Stupid Brain, Go to Sleep

[moon_custafer]

Ghoulish websurfing + insomnia means I am now unable to stop formatting an argument about why I think the posed Victorian post-mortem photograph* is a myth**, and I don't even know if it's a particularly widespread myth.

I also have some thoughts about why modern viewers might mistake Victorian photos of living subjects for post-mortems.

Arrgh. I'm not even a proper historian, just a geek with a morbid turn of mind.


* As opposed to post-mortem photos where the subject is (a) clearly dead, usually in his/her coffin, or (b) retouched to look alive, but still in a supine position - usually with the aim of portraying the deceased as peacefully asleep.

** Short version - years ago I read The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, and recall a passage about why hospital staff hate hate hate it when a patient dies in a chair and doesn't get discovered until rigor mortis has set in...

Comments

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

Yes, but how would you get her in her coffin afterwards? The only two options I can think of (wait for rigor to wear off and decay to set in, or forcibly break some joints) are both pretty nasty.

[leave-harmony.livejournal.com]

It's one of those things that, envisioned, would probably work in a really, really black comedy.
At least, I'm laughing. I'm not even sure why...