For the post mortem amusement of…
Posted by Vale Richard Brautigan was a writer and a poet. He died not long ago, which makes this poem very timely. Ed Dorn wrote it ‘for the post mortem amusement of Richard Brautigan’. Let’s hope he is: A B H O R RE N C E S November 10, 1984 Death by over-seasoning: Herbicide […]
Disinherited!
Posted by Vale Once in a while, looking around, it dawns on you that getting to the kitchen has become an obstacle course; setting off for the bedroom an orienteering event. It’s the moment you realise that your books have stopped furnishing your rooms and begun – like a literary occupy movement – to take […]
New Orleans comes to London
Posted by Vale Celebrant Kim Farley went to Abram Wilson’s memorial service a week or so ago. He was a young American Jazz Musician who died unexpectedly aged just 38. She writes: ‘There was a procession from the South Bank to St John’s in Waterloo and once inside the relative cool of the packed church, […]
The Common and the particular
Posted by Vale I like these men and women who have to do with death, Formal, gentle people whose job it is, They mind their looks, they use words carefully. I liked that woman in the sunny room One after the other receiving such as me Every working day. She asks the things she must […]
Before I die
Posted by Vale At the Southbank Deathfest in January one of the best features was the wall that invited people to write down what it was that they wanted to do before they died. The idea began in New Orleans when artist Candy Chang pasted the first ‘Before I Die’ wall on the side of […]
What Is Left
What is Left is a participatory portraiture project being made by Leeds-based artist Ellie Harrison, photographer Roshana Rubin Mayhew and 50 members of the public. Working with individuals, community groups and bereavement charities, Ellie and Roshana wil generate 50 portraits with corresponding texts in collaboration with participants. Photographed in their own homes with objects they […]
Picturing Hell – in Lego bricks
Posted by Vale We all wonder about what might happen to us when we die. Well, Dante had the lowdown. While the rest of us wander lost in the woods, he described Hell, Purgatory and Heaven in great detail. The funny thing is that while we might hope for heaven, we all have the sneaking […]
What I will and wont miss by Norah Ephron
Posted by Vale Writer and director Norah Ephron died this week. Called an artist of consolation, she is remembered for comedies like Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry Met Sally, but also wrote screenplays for the more serious Silkwood, fiction and a huge number of books, articles and blog posts. In I Remember Nothing she left […]
Dancing the Macabray
Posted by Vale In Neil Gaiman’s great children’s book ‘The Graveyard Book,’ Bod, a little boy growing up amongst the dead, dances the ‘Macabray’. It is Gaiman’s own version of the Danse Macabre where, in this instance, the dead and the living dance together. In the audiobook version every chapter is introduced by this lovely […]
A modern Danse Macabre
Posted by Vale The tradition for images of the Danse Macabre is of death alongside all of the different classes and stations in society. The message is clear – he is coming for us all. Here is a more recent version of the old tradition in a series of terrific woodcuts from the artist Hermann-Paul […]
