esrosedotblog

I am a reader of obituaries.

Always, since I was a kid.

It is not a morbid curiosity. Rather, it is a way of reading biographies that will otherwise never see daylight or be printed.

I do have to admit that these days, I sneak a peek at the ages that people let go of the mortal coil. Or it let go of them.

I like to see the pictures when they were young. And old. Our local paper is notorious for publishing age old photos. An 80 year old (me?) who lives again in full youthful bloom.

For famous people, you may know that news organizations have obit writers. Their specialty is building files on a famous or infamous person in preparation for the inevitable day.

I believe the most credible, famous and interesting death writing happens in the New York Times.

And, just in time to match my own voracious attention to the death of Fidel Castro, there is an article written by all the people who were assigned to his obituary over the years.

Decades in the Making: Fidel Castro’s Obituary

The funny thing about Castro is that he outlived all his enemies and many of his friends. This is something I would like to emulate. But I know I won't have any control over that one.

The other day someone referred to their library of biographies as works of fiction. Of course.

Most of the obits I have read are hardly truthful.

In my case they would leave out certain parts like my trouble with alcohol. Nothing really about my early experiences as a closeted homosexual. And so on. Obit writers have a delicate and deft hand with scrubbing the history clean.

I have sometimes considered writing my own piece. Some people do this. I would put it all in. And try to make it funny. I have read funny obituaries. I want one.

In a way, this blog is my obituary. It will last forever or until "Blogger" decides that no entries for a long time means it can be scrubbed.

I am told that the internet content will have eternal life.

I won't be here to see it.

Oh. The sample up at the top for Walter White? That is the guy from Breaking Bad,the big miniseries on teevee.

It is a double fake. First, he is fictional and second it is a ruse to cover his disappearance into the show itself.

A twist. The obituary about someone who just wants to disappear. And is not really dead. But living a second life in Dubuque Iowa or some other obscure place.

A long time device for writers who want to cook up interesting lives for their characters. Drop them down in a new place and personna.

In fiction, this never works. Some private eye or an inquisitive relative or maybe a fortune hunter tracks them down. Exposure.

But that is another story.

Labels: obituary, writers