Caitlin

Podívat se vlastní smrtelnosti do očí není nic jednoduchého. Abychom se tomu vyhnuli, raději si zavazujeme oči a dobrovolně se straníme reality smrti a umírání. Jenže nevědomost není blažená, přináší jen větší hrůzu. Metaforický šátek na oči teď na chvíli odložte. Caitlin Doughtyová vypráví o šesti letech, které strávila prací v americkém pohřebnictví. Její upřímná, ironická a často i vtipná výpověď připomíná půlnoční výpravu na hřbitov. Autorka demystifikuje smrt a odpovídá na otázky, o nichž jste ani nevěděli, že je máte. Můžete chytit nemoc od mrtvoly? Kolik mrtvých se vejde do dodávky? Jak vypadá planoucí lebka? Pokud nechcete číst realistický popis smrti a mrtvých těl, vzali jste do ruky špatnou knihu. Můžeme ze všech sil vystrkat smrt na samý okraj zájmu, odkládat mrtvé za nerezové dveře a zavírat umírající do nemocničních pokojů. Dokážeme tak mistrně skrývat smrt, že byste skoro uvěřili, že jsme první nesmrtelná generace. Ale nejsme. Všichni umřeme a dobře to víme.

Fascinated by our pervasive fear of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for the dead. From Here to Eternity is an immersive global journey that introduces compelling, powerful rituals almost entirely unknown in America. In rural Indonesia, she watches a man clean and dress his grandfather's mummified body, which has resided in the family home for two years. In La Paz, she meets Bolivian natitas (cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skulls), and in Tokyo she encounters the Japanese kotsuage ceremony, in which relatives use chopsticks to pluck their loved-ones' bones from cremation ashes. With boundless curiosity and gallows humor, Doughty vividly describes decomposed bodies and investigates the world's funerary history. She introduces deathcare innovators researching body composting and green burial, and examines how varied traditions, from Mexico's Dias de los Muertos to Zoroastrian sky burial help us see our own death customs in a new light. Doughty contends that the American funeral industry sells a particular-and, upon close inspection, peculiar-set of "respectful" rites: bodies are whisked to a mortuary, pumped full of chemicals, and entombed in concrete. She argues that our expensive, impersonal system fosters a corrosive fear of death that hinders our ability to cope and mourn. By comparing customs, she demonstrates that mourners everywhere respond best when they help care for the deceased, and have space to participate in the process. Exquisitely illustrated by artist Landis Blair, From Here to Eternity is an adventure into the morbid unknown, a story about the many fascinating ways people everywhere have confronted the very human challenge of mortality.

Every day, funeral director Caitlin Doughty receives dozens of questions about death. What would happen to an astronaut's body if it was pushed out of a space shuttle? Do people poop when they die? Can Grandma have a Viking funeral? In the tradition of Randall Munroe's What If?, Doughty's new book, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?, blends her scientific understanding of the body and the intriguing history behind common misconceptions about corpses to offer factual, hilarious and candid answers to thirty-five urgent questions posed by her youngest fans. Readers will learn what happens if you die on an airplane, the best soil for mummifying your dog and whether or not you can preserve your friend's skull as a keepsake. Featuring illustrations from Dianne Ruiz, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? will delight anyone interested in the fascinating truth about what will happen (to our bodies) after we die.

As a practising mortician, Caitlin Doughty has long been fascinated by our pervasive terror of dead bodies. In From Here to Eternity she sets out in search of cultures unburdened by such fears. With curiosity and morbid humour, Doughty introduces us to inspiring death-care innovators, participates in powerful death practices almost entirely unknown in the West and explores new spaces for mourning - including a futuristic glowing-Buddha columbarium in Japan, a candlelit Mexican cemetery, and America's only open-air pyre. In doing so she expands our sense of what it means to treat the dead with 'dignity' and reveals unexpected possibilities for our own death rituals.

Ako horí lebka? Dá sa od mŕtvoly nakaziť smrteľnou chorobou? Koľko nebožtíkov sa vojde do jednej dodávky? Hoci dnešná spoločnosť rada predstiera, že smrť sa jej netýka, predsa len sú medzi nami jedinci, ktorí vyslovene túžia pracovať v krematóriu. Caitlin Doughty sa rozhodla otvoriť trinástu komnatu pre nezasvätených a pozýva nás na fascinujúcu morbídnu cestu plnú bizarných stretnutí a nepravdepodobných zážitkov. Po šiestich rokoch práce v americkom pohrebníctve teraz s čiernym humorom a zároveň smrteľne vážne píše o tom, čoho sa všetci bojíme a stránime až tak, že to deformuje našu kultúru. Alebo sme prvou nesmrteľnou generáciou? Kdeže! Jedno máme spoločné: Všetci raz zomrieme.