“Kill Me In St. Louis, Louis…”
Filed under: Book Slut, Heebie Jeebies - June 26, 2007 @ 4:38 am
The other day I went over to my parent’s and saw the St. Louis County Coroner’s Records, 1826-1873 lying on the kitchen table. I filched it and took a lookie.
Not only was it interesting to read the names of the deceased (Abram, Asunder, Maven) and places of death (Des Peres pond seemed to be the hip place to fling yourself in despair back then) but check out some of these causes of death in the good ol’ days:
visitation of God
incautious use of gunpowder in driving out mosquitoes
unknown man - unknown; nothing found except bones, vest, shoes and tress
infant female body found in a privy
voluntarily swallowing arsenic while laboring under a state of mental derangement
convulsion and neglect from an idiotic mother
June 26th, 2007 at 7:16 am
Love your topic of the week. When I was in my teens, I read a book called “Serpent and Lily” by Nikos Kazantzakis. Not a mainstream reading, even though it’s about sex from cover to cover. Lots of incoherent and schizophrenic paragraphs, and the book is really about making love, not fucking (sorry, that’s European literature).
Anyhoo, one concept that stuck with me was the use of a skull on the ceiling as a source of sexual excitement. Imagine a hot Greek afternoon, olive branches stroking the open window frame, and a virgin couple panting in a large bed, droplets of sweat falling on the white sheets … When they’re done, they look up and see the face of death.
June 26th, 2007 at 8:19 am
how ’bout a new panty shot with skulls or bones or something ‘deathly’ on ‘em…
June 26th, 2007 at 8:20 am
oops…we’ve already seen that one…dammit!
June 26th, 2007 at 8:38 am
Hmm and your parents were reading it because?