The American way of death

What Hacker News says

1. pessimizerMay 2024
   > I think a huge part of it isnt even corporatism, but social and cultural avoidance and fear of death.

   These aren't mutually exclusive. It's like saying "I think a huge part of the desire for fashionable clothing isn't even fashion, but the fear of being ostracized or left behind by one's social circle." A natural source of fear and uncertainty is stoked by people who find opportunity to make a buck off it.

   "The American Way of Death" is a good book to read in that vein, although it's about the pointless, blindingly expensive ostentation of US burial rituals. The book was very successful and well-regarded; didn't change a thing.

   Show morethread
2. pessimizerJun 2023
   The American Way of Death by Jessica Mitford.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Way_of_Death

   thread
3. gPphXJan 2016
   by author:

   Beano (comic, ’50s)

   Private Eye (satirical magazine, ’60s – ’80s)

   Raw (comic, ’80s)

   Viz (comic, early ’80s)

   Paris Review, The - Writers At Work: The Paris Review Interviews edited by Malcolm Cowley

   Ackroyd, Peter - Hawksmoor

   Alighieri, Dante - Inferno

   Amis, Martin - Money

   Baldwin, James - Fire Next Time, The

   Barnes, Julian - Flaubert’s Parrot

   Bellow, Saul - Herzog

   Braine, John - Room At The Top

   Broyard, Anatole - Kafka Was The Rage

   Bulgakov, Mikhail - Master And Margarita, The

   Bulwer-Lytton, Edward - Zanoni

   Burgess, Anthony - A Clockwork Orange

   Burgess, Anthony - Earthly Powers

   Cage, John - Silence: Lectures And Writing

   Camus, Albert - Stranger, The

   Capote, Truman - In Cold Blood

   Carter, Angela - Nights At The Circus

   Chabon, Michael - Wonder Boys

   Chatwin, Bruce - Songlines, The

   Cohn, Nik - Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock

   Cork, Richard - David Bomberg

   Crane, Hart - Bridge, The

   Danto, Arthur C. - Beyond The Brillo Box

   DeLillo, Don - White Noise

   Diaz, Junot - Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, The

   Döblin, Alfred - Berlin Alexanderplatz

   Dos Passos, John - 42nd Parallel, The

   Edwards, Frank - Strange People

   Elliot, T.S. - Waste Land, The

   Faulkner, William - As I Lay Dying

   Figes, Orlando - A People’s Tragedy

   Fitzgerald, F. Scott - Great Gatsby, The

   Flaubert, Gustave - Madame Bovary

   Friedrich, Otto - Before The Deluge

   Gillete, Charlie - Sound Of The City: The Rise Of Rock And Roll, The

   Ginzburg, Eugenia - Journey Into The Whirlwind

   Guralnick, Peter - Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm And Blues And The Southern Dream Of Freedom

   Hall, James A. - Halls Dictionary Of Subjects And Symbols In Art

   Harding, Douglass - On Having No Head

   Hirshey, Gerri - Nowhere To Run The Story Of Soul Music

   Hitchens, Christopher - Trial Of Henry Kissinger, The

   Homer - Iliad

   Isherwood, Christopher - Mr. Norris Changes Trains

   Jacoby, Susan - Age Of American Unreason, The

   Jaynes, Julian - Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind, The

   Kerouac, Jack - On The Road

   Kidd, David - All The Emperor’s Horses

   Koestler, Arthur - Darkness At Noon

   Laing, R. D. - Divided Self, The

   Di Lampedusa, Giusseppe - Leopard, The

   Larson, Nella - Passing

   Lautréamont, Comte de - Maldodor

   Lawrence, D.H. - Lady Chatterly’s Lover

   Lebowitz, Fran - Metropolitan Life

   Lévi, Eliphas - Transcendental Magic, Its Doctine and Ritual

   Lewis, Wyndham - Blast

   Marcus, Greil - Mystery Train

   McEwan, Ian - In Between The Sheets

   Milligan, Spike - Puckoon

   Mishima, Yukio - Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, The

   Mitford, Jessica - American Way Of Death, The

   Nabokov, Vladimir - Lolita

   Norman, Howard - Bird Artist, The

   Norris, Frank - McTeague

   O’Hara, Frank - Selected Poems

   Orwell, George - 1984

   Orwell, George - Inside The Whale And Other Essays

   Packard, Vance - Hidden Persuaders, The

   Pagels, Elaine - Gnostic Gospels, The

   Paglia, Camille - Sexual Personae: Art And Decadence From Nefertiti To Emily Dickinson

   Petry, Ann - Street, The

   di Pirajno, Alberto Denti - A Grave For A Dolphin

   Priestley, J.B. - English Journey

   Rechy, John - City Of Night

   Sadecky, Peter - Octobriana And The Russian Underground

   Saunders, Ed - Tales Of Beatnik Glory

   Savage, Jon - Teenage

   Selby, Hubert Jr. - Last Exit To Brooklyn

   Spark, Muriel - Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, The

   Steiner, George - In Bluebeard’s Castle

   Stoppard, Tom - Coast Of Utopia, The

   Sylvester, David - Interviews With Francis Bacon

   Thomson, Rupert - Insult, The

   Thurman, Wallace - Infants Of The Spring

   Toole, John Kennedy - A Confederacy Of Dunces

   Waterhouse, Keith - Billy Liar

   Waters, Sarah - Fingersmith

   Waugh, Evelyn - Vile Bodies

   Weschler, Lawrence - Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonders

   West, Nathanael - Day Of The Locust, The

   White, Charles - Life And Times Of Little Richard, The

   Wilson, Colin - Outsider, The

   Wolf, Christa - Quest For Christa T, The

   Wright, Richard - Black Boy

   Yokoo, Tadanori - Tadanori Yokoo

   Zinn, Howard - A People’s History Of The United States

   Show morethread
4. pessimizerJul 2011
   May I recommend "The American Way of Death" by Jessica Mitford (the entirely human Mitford sister)?

   The basic story is that the funeral industry completely captured the regulating of the disposal of dead people a long, long time ago.

   thread
5. jalkMay 2019
   Jessica Mitford book "The American Way of Death" from 1963 is describe here https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/death/fond-farewells She documented the undertakers bumping up the prices as you describe (to put it mildly).

   I don't however know if the undertaker lobby has since managed to get embalmment mandatory / carteling with the graveyards

   thread