The Grave - Memorial Benches

Thinking Allowed

BBC

Science, Society & Culture

4.4 • 973 Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

THE GRAVE AND MEMORIAL BENCHES: Laurie Taylor talks to Allison C. Meier, New York based researcher, about how burial sites have transformed over time. Whilst the grave may be a final destination, it is not the great leveller, and permanency is always a privilege with the indigent and unidentified frequently being interred in mass graves. So what is the future of burial with the rise of cremation, green burial, and new practices like human composting? Can existing spaces of death be returned to community life?

Also, Anne Karpf, Professor of Life Writing and Culture at London Metropolitan University, explores the phenomenon of the memorial bench. Despite the proliferation of online spaces for memorialising a person who has died, there is a growing demand for physical commemorations in places that were meaningful to them, as evidenced by the waiting-lists for memorial benches in sought-after spots. Do such memorials constitute a ‘living obituary’, a celebration of seemingly undistinguished lives, beyond the grave?

Producer: Jayne Egerton

Transcript

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0:00.0	Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, the Science of
0:07.0	Happiness Podcast.
0:08.0	For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want
0:14.4	to share that science with you.
0:16.1	And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley.
0:19.4	I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that
0:25.4	calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:30.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:36.8	This is a Thinking Loud Podcasts from the BBC and for more details and much, much more about thinking aloud, go to our website at BBC.co. UK.
0:47.0	Hello I spent three years of my disordered youth at a drama college in the hope of becoming well a famous actor.
0:55.2	One of the standard items in the timetable was verse speaking and for one such lesson I was
1:00.1	required to learn Andrew Marvell's poem to his coy mistress.
1:05.0	Well, I began to recite it in a slow, well, sententious voice,
1:09.0	had we but whirled enough and time, but was rapidly pulled up by the tutor.
1:14.8	Taylor! he bellowed before I completed another line.
1:18.6	Do you realize what this poet is saying?
1:21.4	Get your kit off before we both die. Yes, the graves are fine and
1:26.9	splendid place, but none I think do their embrace. Well, those lines came back to me as I read a beautifully written new book which
1:34.6	examines how the grave imposes order, conveys social values, and provides
1:40.0	catharsis and connection. Those words come from a book with the singular title
1:45.9	Grave and its author is New York writer and researcher, Allison Meyer. She now
1:50.6	joins me. Allison let's start with the little personal biography.
	...

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