“From Here to Eternity” Book Discussion | SF
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Green Apple Books on the Park | 1231 9th Ave, San Francisco, CA
Event Details
Submitted by the Event Organizer
Caitlin Doughty discusses her new book, From Here to Eternity.
About From Here to Eternity:
Fascinated by our pervasive terror of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for their dead. In rural Indonesia, she observes a man clean and dress his grandfather’s mummified body. Grandpa’s mummy has lived in the family home for two years, where the family has maintained a warm and respectful relationship. She meets Bolivian natitas (cigarette- smoking, wish- granting human skulls), and introduces us to a Japanese kotsuage, in which relatives use chopsticks to pluck their loved- ones’ bones from cremation ashes. With curiosity and morbid humor, Doughty encounters vividly decomposed bodies and participates in compelling, powerful death practices almost entirely unknown in America. Featuring Gorey-esque illustrations by artist Landis Blair, From Here to Eternity introduces death-care innovators researching green burial and body composting, explores new spaces for mourning― including a glowing- Buddha columbarium in Japan and America’s only open-air pyre― and reveals unexpected new possibilities for our own death rituals. 45 illustrations
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Cost: FREE
Categories: Literature