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The Autopsy-Channel 4

Warewullf

22:19 / 20.11.02

So, they're acutally showing this tonight. It's on right now.
For those that don't know, a German artist is performing an Autopsy on a man tonight, which is being viewed by members of the public. This is the first time this has happened in 170 years (I believe.)

As expected, big controversy.

Personally, I have no problem with it. The dead guy donated his body, I believe. It was going to be a 33 year old woman, but her family (or her, I forget) wanted anonymity but her name was revealed so she was replaced with an old man.

I didn't know it was being televised, and I'm surprised it is, to be honest.

It's amazing, compelling and disturbing. It actually makes me feel...strange. I can't quite explain it.

Good for Channel 4.

So, have you seen it? Do you approve? Disapprove?

Seth

23:06 / 20.11.02

I approve.

It's nice to see it on the box. Death terrifies so many of my friends... and an equal amount (myself included, although I'm getting better) are almost totally divorced from their body's internal processes. It's good to be reminded that we're a bunch of blood and guts. It also made a great counterpoint to the shamanic stuff I've been immersed in, as initiations so often feature a ritual death and resurrection. It can't be good for a society to be so totally removed from the ending of life.

More stiffs please.

Linus Dunce

23:20 / 20.11.02

Watched it. Much like his exhibition -- you wonder why you're looking to start with, then it becomes absorbing.

There are bits of this all over the Underground right now ... spread around like the subject's innards.

Turk

00:38 / 21.11.02

It was circus.
The given justification - a no-holds-barred approach to educate people about anatomy was undermined by the affects of the 8 months of preservation the body spent before the show. What we learnt was what our bodies are like after months of storage, apparently they're much more pleasant that way. No shit or vomit. As a viewer I found that more comfortable, the awful face of death... with make-up.
Back to 'education', I can't talk for the audience who attended but what could anybody watching on TV possibly have learnt that they didn't already know or could have looked up in an encyclopedia? Education it was not.

The one true value was might have been confronting death and exiting our safe cultural bubble. But I think there are better ways to do that. We say other cultures deal far better with it, do they really do that via public autopsies?

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