Really, it would be best if there were more artful and none-too-subtle reminders of death posted around our transportation infrastructure, crosses at sites where drunk driver related fatalities notwithstanding. posted by Burhanistan at 7:04 AM on October 28, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]
were link #1 and link #2 meant to be the same link? (she said, hoping for more purdy pictures) posted by dabitch at 7:09 AM on October 28, 2008
I'd not seen this particular Totentanz before: thanks 445supermag. Here's an old post about Totentanzen in general. posted by misteraitch at 7:35 AM on October 28, 2008
445supermag, thanks for this post. That bridge is awesome in its beauty, its age and the fact it hasn't been graffittied over in the 600 years it's been around.
Lucerne, where that beautiful bridge stands is a really lovely provincial town. Along with Fribourg in southern Switzerland, it's my favorite town in that country. I love the wounded lion statue there.
Apparently large spiders have been known to spin impressive webs in the Kapellbrücke's and Spreuerbrücke's rafters.
Yes, our lives are fragile, death is a constant. Interesting that the responses to this have traditionally been penitence out of fear of hell or hedonistic hysteria. I guess people get off on wild and destructive emotional pendulums? Why not an adult contemplation of the mystery and amazingness of impermanence as a source of compassion and spaciousness?
Death must have been a strange thing to try and understand without science. "The deathly horrors of the 14th Century—such as recurring famines, the Hundred Years' War in France and, most of all, the Black Death—were culturally digested throughout Europe."
My favorite dialogue between Death and humans is in Monty Python's Meaning of Life when the Grim Reaper comes to the party.
Fascinating to learn the etymology of la danse macabre: The French term danse macabre most likely derives from Latin Chorea Machabæorum, literally "dance of the Maccabees". 2 Maccabees, a deuterocanonical book of the Bible in which the grim martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons is described
I wish there were updated Dances of Death 2008, "to remind people of the inevitability of death and to advise them strongly to be prepared all times for death". Not the death dramarama of TV but just plain death, the kind that comes to us all. I found that having cancer people sort of think one can fight the illness, fight death. Yeah sure, you try and fight death. With what? Cheerful disposition?! ha! Or that death only happens to people with cancer or to really old people and anything before that is Wrong, that there is a Perfect Way To Die which includes total comfort, fluffy pillows and just the right ambiance and if you don't achieve that it's your fault for Not Doing Death The Right Way.
It would be awesome to have those paintings in a bridge, where people walk regularly, reminded provocatively of life's impermanence.
Beware of The Blob, it creeps
And leaps and glides and slides
Across the floor
Right through the door
And all around the wall
A splotch, a blotch
Be careful of The Blob!
--- Burt Bacharach and Hal David posted by SPrintF at 12:44 PM on October 28, 2008
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posted by cog_nate at 6:59 AM on October 28, 2008 [13 favorites has favorites]