In this episode of the Imaginary Worlds podcast, host Eric Molinsky and his guests ponder various personifications of Death in fantasy fiction: Sometimes Death is portrayed as a Grim Reaper, but Death doesn’t have to be grim. Death can be compassionate, and even funny. And more often in recent years, Death has been depicted as … Read more“Befriend the Reaper”
Historian Torri Yates-Orr and mythologist John Bucher of the Skeleton Keys podcast discuss the mythology of death, as well as Thanatos, Hel, Gede, the Grim Reaper, and the afterlife.
My new art project, the Omar’s Rubaiyat Contemplation Cards deck, is now available. Oh, come with old Khayyám, and leave the Wise To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies; One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies; The Flower that once has blown for ever dies. ― Attributed to Omar Khayyam (1048-1131) … Read moreOmar’s Rubaiyat Contemplation Cards
The inestimable Stephen Jenkinson on the subject of death as a god: Some minority of people simply had found, or stumbled across, or backed into, a willingness to engage their death as a god. Not that anybody ever said it that way. And the god of death is a god, as is the god of … Read more“Stephen Jenkinson reimagines dying” (2018)
Gaiman has written of his Death character that: The mythology of “Sandman” (…) includes in it seven entities who are not gods, who are not worshiped, but are essentially more powerful than gods, because gods die when they are forgotten, but the Endless are always there, and one of those seven is Death. (…) I … Read moreDeath of the Endless (“The Sandman”, 2022)
I encountered this imposing but clearly benevolent fellow while exploring our new neighborhood and was reminded of one of Hugo Simberg’s “Death Series” images:
I continuously dreamed of skulls — I’d be riding on a skull motorcycle, driving a skull car, living in a skull house. Because these experiences of mine were previews of death — what we will all see when Mr. Death taps us on the shoulder. The skulls express the ego death of the transcendental state … Read moreManWoman, Mr. Death and Church Punk
Max Tobin reports for the BBC on recent scientific research into the state between clinical death and brain death, suggesting that the mind’s final minutes may be more active, interesting and even fun than might have been assumed.
Folk banjoist Clifton Hicks conjures the Appalachian Reaper, “Old Leatherstocking”, in these memento mori songs from his album of that title.
My Way of Life and Death draws significant inspiration from the mid-late 20th century American counterculture, which began and flowered (for most practical purposes) in Northern California. Above is a selection of joke courses “offered” by the Communiversity, an experimental San Franciscan free school. The “Deathskool” curriculum is a parody of the type of courses … Read moreDeathskool (1976)