It was amazing the things you would remember if you let your mind wander.
The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier (via douglasreads)
Many African societies divide humans into three categories: those still alive on the earth, the sasha, and the zamani. The recently departed whose time on earth overlapped with people still here are the sasha, the living-dead. They are not wholly dead, for they still live in the memories of the living, who can call them to mind, create their likeness in art, and bring them to life in anecdote. When the last person to know an ancestor dies, that ancestor leaves the sasha for the zamani, the dead. As generalised ancestors, the zamani are not forgotted but revered. many … can be recalled by name. But they are not the living-dead. There is a difference.
James Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me | The Brief History of the Dead. (via cemeteryinthecloset)
3/50: The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
The City is where people go after they die. They can stay as long as there is someone alive who remembers them at all, in any capacity. However, a deadly virus is wiping out Earth’s population. What happens to the City?
Brockmeier explores this in an incredibly interesting and thought-provoking way. I had to read it for my Contemporary American Literature class and was pleasantly surprised by how readable it was.
I give it a 4/5.
