Mourning Roundup: Feb. 3, 2010
FEBRUARY 3, 2010 TAGS:
Death bounces: J.D. Salinger and Howard Zinn
When a famous author dies, his or her books usually experience an uptick in sales that we like to call the death bounce. When David Foster Wallace died in September of 2008, his thousand-page tome, Infinite Jest, shot up to # 1 in Amazon.com sales ranking. So, how did last two beloved authors to die fair in the Amazon Death Bounce? Not great. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye sits at # 5 on the list, which is a respectable number (that rank translates to some 1000-2000 books sold each day) but hardly what you’d think for one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Nine Stories, a collection of some of Salinger’s best short stories comes in at a baffling # 114 on the list. What gives? These are books that a lot of people already own (a nice dog-eared, crumbled) paperback that they’ve read more than a few times.
Howard Zinn’s influential history-from-below, A People’s History of United States, overachieved in our estimation. It’s perched at #12. Not bad for a radical, lengthy, piece of non-fiction.
Redgrave Still Mourning
According to sources close to screen legend Vanessa Redgrave, the actress is "still mourning" the loss of her daughter Natasha Richardson, who died last year after a skiing accident. She has pulled out of acting obligation, like Ridley Scott’s new Robin Hood movie. Redgrave also spoke to Harper’s Bazaar in a recent interview expressing her sadness at burying her daughter and how difficult it is for her to come to terms with her unexpected loss.
Tribe bring dead back with Clothing Ritual
Reuters reports that the ritual “kutkot,” which is practiced by the Haunuo Mangyan tribes of the Philippines, is in danger of disappearing. A year after a tribe member dies, members of his or her family unearth the coffin, clean the skeleton and bound the bones with a specially tied clothed. The mummy-like creation is then dressed in clothes and jewelry, feted with music and revelry and then placed in a hut for a year, after which the mummy, called a “sinakot,” is placed in a special cave with other sinakots of the tribe.
Wow, and I thought making a lasagna was tough.
The Progressive's Howard Zinn coverage
The Progressive, a left-leaning journal of politics and ideas, houses a collection of remembrances and tributes to the late historian and activist. Zinn was a columnist for the magazine, and his best writing is featured as well.
Argentine Writer Tomas Eloy Martinez Dies, chronicled the Perons
As one of Argentina’s leading journalists during the 1960s and 1970s Tomas Eloy Martinez, "attempted to capture the national hysteria with infinitely detailed reporting." The national turmoil surrounding the rise and fall of the Perons became the subject of two of Martinez's novels, Santa Evita and La Novela de Peron. Makes you wonder how good novels by Bob Woodward would be.
Californian women 3 times more likely to die from complications from pregnancy
Citing population changes, higher obesity rates and better reporting as factors, California’s Department of Public Health, after months of refusing to make the data public, announced that mortality rates for pregnant women have nearly tripled in the last decade. According to California Watch, it is now more dangerous to be pregnant in California than it is in Kuwait or Bosnia.
When a famous author dies, his or her books usually experience an uptick in sales that we like to call the death bounce. When David Foster Wallace died in September of 2008, his thousand-page tome, Infinite Jest, shot up to # 1 in Amazon.com sales ranking. So, how did last two beloved authors to die fair in the Amazon Death Bounce? Not great. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye sits at # 5 on the list, which is a respectable number (that rank translates to some 1000-2000 books sold each day) but hardly what you’d think for one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. Nine Stories, a collection of some of Salinger’s best short stories comes in at a baffling # 114 on the list. What gives? These are books that a lot of people already own (a nice dog-eared, crumbled) paperback that they’ve read more than a few times.
Howard Zinn’s influential history-from-below, A People’s History of United States, overachieved in our estimation. It’s perched at #12. Not bad for a radical, lengthy, piece of non-fiction.
Redgrave Still Mourning
According to sources close to screen legend Vanessa Redgrave, the actress is "still mourning" the loss of her daughter Natasha Richardson, who died last year after a skiing accident. She has pulled out of acting obligation, like Ridley Scott’s new Robin Hood movie. Redgrave also spoke to Harper’s Bazaar in a recent interview expressing her sadness at burying her daughter and how difficult it is for her to come to terms with her unexpected loss.
Tribe bring dead back with Clothing Ritual
Reuters reports that the ritual “kutkot,” which is practiced by the Haunuo Mangyan tribes of the Philippines, is in danger of disappearing. A year after a tribe member dies, members of his or her family unearth the coffin, clean the skeleton and bound the bones with a specially tied clothed. The mummy-like creation is then dressed in clothes and jewelry, feted with music and revelry and then placed in a hut for a year, after which the mummy, called a “sinakot,” is placed in a special cave with other sinakots of the tribe.
Wow, and I thought making a lasagna was tough.
The Progressive's Howard Zinn coverage
The Progressive, a left-leaning journal of politics and ideas, houses a collection of remembrances and tributes to the late historian and activist. Zinn was a columnist for the magazine, and his best writing is featured as well.
Argentine Writer Tomas Eloy Martinez Dies, chronicled the Perons
As one of Argentina’s leading journalists during the 1960s and 1970s Tomas Eloy Martinez, "attempted to capture the national hysteria with infinitely detailed reporting." The national turmoil surrounding the rise and fall of the Perons became the subject of two of Martinez's novels, Santa Evita and La Novela de Peron. Makes you wonder how good novels by Bob Woodward would be.
Californian women 3 times more likely to die from complications from pregnancy
Citing population changes, higher obesity rates and better reporting as factors, California’s Department of Public Health, after months of refusing to make the data public, announced that mortality rates for pregnant women have nearly tripled in the last decade. According to California Watch, it is now more dangerous to be pregnant in California than it is in Kuwait or Bosnia.
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