An Oracle of Ashes: The Burial of James Purdy

Mara Holt
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Abstract

James Purdy (b. 1914), an American writer known for his grim humour and embrace of the outlandish and estranged, died in 2009, shortly after uttering his final wish: that after cremation his ashes should be buried near to Dame Edith Sitwell, one of the earliest and staunchest supporters of his works. This essay chronicles the journey of Purdy’s ashes from New York, USA, to Northamptonshire, UK, where they were laid to rest ten years after his death, and it explains how the present writer came to know Purdy not only through his novels, plays and poems, but also through working with Purdy’s literary executor, John Uecker, who also served as an assistant to Tennessee Williams. Necessarily autobiographical in certain passages, this essay tells of the discovery of grief in the process of planning the burial, of the power that can inhere in the materiality of cremated remains, and of the legal and logistical complexities of plotting interment across international borders.
灰烬的先知:詹姆斯·珀迪的葬礼
詹姆斯·珀迪(生于1914年)是一位以冷酷幽默和对古怪和疏远的拥抱而闻名的美国作家。2009年,在他临终前不久,他许下了最后的愿望:火葬后,他的骨灰应该葬在伊迪丝·西特维尔爵士(Dame Edith Sitwell)的身边。伊迪丝·西特维尔是他作品最早和最坚定的支持者之一。这篇文章记录了珀迪的骨灰从美国纽约到英国北安普顿郡的旅程,在他去世十年后,他们在那里安息,并解释了本文作者是如何认识珀迪的,不仅是通过他的小说、戏剧和诗歌,还通过与珀迪的文学遗嘱执行人约翰·韦克尔(John Uecker)的合作,约翰·韦克尔也是田纳西·威廉姆斯的助手。在某些段落中,这篇文章必然是自传体的,它讲述了在计划葬礼的过程中发现的悲伤,火化遗体的物质性所固有的力量,以及跨越国界策划埋葬的法律和后勤复杂性。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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