So here we reach the end of From Here to Eternity. Doughty finishes off the book with some of her thoughts, so I’ll do the same with mine. Did this book change my views on death? I think it did. Am I comfortable with death now? I don’t really know
After Caitlin Doughty’s around-the-world death exploration, she returns to her home in California to cover one final death. A woman was to receive a natural burial in Joshua Tree, California, facilitated by her funeral home. She was simply wrapped in a cotton shroud and placed in a three-foot-deep hole in
I’m back! At least for now. I’m on spring break and I’m a little farther from the fast-paced stressful studies that were taking such a toll on my mental health. So, as we dive back into Caitlin Doughty’s travels in search of the good death, we go to La Paz, Bolivia.
Caitlin Doughty describes Japan’s death culture as looking at her own world through a looking glass. It’s similar but noticeably different. While Americans have become much more fearful around death and dead bodies in recent years, the Japanese have become more comfortable. However, it’s impossible to discuss Japan’s culture around
Caitlin Doughty takes her travels to Barcelona, Spain, which she calls a land of “almost.” The Altima funeral home puts all of the bodies that they deal with into wooden coffins, and they don’t embalm in most cases, but wakes are behind glass and coffins are kept in granite vaults.
This chapter made me really glad that I chose to read a book whose author has a youtube channel. The topic of this story is one that she’s actually talked about before. Doughty talks briefly about body farms, before getting into Katrina Spade’s work with West Carolina University and the
In this part, we see the celebration of Día de los Muertos in Michoácan, Mexico. This is one of the subject that I have more personal experience with. My family is Mexican-American, and since my grandmother’s passing, we’ve adopted some of the traditions of Día de los Muertos. It’s been a
The third part of From Here to Eternity follows Caitlin Doughty’s observations in Tana Toraja, Indonesia. Their ma’nene’ ceremony in August brings a sort of “death tourism” to Indonesia. It got to the point where the locals had to figure out a way to allow tourists to view the ceremony without giving
The first stop on Doughty’s trip is the small town of Crestone, Colorado. She was invited to attend an open air cremation on the town’s community pyre. The deceased was a woman, Laura, that had died suddenly, likely as a result of heart problems. In lieu of a conventional (or
It’s a new week, and it’s time to start a new book! The next 10 posts or so (assuming I’ve planned this out correctly) will be on From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty. She’s been on Adam Ruins Everything on TruTV, and was in the followup podcast. I personally
