An Overdue Update

Times Square electronic sunset

I’ve recently been chastised for my absence from this blog (I won’t name names), and just when I thought no one was paying attention! I think all internet-enabled writers know the difficulty of juggling their paid work, creative projects, and social media efforts, which ideally overlap and cross-pollinate, but also distract from one another. Also, it’s hard to sit in a chair for more than ten hours a day. Nevertheless, I’ve been remiss in keeping all of you updated. Here’s a bit about what I’ve been up to:

• In late November I wrote an Op-Ed for the New York Times about Yasser Arafat’s exhumation. The focus was on ethical issues surrounding exhumations, which are discussed less frequently than I’d like. If you’re interested in the subject, also check out “Alas, Poor Yorick: Digging Up the Dead to Make Medical Diagnoses” by Deborah Hayden, the debates about research on ancient mummies, and the wonderfully in-depth article Tales from the Crypt: Scientific, Ethical, and Legal Considerations for Biohistorical Analysis of Deceased Historical Figures.
• I appeared on the CBC Radio Show Day 6 with Brent Bambury, my first Rest in Pieces–related radio interview. Since I’m a dual citizen (US/Canada), I was tickled that the Canadians were the first to record a segment with me about the book. That day I also had the pleasure of meeting author Simon Winchester, whose new book (and app) Skulls is obviously right up my alley.

  

  Prop from Simon Winchester’s talk at Town Hall Seattle (note the scrawl)

• I also just returned from a packed trip to New York, where I finally got to meet the fantastic team working on my book Rest in Pieces: The Curious Fates of Famous Corpses. We shot a little interview, which you should hopefully be able to see in a few weeks. I’m also planning events in NYC for the book’s release in March (and possibly other cities), so stay turned for details, as well as a website, trailer, and Facebook for the book. (Psst: you can pre-order it here.)
• My New York carousing also included attending a lecture on Sicilian sex ghosts (see here for a great Q & A with presenter Paul Koudounaris) at Observatory in Brooklyn, an event that did double-duty as a birthday party for Morbid Anatomy’s truly amazing Joanna Ebenstein. The day before, Joanna and Colin Dickey‘s Morbid Anatomy Anthology Kickstater fundraising campaign ended a spectacularly successful run, which means you can expect a beautiful volume forthcoming from them, and more on the way.

  

  Morbid Anatomy Library

• I also got to hang out with the entirely excellent curator and blogger Pam Grossman, whose blog Phantasmaphile you should definitely peruse if you’re into fantastical, surreal, or occult art (or just general awesomeness). I’ve also heard word that Pam is cooking up an occult-themed conference at NYU, so stay tuned for news on that.
• Other cultural treats on this trip included getting a sneak peak at Sophie Blackall‘s illustrations for The Nine Lives of Alexander Baddenfield, a childrens’ book she’s working on with John Bemelmans Marciano (I’ve helped with research for some of John’s books for adults). If you appreciate Edward Gorey and Lemony Snicket, this book is going to be a real treat.
• In other news: I’m honored to have been invited to join The Order of the Good Death. From our fearless leader, Ask a Mortician star Caitlin Doughty, who helped out with the appendix in Rest in Pieces:

The Order is about making death a part of your life. That means committing to staring down your death fears–whether it be your own death, the death of those you love, the pain of dying, the afterlife (or lack thereof), grief, corpses, bodily decomposition, or all of the above. Accepting that death itself is natural, but the death anxiety and terror of modern culture are not.

• I’ve been working on editing a few projects for the Port Townsend publishers Feral House, including a fantastic forthcoming encyclopedia of black metal by Dayal Patterson. It’s got everything you want to know about the controversial genre, from the origin of corpse paint to the 70s glam metal band that inspired most of the Norwegian second wave. Feral House, of course, are the same folks who previously published Lords of Chaos, which both disturbed and fascinated the 18-year-old me.
• Last but not least, congratulations to the curious and wondrous Atlas Obscura, the world’s most awesome travel-related website, on their re-design! You can see my spotlight on Einstein’s brain in their “Objects of Intrigue” series.

If you made it to the end of that, you get a gold star. Or maybe a skull in a jar, like the beautiful one (made of netting?) I saw at ABC Carpet & Home during the trip. More news, and skulls, soon!

Skull from ABC Carpet & Home (artist unknown)

Osama’s body and the power of shrines

It now seems clear that the hasty disposal of OBL’s body at sea wasn’t strictly about Islamic tradition. The Associated Press has quoted Muslim scholars criticizing the burial, including Dubai’s grand mufti Mohammed al-Qubaisi, who said:

“If the family does not want him, it’s really simple in Islam: You dig up a grave anywhere, even on a remote island, you say the prayers and that’s it.”

“Sea burials are permissible for Muslims in extraordinary circumstances,” he added. “This is not one of them.”

Over on the BBC, there’s a nice article that gets to the heart of the matter:

US officials were at pains to insist that the process was conducted in “strict conformance with Islamic precepts and practices”.

But the purpose of his burial at sea was clear – to ensure that there was no grave to become a shrine for supporters, and a recruiting tool for extremist Islamism.

As the BBC notes, such concerns are not new. The body of a dead leader holds an enormous amount of symbolic weight that is often manipulated by leaders left alive. The article notes the example of Lenin’s corpse, embalmed soon after his death and on display in Moscow ever since. It’s worth pointing out that Lenin never wanted to be preserved this way — he considered it “vulgar” to worship the remains of dead leaders. But Stalin knew a great propaganda opportunity when he saw one.

While it seems doubtful that bin Laden would have gotten a monument to match Lenin’s, the US government wasn’t taking any chances. To destroy a person’s life, then their grave, is a double obliteration that serves political ends. The BBC notes the fascinating example of Muhammad Ahmad, a 19th century Sudanese religious leader and enemy of the British:

Ahmad was not killed in a British raid – he died of typhus. But Lord Kitchener destroyed his tomb to prevent it becoming a rallying point for disciples and had his bones thrown into the Nile.

Meanwhile, a parallel discussion is taking place about the photos of Osama’s corpse. The first photo that circulated was revealed to be a fake. For a few days, the administration said they possessed images of of OBL’s corpse, but were hesitant to release them. About an hour ago, Obama said that he had decided not to release the photos after all:

After intense discussions with his national security team, Mr. Obama decided that the photos were too graphic and could further enflame Bin Laden’s followers, according to Mr. Carney, but would not change the minds of skeptics. Mr. Obama indicated in the interview that gloating by releasing the photos “is not who we are,” Mr. Carney said.

(Sadly, the images of American celebrating OBL’s death with drunken shenanigans have already done plenty to tell the world “who we are.”)

It seems likely the photo(s), or a faked version, will surface somehow. On Twitter, the brilliant Colin Dickey, author of Cranioklepty, wondered: “Per John Berger’s comments on Che Guevara’s corpse & Mantegna’s Christ, I am interested what Renaissance painting the OBL photo references.”

Berger’s essay “The Image of Imperialism” makes for some spooky, and recommended, reading right now. In it, Berger compares the photo of the dead Che to Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson:

Here is the photo of Che, from the Pbase galleries:

Berger goes on to compare the photo of Che to Rembrandt’s The Anatomy Lesson:

As well as Mantegna’s Lamentation of Christ:

The Pbase site makes some good points about the history of the Che photo:

Unenthused by his efforts to incite revolution among the poor and oppressed in Bolivia, the nation’s army (trained and equipped by the U.S. military and the CIA) captured and executed Guevara in 1967. But before dumping his body in a secret grave, they gathered around for a strategic photo op. They wanted to prove to the world that Che was dead, in hopes that his political movement would die with him. in fact, anticipating charges that the photo had been faked, Che’s thoughtful captors amputated his hands and preserved them in formaldehyde.

But by killing the man, Bolivian officials unwittingly birthed his legend. The photo, which circulated around the world, bore a striking resemblance to Renaissance paintings of Christ taken down from the cross. Even as Che’s killers preened and gloated above him (the officer on the right seems to be inadvertently pointing to a wound on Guevara’s body near where Christ’s final wound was inflicted), Che’s eerily peaceful face was described as showing forgiveness. The photo’s allegorical significance certainly wasn’t lost on the revolutionary protesters of the era. They quickly adopted “Che lives!” as a slogan and rallying cry. Thanks to this photograph, “the passion of the Che” ensured that he would live on forever as a martyr for the socialist cause.

There are likely many reasons behind the decision not to release the photos of Osama’s corpse. But perhaps the 1967 photo of Che served as a cautionary tale?

What happened to Osama bin Laden’s body?

Update 3:45: The similarities between the disposal of bin Laden’s body and Eichmann’s ashes (by Israel) and the Nuremberg defendants (by Germany) are obvious. See this article from Ha’aretz:

No ‘holy tomb’

The prime minister brought up an additional issue: the question of Eichmann’s body. What should be done with it? Ben-Gurion’s position was decisive: “We don’t need for the place where [Eichmann] is buried to become a holy site and we shouldn’t give the body to the family.” Dov Yosef suggested dealing with the body “like at Nuremberg – they incinerated the bodies and scattered the ashes.” Ben-Gurion, who was afraid of a “holy tomb” reaction, was sharp: “This is what I wanted, that not a trace of him will remain.”

Update 3:15pm PST May 2: New York magazine also reports that the DNA match was made by comparing bin Laden’s DNA to that of his dead sister, who died on US soil.

U.S. officials say that DNA evidence confirms with 99.9 percent accuracy that it was indeed the body of Osama bin Laden shot and killed in Abbottabad yesterday. The DNA match was made by comparing physical evidence from bin Laden’s sister. According to the Telegraph, after she died of brain cancer at Massachusetts General Hospital years earlier, the FBI immediately subpoenaed her body so that it could later be used to identify him if he was caught. Her brain was preserved, and blood and tissue samples were taken and used to compile a DNA profile, reports ABC News. Detailed photo analysis as well as matching features and height (he was six foot four) also helped confirm the identity of the Al Qaeda leader.

And just as many Twitter users suspected, the photo of Osama’s corpse is now being reported as a fake. The Guardian says:

The image is based on a genuine photograph of Bin Laden taken in 1998 and used by the Reuters news agency.

On Twitter, a composite including the other photograph used to make the image was posted by @HannahMarbina and other users showed how easy it was to find the image already online with a simple search.

Update at 2:45pm PST May 2: Slate’s ever-useful Explainer column explains whether we always bury enemies of state at sea (the short answer: no.) And Islamic scholars have been criticizing bin Laden’s sea burial, according to the Associated Press. The BBC has the most details about what actually happened: “Religious rites were carried out on the deck of a US aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson. The body, shrouded in a white sheet and placed in a weighted bag, was then placed on a flat board, tipped up, and eased into the Arabian Sea.” Politico says the shroud itself was weighted.

It’s been a fascinating evening, and I’ve been glued to my Twitter stream. Since I can’t stop looking for information about what happened to Osama’s body, I’ll live-blog it here as I find it. (Update: 2:15 am PST — The links below have been re-arranged and edited into a more sensible order, for those interested in piecing together the story. The information is presented roughly in the order I found it, not necessarily the order in which it broke. I’m going to bed!)

News of Osama Bin Laden’s death broke on Twitter, at about 7:30 PST. (See Mashable’s timeline of tweets.)

CNN says forces used “facial recognition work, amongst other things, to confirm the identity” of Osama bin Laden.”

US officials were quick to confirm that the body was being treated in accordance with Islamic practice. (This is actually required by the Geneva conventions.)

From Wikipedia, which already has its own “Death of Osama bin Laden” entry: ABC news is reporting that the body has been identified, though Reuters says DNA results won’t be available for a few days.

The Guardian has an entire article about the difficulties of dealing with Osama’s corpse: “And where to send Bin Laden’s remains? His large extended family in Saudi Arabia have largely distanced themselves from him.”

The latest news (as of 12:33) is that the body has been buried at sea. On Twitter, I’m seeing some skepticism about a burial before DNA analysis, but I can see every reason why the administration would want to dispose of this body quickly. Holding the body of a dead leader is like a game of hot potato — just ask the folks who dealt with Eva Peron’s corpse.

NYT is also reporting that Osama was buried at sea.

CBS is saying that the body was buried at sea in order to adhere to “Muslim traditions, which include strict rules on burial taking place within 24 hours after death.”

The Associated Press explains the sea burial: Muslim customs require burial within 24 hours, plus “Finding a country willing to accept the remains of the world’s most wanted terrorist would have been difficult.” (Background note: The Encyclopedia of Death and the Human Experience has a page on Muslim funeral customs: burial within 24 hours is definitely a priority.)

@AaronFleishman on twitter directed me to this list of Muslim burial laws. Death in the ground is preferable, but burial at sea is ok in some circumstances, especially if mutilation of the body is a concern.

The conspiracy theory is already flowing thick and fast on Twitter. The burial at sea seems to strike people as a bit fishy — no pun intended.

Other famous burials at sea (usually of ashes): Albert Einstein (well, most of him), Janis Joplin, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Jerry Garcia (according to Grave Matters). And of course, lots and lots of Vikings.