Death Salon

Welcome to another in our series of interviews with the organizers behind Death Salon. Each subject was interviewed by a fellow organizer or event coordinator. Here you will learn more about each participant’s contributions to the Salon, their own fascinating body of work and more about Death Salon itself.

Bess Lovejoy is a writer, researcher, and editor based in Seattle. She writes about death and the dead, forgotten history, and sometimes art, literature, and science. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time.com, The Believer, The Boston Globe, The Stranger, and other publications. She worked on the Schott’s Almanac series for five years. Her book Rest in Pieces: The Curious Fates of Famous Corpses is out now from Simon & Schuster.  

In the past year you’ve become the go-to death writer, with your work appearing in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Believer, and The Boston Globe. How did that all come about?

There are lots of great people writing about death right now, and I was lucky to have my 15 minutes. I’ve written as a freelance journalist ever since college, on and off. When my book came out last March, word got around, and a lot of wonderful editors asked me to write pieces. I think there was something in the air. The news helped: Arafat and Neruda being exhumed, the short-lived plans for Hugo Chavez to be permanently embalmed, and the discovery of Richard III’s skeleton, which is just astonishing.

Do you see your work in the foreseeable future being similarly focused on death & the macabre?

Probably. I think I’m actually more interested in mortality than in the macabre. Or put it this way: the macabre is very fun for me, but not something I’ll spend hours thinking about. But I find the fact that humans have to find a way to live with finitude endlessly fascinating. We’ve built a society that doesn’t deal very well with that, a society built on myths of endless progress and expansion, and I’d like for us to get more comfortable with our inevitable death and decay. You can’t cure death with science and technology, you can’t shop your way out it, you can’t bargain with it; it’s coming. As impossible as it is to reckon with that, I find it beneficial in my own life to keep trying, so the subject keeps drawing me back. Weirdly, I find death very relaxing.

You’re writer in residence at the Morbid Anatomy Library at the moment, correct?

Technically, that was just for July. I’m looking forward to having Joanna Ebenstein, the library’s mastermind, back in New York come September!

What is your fave historical dead body?

I love all my corpses equally. It’s really hard to pick a favorite, although I do have special fondness for Rasputin. There was something seriously magical about that guy; he obviously had great personal power and charisma. You can see it in his photos, some of which are terrifying. It’s still unclear to me how he was able to heal the tsar’s son even at a distance. The myth built up around his death–that he was impossible to kill–seems to be just a story, but it’s a great one. And the legends around his penis are even more entertaining. Supposedly it was severed after his murder and spirited away by emigres to Paris, who “worshipped” it. What possesses someone to steal another person’s penis? There’s a lot left to be explored in that story, not least the fact that the thing is supposedly now on display in St. Petersburg.

Can you give us a sneak peak of what you’ll be doing at Death Salon this year?

I’ll be talking a little about some of the stories in the book, but I also want to cover some subjects that were left out. There’s not a lot of women in Rest in Pieces, mostly because I focused on the very famous stories, and women generally haven’t gotten the same kind of attention in history. So I will be talking in particular about two women, Julia Pastrana and Saartjie Baartman. Both had unusual bodies in life and were displayed as “freaks” before and after death, and both are receiving renewed attention from scholars.

Caitlin Doughty is a licensed mortician and founder of the Order of the Good Death; creator and host of Ask A Mortician; event coordinator for Death Salon LA (2013).

First photograph of Bess Lovejoy by Pere Lachaise

Welcome to the next installment in our series of interviews with the fine folks behind Death Salon. In this case, we’ll be getting to know one of the musical performers gracing the stage of the Death Salon Cabaret at Bootleg Theater on Friday, October 18 (get tickets here). Each subject was interviewed by a fellow organizer or event coordinator. Here, you will learn more about each participant’s contributions to the Salon, their own fascinating body of work, and more about Death Salon itself.

Jill Tracy is a San-Francisco-based “neo-cabaret” performer who brings a darkly intellectual spirit to her theatrical performances. This year Jill played a “musical séance” in Los Angeles with Death Salon writer Colin Dickey. Jill is being interviewed by Death Salon organizer Megan Rosenbloom.

The wonderful Mütter Museum in Philadelphia has awarded you a grant to compose music inside the museum based on its medical oddities collection. Tell us about working there and the music that’s emerging from working in this rarefied atmosphere.

Yes, I’m thrilled to make history as the first musician to be given a grant to compose inside the Mütter. It’s been my dream come true to be alone at night in a museum in the dark with nothing but a piano, and an audience of skeletons, specimens and souls.

The Mütter Museum has always been one of my favorite places on earth. When I first visited, I remember vividly standing on the red-carpeted steps leading down to the lower level and hearing the buzz. It was overwhelming. All these people, all these stories, together—yet apart, remembered—yet forgotten. I was swept in a whirlwind of feelings: admiration, pity, fright, shock, respect, repulsion, sadness. I just wanted to sit and listen, to hear their tales, to know them.

It was vital for me to be in the presence of these long-lost souls, as I composed. I needed to immerse myself in their world, and make them a real part of the creation. This is my gift to them. 

You may read about Harry Eastlack, the ossified man, whose rare disease (FOP) caused his entire body to slowly transform into bone. Young, handsome, vibrant– painstakingly trapped beneath a second skeletal cage. In the end, he could only move his lips. What was he like? How did he cope? What was his day-to-day experience? It’s unfathomable to me. I was thrilled to be able to read through Harry’s private files in the Mütter collection, letters, photos, extensive doctors’ records.

I composed and recorded the song “Bone by Bone” as I sat next to Harry’s famed skeleton. I needed him with me, to truly be part of the song, and not just the subject matter.

One of the most moving pieces I’m creating is entitled “My First and Last Time Alone,” about conjoined brothers Chang and Eng Bunker. Most of us know them as the original Siamese Twins, gloriously renowned performers who toured the world (even appeared before presidents and Queen Victoria)—married sisters, fathered 21 children, and employed the use of a “privacy sheet.” But after doing research, I was completely devastated when I read how they died. The song is about that heartbreaking 3-hour period on a cold January night. (I won’t give the rest away!)

I was with Chang and Eng’s actual death cast, and their conjoined liver as I composed the piece. This was one of the most compelling experiences I’ve ever had. Abiding by the twins’ wishes, the liver was never separated, even after death.

The impetus for this whole project was The Mermaid Baby, housed in a jar in the Mütter’s Teratology collection. That little baby became my mascot, my confidante— I heard the theme in my head as I peered through the glass cabinet. The first piece of music I composed when the lights went out became a series of Teratology Lullabies. 

I will be creating a full length album based on the Mütter collection (some instrumentals recorded within its walls, plus fully arranged songs) and accompanying book— with photos, history, and memoir of my chilling experiences in the museum after dark.

I plan to perform some of this work-in-progress at Death Salon.

How did you get involved with making music for Dexter? How has it impacted your career?

I guess it can now be officially added to the Jill Tracy resume: “Created Dexter’s Final Bloody Requiem.” (How perfect is that for Death Salon?) Over the years, of any show on TV (and I don’t even own a TV) I always thought Dexter would be the perfect fit for my work. And obviously so did Showtime Networks—they sought me out to use my song “Evil Night Together” for  a trailer called “The Final Symphony” to promote the show’s wildly anticipated last season. I’m thrilled with how they edited the piece so musically; it really brings the song to life.  I hope it brings a lot more people around to discovering my music. It’s been interesting reading diverse online comments and tweets (over half a million YouTube hits)—from people asking what the song is—to my favorite: “Screw Dexter, I was into Jill Tracy way before HE was!” 

Has your interest in the macabre always coincided with your musical interests?

I’ve had a life-long romance with the shadows—the allure and seduction with the dark side, marvel, the ecstasy of melancholy. My work is about honoring the Mystery, and stories lost in Time. My music is indeed dark, but devastatingly beautiful. 

“I was given the book The Mysterious World when I was a child and when I first opened it, there was a picture of spontaneous human combustion. I had never heard of such a thing in my life. There’s that wonderful old photograph of Dr. John Irving Bentley who suddenly burst into flame. There’s a bit of his leg, with his foot still in a slipper, his walker, and cinders everywhere. This fascinated me. I was obsessed with Alfred Hitchcock, Bernard Herrmann, Ray Bradbury, Rod Serling, Jean Cocteau. I just wanted to live in those worlds. I still do.

Music allows me to create the emotional undercurrent, the portal to transport the listener into that magical place with me. I call it my “elegant netherworld.” Like peering through a keyhole to a world just out of your grasp. That’s what makes it seductive; creating that place––familiar yet oddly intriguing. 

In recent years, I wanted the audience to become even more a part of my process, and actually compose pieces in front of them, culled from their energy. The audience gives to me, and I channel it musically and give it right back, creating a piece that will exist solely for us in those few minutes, and then vanish. It’s the most powerful thing I’ve ever experienced. A musical umbilical cord. 

That led me to immersing myself in unusual locations laden with mysterious history, and manifesting music from my reaction to the environment. You are hearing my raw response at the piano. I call it “spontaneous musical combustion.”

I’ve found myself conjuring the hidden score inside haunted castles, abandoned asylums, decrepit mansions, gardens, theaters, and of course, now the Mütter Museum. It’s definitely one of my greatest pleasures right now.

What part of being involved with Death Salon are you looking forward to the most?

JT: Finally meeting so many of my internet “darklings” in the flesh! And meeting new kindred souls. Through the Death Salon community, I’ve become acquainted with the work of many brilliant artists, writers, historians, and have been fortunate to collaborate with a few (Colin Dickey, Bess Lovejoy, Mel Gordon, Annetta Black, Atlas Obscura, Loren Rhoads, more to come.) The thought of having everyone in one room together is downright swoon-inducing. Oh, the tales we’ll tell…

Jill Tracy is one of two musical acts performing at Death Salon Cabaret at Bootleg Theater October 18. Tickets are available for purchase now. You can also follow her on Twitter and Facebook. 

Megan Rosenbloom is a  librarian, photographer, Order of the Good Death member, and Chair of Death Salon LA (2013). Follow @LibraryatNight

Photo credits:

JT with skeleton photo by Farika

JT sepia on chair with bird photo by Michael Garlington

Welcome to another in our series of interviews with the organizers behind Death Salon. Each subject was interviewed by a fellow organizer or event coordinator. Here you will learn more about each participant’s contributions to the Salon, their own fascinating body of work and more about Death Salon itself.

Tell us about your area of research and academia.

I am now what they call an “alternative academic” or alt-ac. I manage the Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry journal (housed at Case Western Reserve University’s anthropology department) and I guest-curate and blog for the Dittrick Museum of Medical History (also at Case). In addition, I teach a class on the history of science for the SAGES program and help develop curriculum for medical humanities at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner School.

I like to use the term “medical humanities” to describe my work. That means I am interested in the intersections of medicine, history, and the humanities. I earned my PhD in 18^th century (and early 19^th century) literature, but that means being a historian of more than fiction. Particularly, I look at early electrical, neurological, and reproductive science. Scientific discovery and literature influences one another a lot,  and my current book project looks specifically at Gothic literature of the 18^th century and its relationship to those burgeoning sciences. Bonus: I get to spend a lot of time in graveyards.

How has interest in fiction as well as your own fiction influenced you and/or your career?

Stories are important. Without them, how would we approach self-knowledge or—just an importantly—share it with others? Every culture has stories specific to it that communicate cultural identity, social structures, spiritual connections and more. In the West, we have a tendency to privilege what we think of as true, non-fiction, rational accounts (we can blame the Enlightenment). The lens we use changes what we see—there are plenty of native peoples, for instance, who would consider the historical narratives of western expansion and progress patently untrue—a fiction that serves the teller. That is a negative example, but there are positive ones, too. Origin stories might be “fictional” in one sense, but entirely true in another. How many of us learned more about ourselves from reading our favorite novels as children than we did from studying non-fiction books about the psychology of the self? Fiction helps us understand the non-fictional world that surrounds us, and that is equally true for the study of history.

I have written fiction since I was a child. I grew up in an underground house next to a graveyard, so, you know—there was plenty of material. My artwork and my fiction always return to my roots. In addition, the conscious production of fiction encourages me to reflect on the other stories I hear: historical narratives, or scientific ones. You think, “decisions were made here about what to represent and how.” I have also realized the value of narrative in presenting history—and being a fiction writer has honed the descriptive language that allows me to make non-fiction stories come alive. This is also true of many of my favorite writers of historical fiction—Alex Grecian, Tessa Harris, Lynn Shepherd, Stephen Gallagher: they are giving you a fictional story, but they are also bringing history to life and providing a window into a forgotten time.

How did you get involved in Death Salon? How will you be participating?

I am one of the organizational and founding members of Death Salon, and along with a number of other talented folks (including this conference’s director Megan Rosenbloom), I hope to promote its futurity. At present, I am the communications chair, and I may be directing if Cleveland is the venue in 2015. I also write about death (history of grieving rituals, momento mori photography, etc.) and will be presenting on The Order of the Good Death salon day. The title is Death Becomes Her (inside and out); I’ll be talking about medical anatomies and the sexualization of the female corpse.

What part of Death Salon are you most looking forward to?

That is hard to say. It is such a joy watching our empryonic ideas take shape as a reality; every part of the Salon seems equally exciting to me. I am really looking forward to meeting other members in person, and to reconnecting with old friends. I am also really looking forward to the programming, and to the cabaret. So—I cheat: I look forward to the whole thing!

Elizabeth Harper is a Theatrical Designer, Relic mapper, armchair hagiographer,  and blogger of All the Saints You Should Know. Follow @CadaverFormosus

Welcome to the next in our series of interviews with the organizers behind Death Salon. Here you will learn more about each participant’s contributions to the Salon, their own fascinating body of work and more about Death Salon itself.

You work for the Norris Medical Library at USC. How did you get involved in the history of medicine and how do you see your work at the Norris Medical Library intersecting with Death Salon LA?

I’ve long had a fascination with rare books and science from a historical perspective, but I never thought I’d get to make a career out of it. During my interview at USC, they had the firing squad Q&A portion of the interview in the rare book room. While I bet it intimidates a lot of applicants to be surrounded by those dusty tomes, it made me feel right at home. I saw Hooke’s Micrographia on the shelf and thought to myself, “If I get this job, I’m going to make it my business to spend a lot of time in this wonderful room!” That’s exactly what has happened, more than I ever could have imagined, and for that I am so grateful. In addition to my non-history responsibilities, I teach class sessions where I take medical students on a hands-on tour of medical history via the books we have in the collection. Seeing their eyes widen when they realize that’s a 500-year-old book they’re touching, and understanding all that that means…that will never get old for me.

Some people might not understand why history of medicine is important for current medical students to interact with, but I would say that one of the best things it teaches is humility. When a student sees what these greats of medicine have accomplished (while still being totally wrong about very important things that current students might take for granted), they can gain perspective that perhaps they also might not know everything. I think one of the great aims of evidence-based medicine is to get doctors to say, “Let me double-check the evidence on that first…” Also knowing that there is so much more medical frontier left to be explored, and that certain concepts of diseases or treatments can be proven wrong in the future, could excite young doctors toward innovation.

Besides doing tours and lectures for students, I create exhibits for the library on historical themes and am active in the Archivists and Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences. I invite authors who write on history of medicine topics to come to speak at USC. I’m extremely excited to be interviewing Mary Roach on stage for USC’s Visions & Voices the night before Death Salon starts.

As one of the main organizers for Death Salon LA, what do you think is unique and important about this type of conference?

I’ve never organized a conference before, but I’ve been to a lot of them, large and small. I would say that starting something from scratch can be incredibly difficult because none of the logistic mechanisms are in place, so every day I have to make what feel like very big decisions about the way that Death Salon will go, and hope that I chose wisely. On the other hand, starting something from scratch that’s exactly what you and your colleagues want it to be is absolutely invigorating and worth the late nights slaving over Google Drive. 

Besides being a brand new conference, I think Death Salon is a special conference for a lot of reasons. The topic is both totally academic and at the same time incredibly personal to most people, because it is something we all grapple with in a concrete way in our lives. Because of that dichotomy, there are voices coming from many perspectives that deserve to be addressed and respected. Also it has become very clear to me over the process of organizing Death Salon that a huge cultural backlash is brewing against our modern death denial and how it leaves us ill-equipped for dealing with death when it comes into our lives. The artists and writers of Death Salon have felt this tide changing for some time, and have dealt with this issue in their work in fascinating and inspiring ways. We’ve been getting messages from people all over the world who are excited about what we’re doing because they are fed up with where death denial has taken us as a culture. Death Salon is just one step toward beginning to cure that societal ill.

What are you most looking forward to about Death Salon LA?

I’ve been working for months now with an inspiring group of authors, artists, and death professionals to get Death Salon off of the ground, but many of them I’ve never gotten to meet in person. I really look forward to getting to know these people that I somehow feel like I know well, but really only know over reams of emails and Twitter at-replies, perhaps over a death-themed cocktail or an LA craft beer. 

Andrea Wood  is an Assistant Professor researching transnational comics and animation, film, new media, fandom & feminist and queer theory. 

Welcome to another in our series of interviews with the organizers behind Death Salon. Each subject was interviewed by a fellow organizer or event coordinator. Here you will learn more about each participant’s contributions to the Salon, their own fascinating body of work and more about Death Salon itself.

Lindsey Fitzharris is a medical historian who completed her doctorate at Oxford University with a specialty in the history of seventeenth-century alchemical pharmacopeia. Her interests are broad and cross boundaries–more interestingly, she has helped to make medical history and medical artifacts accessible to a broad audience. Her current work includes the film documentary Medicine’s Dark Secrets! I have asked her to give us a few details on her present work, and to share with us her plans for the future and her role in Death Salon. Welcome, Lindsey!

You are, I know, a multi-faceted researcher with diverse interests. What brought you to Death Salon?

For years, I’ve been writing about subjects related directly or indirectly to death and dying on The Chirurgeon’s Apprentice, a website dedicated to the history of pre-anesthetic surgery. I am also about to begin filming a television documentary called “Medicine’s Dark Secrets.” At its core, I want to explore the development of early modern surgery by telling the stories of the people who died and the surgeons who cut up their dead bodies in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. Our medical heritage can be dark and macabre, but it’s important to acknowledge what went on in the past, and how it contributed to our understanding of human anatomy.

It’s through these projects that I came to know Caitlin Doughty, and was invited to become a member of The Order of the Good Death. From this community of scholars, artists, musicians, writers and funeral directors, the concept for the Death Salon was born.

Do you think an organization like this one is important? How and why?

As a medical historian, I am acutely aware of the fact that we interact with death in very different ways than people interacted with death in the past.  At the moment, I am in the process of writing an article on Kate Granger, a 31-year-old doctor who is dying of a rare form of cancer. We’ve discussed everything from concepts of the “good death” to whether or not dying has become over-medicalized in Western culture.

These are subjects which will also be explored at the Death Salon. For me, it is important that we open up a dialogue about mortality so that we can begin to accept (and own) what ultimately is our collective fate.

Spoiler alert: Death plays a big role in the ending!

Given your work, how do you see yourself fitting into Death Salon?

Well, given my strange occupation, I don’t fit into most organizations in any obvious way!

I suppose the one thing I can offer, though, is historical perspective: a sense that our struggles with death and our fears of dying are nothing new. I find a lot of comfort in this thought.

How might the “salon” style of the organization benefit broader outreach?

For me, this is the appeal of the event as it allows us to draw from all kinds of people, each of whom provide a different perspective on the subjects which we’ll be exploring at the Death Salon. How a musician like Jill Tracy, for instance, interprets death is going to be very different to how someone like Jeff Jorgenson—owner of Elemental Cremation & Burial—tackles the subject at the event.

I’m really looking forward to hearing from the participants, and seeing how their work will inspire me in my own writing.

Where do you hope to see Death Salon in the future?

I think the opportunities are endless. I hope to see events such as this spring up all over the world. In fact, I am currently talking with Carla Connolly—the curator of Bart’s Pathology Museum in London—about potentially organizing a Death Salon in the UK in 2014.

I don’t see the Death Salon dying off anytime soon.

Ah, always end an interview with a strong joke.

–Thank you, Lindsey! We look forward to seeing you at the Salon!

Brandy Schillace, PhD, is the managing editor of Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, an international journal of cross-cultural health research. She is also the author of the Fiction Reboot and Literary Medicine’s Daily Dose blogs which can be found at bschillace.wordpress.com . In addition, Brandy the Guest Curator for the Dittrick Museum of Medical History. 

It brings me great pleasure to finally bring our fledgling conference to the light of the Internet. Death Salon LA is a gathering of intellectuals, artists, and death professionals from around the world, coming together to discuss mortality and its cultural implications.

The idea for Death Salon LA came about when the new round of inductees to the Order of the Good Death and other like-minded folks wanted to meet each other and talk about each other’s work. One thing led to another, and now Death Salon LA is a full fledged conference, with public symposia, short film, and musical performances. We will also be bringing attendees the best of morbid LA by providing wares from like-minded local businesses at our events. If you’re interested in having a pop-up shop at our event or for providing beverages or food, we’d love to hear from you.

Our preliminary list of impressive presenters hail from all over the world and from many different perspectives. Friday’s programming is being curated by Caitlin Doughty, star of Ask a Mortician and leader of The Order of the Good Death. Joanna Ebenstein of Morbid Anatomy Library will curate Saturday’s programming, which will include many contributors to the wildly successful Morbid Anatomy Anthology. Sunday there will be a thematically-appropriate field trip hosted by our friends at Atlas Obscura. Keep an eye out on our meetings page for updates on the weekend’s presenters…the list just keeps getting better and better!

We’re very excited to be hosting the daytime Death Salon events at the Center for Inquiry in Hollywood. CFI is a great organization that helps foster the kind of discussion we at Death Salon like to encourage. Also, there is free parking on-site, which for Hollywood is nothing short of a miracle! We are still in search of a good theater space for Friday evening’s Death Salon Cabaret, it is going to be a killer event, so if anyone has tips or suggestions for a venue, we’re all ears.

Thanks to everyone for their interest and enthusiasm about Death Salon LA, we’re looking forward to bringing you a fun and thought provoking weekend that promotes death acceptance and scholarship. Feel free to contact us with any questions or comments at deathsalonla at gmail dot com.

We hope to see you the weekend of October 18th in LA, we’ll have a lot to discuss!

– Megan Rosenbloom, Death Salon LA