Humane Death Penalty June 3, 2008
Posted by Mark T. Market in True Stories.Tags: antoinette, beheading, death, decapitation, france, guillotine, hanging, louis, penalty, reign, terror
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During the Terror of the French Revolution, the guillotine was set up in the Place de la Revolution, now known as the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France. Thousands of Frenchmen–including the late Louis XVI and his Queen, Marie Antoinette–were decapitated there. But what’s little known is that Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin, the man who gave his name to the guillotine, didn’t actually invent this clinical contraption of death.
Today we think of the guillotine as a barbaric method of execution, but in those days it was considered a clean, efficient, and dignified way to die. When in 1789, as a member of the revolutionary Constituent Assembly, the humanitarian Dr. Guillotin suggested that decapitation by a beheading machine should become France’s single method of execution, he was fighting for a more humane and egalitarian death penalty. At the time, only the rich and powerful could afford to pay for a quick execution by sword or axe rather than face the more usual and bloody torture of being hanged, drawn, and quartered, pulled to death by four oxen, or burnt at the stake. As a result of Dr. Guillotin’s request, the guillotine we know today was drawn up and developed by Dr. Antoine Louis, secretary of the Surgical Academy.
During the Reign of Terror, the guillotine was variously called La Louisette or Le Louison (perhaps after Dr. Louis or indeed after Louis XVI himself), or nicknamed La Veuve (the widow) or “the national razor.” It only became known as La Guillotine–in dubious honor of Dr. Guillotin–after the Reign of Terror was over.
Even in the 18th century, the guillotine was not a new method of execution, however. The English Halifax gibbet, an early version set up in the market place in Halifax, was used from at least 1280 to 1650, and possibly before; in Scotland, the “Maiden” was used from the 16th century and there is evidence that Ireland, Nuremberg, and Milan all had guillotines. But the French guillotine became a chilling symbol of the relentless horrors of the Reign of Terror. Dr. Guillotin himself escaped the use of the decapitation device that bears his name. He died of natural causes in 1814.
Source: The Book Of Secrets
The Story Of The Falling Man May 25, 2008
Posted by Mark T. Market in True Stories.Tags: 9/11, controversy, death, Falling Man, movies, photograph
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The Falling Man was an infamous photograph that was suppressed by the US media because of the shocking emotions that it elicted.
I posted this on Image Therapy some time back. A couple of years ago a documentary was made about the story behind the photograph. I’ve also posted this on Image Therapy for your viewing curiosity.
This is dedicated to those who perished on 9/11 and the horrors that have happened since.
Morbid Fascination May 3, 2008
Posted by Mark T. Market in Reflections.Tags: accidents, curiosity, death, gory, morbid
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You see something odd on the road, and people gathered around it. It’s in the middle of a traffic jam. It’s morning if you’re lucky. And somewhere in the midst of the chaos milling around the street, there’s the thing which you crave.
Automatically something inside you clicks.
You want to see it. You’ll die if you don’t.
All of us have this morbid fascination for roadside accidents. Something that disrupts the natural (read: boring) order of things. Something out of kilter, something unnatural. You willingly allow yourself to be roused from your set routine, whether you’re on your way home, or on you’re way away from home.
The fascination isn’t just limited to highway mayhem, we’re just as fascinated with serial killers, diseases, misfortune. Fascinated with death–like reluctant dance partners we surround it and tease ourselves with it.
I sometimes wonder at this fascination. Does it tell me about myself? Does it reveal anything about my thinking? My motives? My emotions? What is it about ourselves that we seek to find that we make efforts to have a peek at mortality, and gruesome ways of ending one’s life?
Are you fascinated with death?
I’ve updated Image Therapy with a section called “Lose Your Lunch” which details disturbing and graphic images of roadside accidents.
You can access Lose Your Lunch through Image Therapy, or click this link.
For your sanity, don’t click it.
(I know you won’t listen to me).
