3 ms·
It's balancing the value (of a human skin book cover) about substitution (a book cover of any other material). It's not that human skin is being used for a pur
by ethbr1 3y ago
It's balancing the value (of a human skin book cover) about substitution (a book cover of any other material).
It's not that human skin is being used for a purpose: it's that the purpose is trivial and provides no benefit above substitution.
The analogy would be if your great-great-grandfather's tibia were being used to hold a door open.
- mablopoule 3y agoWell at least I would brag that I have a great-great-grandfather at Harvard :D. Joke aside, I see your point.
- ethbr1 3y agoThe one detail I was unable to find was "What is the book about?" Ironically, I think I'd be okay with my skin adorning an anatomy textbook!
- mablopoule 3y agoOh, I haven't realized that the name of the book wasn't in English! It's "Des destinées de l’âme", which translates to "Of the fates of soul". From what I've gathered it's a writer/poet/actor striken by grief who ponders about what happens after death, and about the notion of a soul, both historically (he seems to be speaking a bit about hinduism and greco-roman conceptions of a soul), philosophically, and theologically. While this still doesn't justify the initial act of using someone skins, knowing the title in french makes it clear that there is a posthumous thematic, I haven't realized that it may not be obvious to non-french speakers.
- ethbr1 3y agoYeah, the title was easy enough to translate and mentioned in most English news, but I was disappointed that none of the articles (or anywhere else I could find on the internet) summarized the book's content. That's definitely a bit more debatable, for thematic purposes as you said, but I think I (personally) would want some utility in the book (instead of a more artistic or philosophical work) to justify a skin cover.