What Not To Do With My Remains

[dr_pretentious]

Until I started writing fiction, I didn't know I had an obsession with bizarre funerary customs. Grave goods, mummification, ritual grave robbing, cremation, burning boats, decorative ossuaries--bring it on, there's a place in the Big Book for all of it.

All of it except this.

It's not gross. It's perfectly worksafe. It won't give you nightmares. It might give you a good laugh. The basic premise isn't any weirder than mummification, really. Nonetheless...

I'm with seedmoon on this one. Whatever you do with me, don't do that.

Comments

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Now that I see all the different things that bug other people about these urns, I have to ask myself what exactly it is that bugs me. It's not the idea of keeping my dear ones in the house with me--it's not what anyone in my family wants done with their remains, but I can see how that would make sense for some people. It's not the hugging thing--I get the hugging thing. A lot of my objection is, as vgnwtch points out, the nauseating tweeness of the teddy bears. I wouldn't want anything that twee in my house, and I certainly wouldn't condemn someone I cared about to wear one for eternity.

My other objection is that a container for human remains really should not be mistakable for anything else. I can picture these teddy bears turning up in estate sales, flea markets, etc., and going home with innocent shoppers who don't know there's a dead person in there. That's so creepy, I have no desire to write a story in which it occurs.

[reynaud.livejournal.com]

I suppose the main thing is just makes the concept of death so ... cute. I've heard of many things that death can be thought of, from phobia inspiring to welcome, but cute seems so antithetical to me. No matter what you think happens after death, it is too dramatic a change for all involved to be reduced to a teddy bear.