About this item
In the tradition of Being Mortal, Brandy Schillace looks at what we can learn from the incredibly diverse ways in which humans have dealt with mortality in different times and placesDeath is something we all confront -- it touches our families, our homes, our hearts. And yet we have grown used to denying its existence, treating it as an enemy to be beaten back with medical advances.We are living at a unique point in human history. People are living longer than ever, yet the longer we live, the more taboo and alien our mortality becomes. Yet we, and our loved ones, still remain mortal. People today still struggle with this fact, as we have done throughout our entire history. What led us to this point? What drove us to sanitize death and make it foreign and unfamiliar?Schillace shows how talking about death, and the rituals associated with it, can help provide answers. It also brings us closer together -- conversation and community are just as important for living as for dying. Some of the stories are strikingly unfamiliar; others are far more familiar than you might suppose. But all reveal much about the present -- and about ourselves. B&W illustrations throughout
About the Author
Historian and author Brandy Schillace writes about intersections of medicine, history, and literature. And steampunk. And vampires. (Let's not forget vampires.) Brandy works as Research Associate and Public Engagement Fellow for the Dittrick Museum of Medical History and Managing Editor of Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry. Her most recent non-fiction work, DEATH'S SUMMER COAT (E&T UK, Pegasus US) , explores cultural approaches to death and dying. Fiction includes short stories and the Jacob Maresbeth Chronicles (Coop Press) about a teen with a blood disorder and his struggle to be "normal" (or at the very least, *not* to be burned at the stake) . Brandy's current book project explores the science behind steampunk--that clockwork genre of gadgets and gizmos (and Victorian debonair) . You can find the TEDx talk at http://www.tedxcle.com/brandy-shillace/ --or visit her blog, the Fiction Reboot | Daily Dose. Brandy also writers for Huffington Post, InsideHigherEd, H-net, and the Centre for Medical Humanities. She has been an invited lecturer for the Health Sciences Library of University at Buffalo, University College of Dublin, Manchester University, and the New York Academy of Medicine, and she gives talks more locally at PechaKucha Cleveland, the Dittrick Museum and Cleveland Clinic. When she isn't researching automatons, writing fiction, taking over the world (or herding cats) she teaches as a SAGES fellow for Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Schillace is represented by Jessica Papin at Dystel and Goderich Literary Management.http://brandyschillace.com/http://fictionreboot-dailydose.com/@bschillace
