Otherways- Fiction Fanatics

The first time I saw an authentic Victorian era death photograph, I have to admit I found it rather creepy. Not because it was a photograph of a dead baby, I can certainly see why you would want to remember your child in any way you could. The thing that I found disturbing was that the dead baby was being held by a living child of no more than three. If you're at all familiar with photography from that era, you know how long that little boy was sitting there holding the corpse of his deceased brother. Certainly not something I would have asked one of my children to do, but completely normal for that day and time.

Which brings us to the question of death, and how seldom death forms an integral part of science fiction or fantasy. I'm not talking about killing off characters, although Game of Thrones has killed enough to balance out any squeamish authors, I'm talking about the ritual and attitude toward death. 

One of the few novels that I can think of that deals with this issue is Orson Scott Card's sequel to Ender's Game, The Speaker for the Dead. Not only does it explore the attitudes the main character's culture has toward death, it takes an interesting look at what the alien race thinks of death, and the issues those differences cause. 

I don't mean to be morbid, and generally life is far more interesting, but as human beings we have cared about death since before we could write. Ritual burials complete with flower offerings have been found in stone age graves. Mummification, exposure in trees, shrinking the heads of your enemies, burial in sanctified ground, all these are examples of our human fascination with death. 

Clearly, what even our single species feels about the subject has varied considerably over time and location. While the Victorians took pictures to commemorate their loved ones, other peoples practiced endocannibalism, or the practice of consuming your beloved dead as a way to return them to life. Herodotus mentions this in regards to a tribe of Callitiae in India, and it is believed to have been practiced at some point by Amazonian tribes and some Native American tribes. Of course, modern society would frown on this, even if it weren't a good way to end up with Kuru, or the human equivalent of Mad Cow Disease.

All this make for interesting reading, and it brings up a question that I wish more Science Fiction and Fantasy authors would include in their works. How does the society you're living in feel about death? Do they celebrate the lives as in an Irish wake? Or mourn them in sackcloth and ashes? Are they buried, burned, exposed, or eaten? And if you're featuring immortals, does the death of a mere mortal interest them at all.

Just food for thought.

Cheers,

Michelle