That’s what’s so frightening. Because it feels wonderful. Sensory deprivation, when you need it most. It’s an off-switch from all that’s outside. And wherever you go, it stays with you.
suicide
How we’re dying
Catching up on my RSS, seeing these two from Marginal Revolution in close succession caught my attention. I had no idea:
Suicides outnumber homicides in the United States by 3:1.
Prescription painkillers now kill more Americans than heroin and cocaine combined, according to the CDC.
:( Take care.
The Virgin Suicides
The Virgin Suicides. I liked this one. Quite a debut. Themes include boys obsessing over girls on their way to womanhood, the fascination with death, the penumbra of loss that affects a community, etc. I like the tie-in with the dying elms, leaving mute, immovable stumps in the yards. And while I often cringe at moments when films use popular song, I thought the inclusions of Heart’s Magic Man and Crazy On You were inspired. If there’s any complaint, some parts were too overt. You don’t need a narrator intoning, “And so we started to learn about their lives, coming to hold collective memories of times we hadn’t experienced” when that’s clearly suggested on the screen. Small quibble though. Worth watching. I wonder how the book compares.
He chose a way of death guaranteed to bring down a hailstorm of prying analytical chatter far in excess of anything he had experienced while he was alive. This is the paradoxical allure of suicide: to leave the chattering world behind and yet to stage-manage the exit so that one is talked about in the right way.
Alex Ross on Kurt Cobain. From the obituary that first appeared with slightly different wording in the New Yorker. [$]
It’s not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.
A good death: Exit strategies – By William T. Vollmann (Harper’s Magazine)
This nice essay on dying is behind a paywall, unfortunately. It’s the best thing in this month’s issue. Interesting blend of essay/memoir/reporting.
A good death: Exit strategies – By William T. Vollmann (Harper’s Magazine)
T.I. helped save Midtown Atlanta jumper’s life — really | Fresh Loaf | Creative Loafing Atlanta
The redemptive power of music!
T.I. helped save Midtown Atlanta jumper’s life — really | Fresh Loaf | Creative Loafing Atlanta
The Living Dead
“David Foster Wallace speaks to us from beyond the grave in David Lipsky’s Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself—but should we be listening?”
Suicide has an event gravity; eventually everybody’s impressions get tugged in its direction. It’s such a hard end it reaches back and scrambles the beginning.
