Tag Archives: holt

Links, curiosities & mixed wonders – 3

New miscellanea of interesting links and bizarre facts.

  • There’s a group of Italian families who decided, several years ago, to try and live on top of the trees. In 2010 journalist Antonio Gregolin visited these mysterious “hermits” — actually not as reclusive as you might think —, penning a wonderful reportage on their arboreal village (text in Italian, but lots of amazing pics).

  • An interesting long read on disgust, on the cognitive biases it entails, and on how it could have played an essential role in the rise of morals, politics and laws — basically, in shaping human societies.
  • Are you ready for a travel in music, space and time? On this website you get to choose a country and a decade from 1900 to this day, and discover what were the biggest hits back in the time. Plan your trip/playlist on a virtual taxi picking unconceivably distant stops: you might start off from the first recordings of traditional chants in Tanzania, jump to Korean disco music from the Eighties, and reach some sweet Norwegian psychedelic pop from the Sixties. Warning, may cause addiction.
  • Speaking of time, it’s a real mystery why this crowdfunding campaign for the ultimate minimalist watch didn’t succeed. It would have made a perfect accessory for philosophers, and latecomers.
  • The last issue of Illustrati has an evocative title and theme, “Circles of light”. In my contribution, I tell the esoteric underground of Northern Italy in which I grew up: The Only Chakra.
  • During the terrible flooding that recently hit Louisiana, some coffins were seen floating down the streets. A surreal sight, but not totally surprising: here is my old post about Holt Cemetery in New Orleans, where from time to time human remains emerge from the ground.

  • In the Pelican State, you can always rely on traditional charms and gris-gris to avoid bad luck — even if by now they have become a tourist attraction: here are the five best shops to buy your voodoo paraphernalia in NOLA.
  • Those who follow my work have probably heard me talking about “dark wonder“, the idea that we need to give back to wonder its original dominance on darkness. A beautiful article on the philosophy of awe (Italian only) reiterates the concept: “the original astonishment, the thauma, is not always just a moment of grace, a positive feeling: it possesses a dimension of horror and anguish, felt by anyone who approaches an unknown reality, so different as to provoke turmoil and fear“.
  • Which are the oldest mummies in the world? The pharaohs of Egypt?
    Wrong. Chinchorro mummies, found in the Atacama desert between Chile and Peru, are more ancient than the Egyptian ones. And not by a century or two: they are two thousand years older.
    (Thanks, Cristina!)

  • Some days ago Wu Ming 1 pointed me to an article appeared on The Atlantic about an imminent head transplant: actually, this is not recent news, as neurosurgeon from Turin Sergio Canavero has been a controversial figure for some years now. On Bizzarro Bazar I discussed the history of head transplants in an old article, and if I never talked about Canavero it’s because the whole story is really a bit suspect.
    Let’s recap the situation: in 2013 Canavero caused some fuss in the scientific world by declaring that by 2017 he might be able to perform a human head transplant (or, better, a body transplant). His project, named HEAVEN/Gemini (Head Anastomosis Venture with Cord Fusion), aims to overcome the difficulties in reconnecting the spinal chord by using some fusogenic “glues” such as polyethylene glycol (PEG) or chitosan to induce merging between the donor’s and the receiver’s cells. This means we would be able to provide a new, healthier body to people who are dying of any kind of illness (with the obvious exception of cerebral pathologies).
    As he was not taken seriously, Canavero gave it another try at the beginning of 2015, announcing shortly thereafter that he found a volunteer for his complex surgical procedure, thirty-year-old Russian Valery Spiridonov who is suffering from an incurable genetic disease. The scientific community, once again, labeled his theories as baseless, dangerous science fiction: it’s true that transplant technology dramatically improved during the last few years, but according to the experts we are still far from being able to attempt such an endeavour on a human being — not to mention, of course, the ethical issues.
    At the beginning of this year, Canavero announced he has made some progress: he claimed he successfully tested his procedure on mice and even on a monkey, with the support of a Chinese team, and leaked a video and some controversial photos.
    As can be easily understood, the story is far from limpid. Canavero is progressively distancing himself from the scientific community, and seems to be especially bothered by the peer-review system not allowing him (shoot!) to publish his research without it first being evaluated and examined; even the announcement of his experiments on mice and monkeys was not backed up by any published paper. Basically, Canavero has proved to be very skillful in creating a media hype (popularizing his advanced techinque on TV, in the papers and even a couple of TEDx talks with the aid of… some picturesque and oh-so-very-Italian spaghetti), and in time he was able to build for himself the character of an eccentric and slightly crazy genius, a visionary Frankenstein who might really have found a cure-all remedy — if only his dull collegues would listen to him. At the same time he appears to be uncomfortable with scientific professional ethics, and prefers to keep calling out for “private philantropists” of the world, looking for some patron who is willing to provide the 12.5 millions needed to give his cutting-edge experiment a try.
    In conclusion, looking at all this, it is hard not to think of some similar, well-known incidents. But never say never: we will wait for the next episode, and in the meantime…
  • …why not (re)watch  The Thing With Two Heads (1972), directed by exploitation genius Lee Frost?
    This trashy little gem feature the tragicomic adventures of a rich and racist surgeon — played by Ray Milland, at this point already going through a low phase in his career — who is terminally ill and therefore elaborates a complex scheme to have his head transplanted on a healthy body; but he ends waking up attached to the shoulder of an African American man from death row, determined to prove his own innocence. Car chases, cheesy gags and nonsense situations make for one of the weirdest flicks ever.

Holt Cemetery

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A New Orleans, se scavate due o tre metri nella terra, potreste trovare l’acqua. Questo è il motivo per cui, in tutto il Delta del Mississippi (e in gran parte della Louisiana, che per metà è occupata da una pianura alluvionale), di regola i cimiteri si sviluppano above ground, vale a dire in mausolei e loculi costruiti al di sopra del livello del suolo. Ma ci sono eccezioni, e una di queste è lo Holt Cemetery.

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Si tratta del “cimitero dei poveri”, ossia del luogo che ospita i cari estinti di coloro che non possono permettersi di far costruire una tomba sopraelevata. I costi funerari, negli Stati Uniti, sono esorbitanti e perfino famiglie in condizioni più o meno agiate devono talvolta aspettare mesi o anni prima di poter permettersi il lusso di una lapide. Lo Holt Cemetery è una delle “ultime spiagge”, riservate ai meno abbienti.

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Non è raro trovarvi delle lapidi in legno o altri materiali, insegne di tipo artigianale, su cui sono stati iscritti con vernice e pennello le date di nascita e di morte del defunto.

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In altri casi le tombe ospitano gli effetti personali del morto, perché la famiglia non aveva spazio o possibilità di metterli da parte – ma questa non è forse l’unica motivazione. New Orleans infatti è stata storicamente il crocevia di diverse etnie (neri, europei, isleños, creoli, cajun, filippini, ecc.), e ha raccolto un patrimonio culturale estremamente variegato e complesso. Questo si rispecchia anche nei rituali religiosi e funebri: alcuni di questi oggetti sono stati lasciati lì intenzionalmente, per accompagnare il parente nel suo viaggio nell’aldilà.

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Ma il problema dello Holt Cemetery è che lo spazio non è mai abbastanza: quando una tomba è in stato di abbandono, i guardiani possono decidere di riutilizzarla. Non esiste un piano regolatore, non esistono posti assegnati, né un vero e proprio registro. I nuovi morti sono sepolti sopra a quelli vecchi, dei quali non rimane traccia alcuna. Così, per evitare che si salti a conclusioni affrettate, alcune famiglie continuano a lasciare nuovi oggetti, o a sistemare corone di fiori, a erigere recinti o semplicemente a modificare l’aspetto della lapide per segnalare che quel loculo è ancora “in uso”. Si racconta ad esempio di una tomba accanto alla quale qualche anno fa era stata posizionata una sedia di latta, e sulla sedia stava aperto un libro che cambiava ogni settimana.

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many materials used to surround this grave

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I sepolcri più appariscenti, nel cimitero di Holt, sono quelli della famiglia Smith. Arthur Smith, infatti, è un artista locale che ha partecipato a diverse mostre di outsider art: ancora oggi lo si può vedere spingere il suo carrello per le discariche della città, alla ricerca di quei tesori con cui fabbricherà la sua arte povera. È proprio lui che mantiene in continua evoluzione le istallazioni che ha costruito attorno alle tombe di sua madre e di sua zia. (Potete trovare altre foto della sua produzione artistica qui).

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Nonostante i recinti e le cure dei familiari, come dicevamo all’inizio, il grande problema di New Orleans è sempre stata l’acqua, e non solo quella violenta e brutale degli uragani: basta una piena del Mississippi per causare gravi fenomeni alluvionali. Un po’ di pioggia, perché cada anche l’ultimo tabù. Ecco allora che nel piccolo cimitero di Holt i morti tornano a galla. Dalla terra umida affiorano parti di teschi, ossa che sventolano ancora brandelli di vestiti, piccoli rimasugli sbiancati dal tempo e dalla natura.

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C’è chi, venendo a conoscenza della situazione allo Holt Cemetery, grida allo scandalo, al sacrilegio e allo svilimento della dignità umana; ed è ironico, e in un certo senso poetico, il fatto che un simile cimitero sorga proprio a ridosso di un quartiere particolarmente benestante della città.

Questo strano luogo in cui i morti non hanno lapide, né una sepoltura sicura, sembra simboleggiare lo scorrere delle cose del mondo più che un cimitero opulento, circondato da alte pareti di marmo, in cui si entra come in un austero santuario in cui il tempo si sia fermato. Holt è il cimitero dei poveri, è tenuto vivo dai poveri. Qui non ci si può permettere nemmeno l’illusione dell’eterno, e la memoria esiste solo finché vi è ancora qualcuno che ricordi.

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(Grazie, Marco!)