Popular Culture and Death

Question 1

How is death hyper-visible in a death denying society?

Answer 1

• death itself is both a personal event and an event with social significance
• death is sexy in pop culture but there is nothing sexy about grief
• its not curable, the only way to cure grief is to grieve. it is this process that you have to go through and often you go through it alone
• can provide a means to make sense of death, engage with our fears and questions about death

Question 2

How is death portrayed in animated films?

Answer 2

• children are often shielded from death with intention to protect them
• children often consume information about death from animated films that highlight themes of loss, separation and death
• animated films serve a pedagogic function: teach lessons, impart values (teachable moments)
• films can present ‘complex reality of death’

Question 3

What points arise when we analyze death in animated films?

Answer 3

• death scenes may ‘mask the permanence and irreversibility of death’ or emphasis permanence
• differential emotional impact of death of the villain and death of hero
• traumatic, humorous, inconsequential
• deception of meaning-making, remembrance, and continuing bonds

Question 4

How can you make animated films teachable moments?

Answer 4

• observe how child responds
• ask questions about their understanding
• ask how characters are feeling
• fill in blanks with honest answers

Question 5

How are the death of celebrities turning into commodities?

Answer 5

• ex: Forbes list of ‘highest paid dead celebrities of 2020’
• dead celebrities avoid ‘social death’ due to maintenance of ‘continuing bonds’
• artists who die young give an impression of perpetual youth as their likeness lives on after them
• concerns surrounding the ethics of the use of the image of dead celebrities to sell products and of dead celebrities image being used and re created in new commercial enterprises
• importance of wills

Question 6

What are the four types of morality tale deaths?

Answer 6

• Timely
• tragic
  -tragic - foolish
• tragic - heroic

Question 7

what is a timely death?

Answer 7

celebrities that died in old age (70+)
sad but not tragic
often accompanied by the recognition of lifetime achievements
reflects social values of long life, contributions to society as symbolizing a ‘life well lived’

Question 8

what is a tragic death?

Answer 8

deaths that serve as a ‘cautionary tale’ about the downside of fame
‘27 club’
interpreted as tragic (life cut short)
loss of future contributions, talent

Question 9

what is a tragic-foolish death?

Answer 9

• variation of the tragic category
• do not inspire collective grief but derision
• used to convey lessons about values of society, consequences of transgression
• disenfranchised grief (sexism, discrimination in coverage of these deaths)

Question 10

what is a tragic-heroic death?

Answer 10

• deaths that occur due to a heroic, adventurous or otherwise ground-breaking action
• social value as ‘aspirational lives’