. Felix the Cat as a cartoon was plainly surrealist, I find this extremely fascinating as it would show the people how, in his world, Felix's world, everything was possible. His tail which would turn into exclamation signs or swords or pens complimented the twisted situations in which he endeavored himself and eloquently showed, as said before, the common life and events of the 20's in a fashion which not only contradicted physical laws but also gave good entertainment to American audiences. A cat with serious style I say. He was and still is.

Part A and Part B of Gatsby's Song

As a new assignment, I'm supposed to choose a Jazz song that evokes the 1920's in which Jay Gatsby lived, or that at least, carries a 20's-ish, Gatsby-ish spirit to my head. I've chosen Oleo, by Sonny Rollins. This song does reminds me of the 20's, and does remind me of Jay Gatsby. It is not, however, a song created in the 20's nor of any style found in them. This song was created in the 50's and it is a Bebop composition, something almost opposite to the style found in the 20's Jazz. I find this song reminiscent of the novel because of purely theoretical applications when playing it. And with theory, I mean musical theory.

 

I find this version to be quite appealing, it is played by the Miles Davis Quintet. It clearly accentuates the parts I need to explain how it evokes the novel in my ears. The song is clearly divided into to parts: Part A and Part B. Part A is the first, main verse and it's the only transcribed verse of the song, it is a clearly major part and it gives sort of a flamboyant, blissful party atmosphere to it. Part B on the other side, even if it's still being played in major modes (Mixolydian), it carries a completely different atmosphere; an almost dark, eerie mood, without letting the flamboyancy out. An uneasy feeling creeps your back when Davis plays his trumpet here. 

What makes me think of this song as a nice portrayal of the novel is that while part A is rather happy and almost inevitably paints a smile on your face, Part B creates a whole different impression; a darker mood which even if it still carries some of that previous party, it gives a more serious and dim light to the song. It seems just like the novel to me, two faces of one same thing. While on the outside, Gatsby is a gentleman of extravagant and luxuriant manner, happy and cheerful and on the 'inside', he's a bootlegger, a different kind of gentleman, which can only be imagined as walking out of lurid pub in the middle of the night, which parties, but in a darker and more 'underground' way. The two faces of Gatsby, seem to me, reflected on the two parts of the song; a beautiful analogy of notes and letters.