{"id":1352,"date":"2022-05-27T22:38:46","date_gmt":"2022-05-27T22:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/summerinparis\/?p=1352"},"modified":"2022-05-28T21:23:51","modified_gmt":"2022-05-28T21:23:51","slug":"love-death-and-decapitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/summerinparis\/2022\/05\/27\/love-death-and-decapitation\/","title":{"rendered":"Love, Death, and Decapitation."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As I awkwardly stumbled through the mossy, winding cobblestone paths of the P\u00e8re Lachaise cemetery, my visits to graves belonging to some of the most renowned creatives to grace the world reminded me of how once we bury a person\u2019s lifeless body, we no longer have access to their thoughts or feelings in the ways we were familiar. Artists, writers, and musicians whose craft produced unforgettable memories and experiences for thousands or even millions of people are often grieved the most, the flow of their incredible contributions cut off at the source, often suddenly and without warning. This is proved by the continued devotion with which these people pay their respects to the final resting place of these icons. But does Mother Nature\u2019s forcible censorship of a person\u2019s passionate expressions through death necessarily mean all traces of their existence are wiped from the Earth?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The heavily-adorned gravesite of Polish composer & pianist, Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Fran\u00e7ois Chopin. Can be found within the P\u00e8re Lachaise Cemetery, assuming you brought hiking shoes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Considering this question brought me a few blocks away from the cemetery\u2019s main entrance. Here, the last remaining traces of the Prison de Roquette guillotine can be found in the form of support stones scattered through the asphalt of the main road. It was used to perform public executions by beheading for almost half a decade before the prison\u2019s closure at the end of the 18th Century. I\u2019m sure all of its victims had similar thoughts about how long the traces of their mortal existence would remain after its blade met their necks. Luckily for them an answer exists: a little less than a minute. At least, according to a 2011 study which found that though consciousness ended seconds after decapitating wakeful rats, brain activity measured via EEG didn’t suffer any massive loss of function until after about 50 seconds later, when a surge activity was followed by much more muted readings (Rijn et al., 2011). This was interpreted to indicate a loss of the neuron membrane potentials (Rijn et al., 2011), crippling their ability to function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A poorly-taken photo of yours truly, Duke McDaniels, at the Prison de Roquette guillotine’s former site of operations, where its support stones stand out against the asphalt of the road. Photo taken moments before a speeding BMW almost gave me the opportunity to interview the victims myself. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Though I doubt the ethics of decapitation were a concern for those in charge of the executions, they can rest easy knowing that the near immediate loss of consciousness means there was no undue suffering as the victims met their end. However, the minute-long mark described isn\u2019t necessarily it for us. As evidenced by this graveyard, while we may leave this world as conscious beings, the parts of us carried by others will allow us to retain some level of presence in the world. As long as people still pay respects to our memory, we can (mostly) rest easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rijn, C. M., Krijnen, H., Menting-Hermeling, S., & Coenen, A. M. (2011). Decapitation in rats: Latency to unconsciousness and the \u2018wave of death.\u2019 PLoS ONE<\/em>, 6<\/em>(1). https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.001651<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I awkwardly stumbled through the mossy, winding cobblestone paths of the P\u00e8re Lachaise cemetery, my visits to graves belonging to some of the most renowned creatives to grace the world reminded me of how once we bury a person\u2019s lifeless body, we no longer have access to their thoughts or feelings in the ways … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Love, Death, and Decapitation.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7554,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post-1","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/summerinparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/summerinparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/summerinparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/summerinparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7554"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/summerinparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1352"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/summerinparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1365,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/summerinparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352\/revisions\/1365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/summerinparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/summerinparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/summerinparis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}