Suicide, honour and love

The word is negative. We tend to instantly associate it with despair, mental illness and cowardice. Even looking at the way it is defined by the Oxford Dictionary gives it negative connotations instantly:

For earlier synonyms see SELF-DESTRUCTION, -HOMICIDE, -KILLING, -MURDER, -SLAUGHTER.

a. The or an act of taking one’s own life, self-murder. Phr. to commit suicide.

Of course, there are many different reasons for suicide, and they are not all considered to be negative. Think, for example, of sucide-bombers, who are commiting  “self-murder” for the honour and freedom of their nation – people making a statement, who will be rewarded for their act. We, of course, view them as terrorists, and “suicide” maintains its negative connotations with a little extra spice.

Seppuku is possibly one of the most famous forms of sucide – this is Japanese ritual disembowlment, a form of death chosen by Samuri to avoid being killed by the enemy and maintain their honour. However, it could also be obligatory rather than voluntary, a death for a disgraced samuri.

Suicide as a way to maintain honour, particularly as a way to avoid death, can be found in other places as well. Prisoners of war have done such things, chosen to commit suicide rather than face the disgrace of torture and/or helpless death at the enemies hands. The risk of giving in to torture and betraying one’s country has also led to suicide before.

The Hindu had a custom where the widow of a recently deceased man would immolate (suicide by fire) herself on her husband’s funeral pyre – either voluntarily or by force. This ritual called sati is linked to deity legends. The Vikings had their somewhat similar ancient custom. The dead were cremated on a ship and included with them were objects for the afterlife – alcohol, weapons, and perhaps slaves and women. A girl was often placed, alive, on the ship of a chieftan so that he would have someone for the afterlife. An Arab Muslim writer, Ahmad ibn Fadlan, recorded in the 10th century his observations of such a ritual.

Is this suicide though, or sacrifice? What exactly is suicide? How much can suicide involve other people?

Particularly interesting to me is the number of internet sucide pacts that we hear about online, or people who have commited suicide as the result of internet interaction. How much does this link the internet (largely chat sites and networking sites) with negative deaths?

As an English Lit (and Anth) major, I would be interested to investigate the way in which suicide features in literature (although I imagine this has been done). Lovers and Suicide is the most obvious topic – you have your Romeo and Juliet, you have the language of lovers from Medieval to Romantic poetry about the pain of love and how death and love are linked. Love itself  is quite often written as a violent thing in European/Western culture. Love and suicide – despair or self-sacrifice – can be strongly linked. I would like to go beyond the bounds of English literature as well, and see how it features in wider literature.

Would you die for love, and how would you choose to do it?

Political Sociodrama-ey

I found this week’s reading “The Sociodrama of Presidential Politics” very interesting (I use that word too often). In particular, the offensive strategy of attacking one’s opponent. Although we have that here, I don’t think we have it in the same kind of depth that it is in America. I still remember that song sung some elections ago by three Green Party members (I think… ok, maybe I don’t remember it that well) that… Ok, I’m stopping here. But you guys remember it, right? … Guys? … … Guys…???

Invoking the idea of the American Dream and targeting the “Average American” seemed to be a major part of their political campaigns. However, the article points out that in some of the methods they used for targeting and even in merely targeting certain groups they alienated others – mostly minorities.

Change seems to be a major focus in the campaigns of groups trying to get into power – it’s talked about in the article, we saw it with Obama, and we even saw it with John Key the Donkey. The candidate/party comes to be a symbol for Change, which is a good thing, contrasting with all that has not been achieved or has gone wrong from the previous government.

The Green Party’s campaign last year I thought to be quite effective (even if the results may have not shown such). It expressed the values they hold that could appeal to the majority of people. The image below, for example, ties in both the natural world, New Zealand specifically, and youth/the future. It suggests that voting for the Green party is voting for all these things – and who could turn down that sweet little face? Not voting for that sweet little face makes you somewhat heartless.