OK, so I realize this is destined to be misunderstood by many, but that never stopped me from “going there” before. I intend no specific disrespect to the victims, and it’s a drag this story will get so much play in absence of heavier events when so many have time to be more aware of the “news”: but there is something majestic in the notion of being killed by a Siberian Tiger on Christmas Day.

Let’s step back for a minute and talk about death in general, not a comfortable topic for mortals, westerners, and particularly Americans. But when you face the fact that we all have “got to go”, I think it morbid logic to consider ways you might prefer to have it happen. And I argue there many worse, less poetic ways to meet your end than they way this guy did. Look at statistics for “average American death”…

Experiencing cancer’s sapping your vitality over the course of months/years vs. an adrenalized tiger assault - true, it is nice to have some time to say your goodbyes and get your affairs in order. But cost wise there is no contest - admission to zoo ticket vs. modern medical expenses times X, insured or not, it’s spendy ya’ll. Plus the “surprise factor”. I guarantee that guy didn’t wake up thinking ‘I might get killed at the zoo today’, and true most young people aren’t conducting their lives in ways conducive to the avoidance of cancer, but the older you get, it can’t help but occur to you at some point your odds against The House. That Big House of Cell Mutation so counter-productive to your current mode of living. True, not everyone selected will be killed by their type of cancer, but it’s an ugly game, and you’re playing, like it or not.

Car accident fatality vs. tiger attack - adrenaline levels might be more comparable here, but in terms of “last moment revelation of irony”, picture that guy lying there viscerated thinking “wow, I was killed by a ferocious animal from the other side of the world in a major urban center - that’s unexpected and sucks”. Then picture yourself after having launched through your windshield into another vehicle and the last thing you see is the backward image of their ‘W - the President’ on the remains of what used to be their back window. Or to realize over the sound of other’s squealing tires, panicked responses, and formerly compressed air escaping from the radiator, tinkling glass shards, whatever else might be going on audio wise, you are also hearing the music another vehicle had on before impact…and it’s a song you always hated, or maybe one you’ve never heard but instantly hate. Your final moments, realizing the animating force is departing your mortal coil, and the chance soundtrack is some saccharine audio schmaltz about sex or bling. OK, that’s too cruel, and odds are the player would be shut off/destroyed during the collision. So the last thing you get to hear are your fellow citizens freaking out and yelling, sounds of irritated traffic and people making the realization they are gonna be “late”. Your body torn apart by steel, fiberglass, and glass shards vs. your body being torn apart by tooth bone and cartalidge claw…Organic - to borrow a popular marketing term. Plus no leaking fuel smell. Tigers almost never explode after incapacitating their victims.

And while they are statistically rare: I think you have to take into account tiger attack vs. other animal attacks. I’d take a tiger over a bear. Shark is just about the worst for me: while many animals have evolutionary advantages against an unarmed, modern human, with a shark it just seems completely cruel in their own habitat. I guess I’d take my chances with a shark out of water, but even then I wouldn’t be too happy about it. Crocodile? To much like the shark: first thing it’s gonna do it try to get you underwater and get his roll on. Dog pack, or single 136kg dog - that would suck as well, because I really like dogs and I’d be giving the fucker commands or trying to bond with it during the attack, definitely making the situation more absurd. Poisonous snakes or insects? Fuck that too. Fight the ‘poison clock’ in addition to the puncture. In general, I think I can safely say I’d rather be killed by a mammal than another species, though trampled by a heard doesn’t seem so keen. Or at least something with a face…imagine trying to swim somewhere relatively safe as you realize your floating in a group of man-o-war.
Tigers are really beautiful and command a certain respect. Just as you can imagine an aged stag giving itself over to a bow hunter, I’m not saying liking it, but on some level appreciating his flight is over…true, preferable for him perhaps to have a lung punctured by a rivals rack, laying there sufficating as he detects some doe’s pheromonal message of “gee, that dude wasn’t SO bad, I might have given him some…oh but girl, you just know I’m fixin to present to that badass that done slayt him…”, but let’s imagine there is some respect for the “order of things”, that a stag who’s been around a few seasons can appreciate when his time has come and a worthy hunter has lain him low.
Maybe it could have been like that in the final moments for the Christmas Zoo patron: ‘obviously death sucks, but I can’t help but admire how beautiful this thing is, right here on top of me, even with all of that crimson of my oxidized blood smeared all over it’s mussel. Look at how her tail whips around like a playful kitten, she’s obviously enjoying this…’

OK, I admit the “romance” is more complete in a jungle (or I guess Siberian forest) than on the concrete of the SF zoo, but I still say there are less “fantastic” ways to go. Quality vs. quantity - is longevity really “all that”?

*paraphrase of NYT’s ‘quote of the day’: The disease is by no means inevitable, but among people 85 and older, about 40 percent develop Alzheimer’s and spend their so-called golden years in a thicket of confusion, ultimately becoming incontinent, mute, bedridden or forced to use a wheelchair and completely dependent on others.

“It makes people wonder whether they really want to live that long,” Dr. Klunk said.

I just finished and am really excited about this novel Out from Japanese writer Natsuo Kirino. I’ll let the english translation speak for itself, but as a teaser, here are excerpts from a few interviews she’s given.

From Japanreview:

-Tokyo is a bleak and joyless place in your books. Is Japan doomed? Or is it a condemnation of suburban life in general? Is there such thing as redemption in this day and age?

I don’t this the situation is cause for despair. Rather, the suburbs are interesting in that human desires are transparent and in the forefront. In case of the suburb where Out was set, the small houses all in row are a product of what people desire. It can be seen as quite typically Japanese. I don’t think there is such thing as “society”. There is that much more freedom in that looseness.

In terms of redemption, the question is, redemption from what? I’m not quite sure what you are referring to, but if you return to the former question, the Japanese rarely recognize the sense of redemption because they lack the concept of the “society.” That’s to say, one doesn’t know how to be redeemed, and what you have to do to accept it, and how and who should accept it.

-What influences your work Japanese literature, western literature—or do you read other mystery writers? Are there any books of this genre you feel strongly about? Or are your influenced by other mediums—TV, movies, music, and news events? What current Japanese writers do you like?

When I was a child, I read magazines indiscriminately and I read a lot of foreign juvenile and children’s fiction—mostly books like Adrift in the Pacific, The Three Musketeers, and Little Women. I think that that they may have influenced the way I tell stories.

I don’t really like mysteries so I don’t read many of them of late. I quite like Patricia Highsmith, among others. As for Japanese authors, I would say Ryu Murakami and Fumiko Hayashi. I also read non-fiction. I love movies, especially Scorsese and Lynch. As for music, I am a fan of seventies soul.

From Metro.co.uk bookclub

The sexual violence in the book is very disturbing - did you ever have any qualms about writing those scenes?

It’s very disturbing to write about violence. However, as long as there is such violence in reality (that’s often beyond our imagination) I feel it is my responsibility as a writer to write about them. It’s unfortunate if anyone is disturbed or feels uncomfortable with these scenes (especially the ending), but I actually wrote the book in an effort to eliminate violence from society.

and Booksense.com

-What reaction surprised you the most?

Men were very shocked that a wife could kill her husband. That was really a provocative idea. Japanese men felt so threatened by it. They also never imagined that a woman could write such an aggressive novel. The most shocking part of Out for a lot of people is that it’s written by a married woman who has a family and a child. If the book was written by a man, people wouldn’t be as surprised, and they’d look at it as fiction. But because a woman wrote it and it’s realistic to a certain degree, people were surprised.

-Your novel and many Japanese films from the last few years depict contemporary Japan as an unsettled society whose outward calm masks an underlying current of severe physical and psychological violence. Is this the case?

The old family system is collapsing more and more. Although the division between men and women remains — men still go out and women still stay in — a man now cannot sustain the entire family. We have reached the point where women have to put the children into childcare so that they can work to help support the family, too. Then, the children themselves are under extreme educational pressure. So everybody is making the best effort to sustain him or herself. It is a very confusing time for our society. I have the feeling that people don’t know what to do to get out of their situations.

-Do you think this is creating a culture of violence?

Some of the violence depicted in the media is a metaphor for frustration, but there are more and more cruel crimes happening — and the people who commit these hideous crimes are getting younger and younger. A few years ago, there were a lot of crimes committed by young women. Now it’s kids murdering people. Japanese adults are completely astounded, and don’t know what to do. That’s the reality that we are getting into, and it is getting worse.

Also, thanks to mll3 for turning me on to this novel in the first place.

You don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone- we all know it, but wow how it can still sting.

I recently caught some nasty adware/worm, possibly win32.netsky, and drove myself nuts downloading various scans and tricks trying to rid myself of the thing. Eventually I just had to try and save what files I could and nuke my OS - a complete reinstall. All is back to normal now, though I have inferior versions of some programs and am having to rebuild my music library, which regrettably didn’t make it.

The worst part of all is that I got this from a Church site! I’ve been having some doubts about my place in the thereafter recently and went shopping for a new church, when my search for the Lord brought me this nasty virtual infection. How am I to know which of the Repulican canidate has my best interest at heart if I’m not allowed to research the variations of Christianity?!?

Just kiddin’. I got it from a porn site. Skanky nasty porn gave me a skanky nasty virus. On a drunken quest for more files of this one actress, I was lead astray from my usual “safe” haunts, and when prompted to “download a needed codec”, lust got the better of my good sense, and I let the down the gates and invited the foul worm right in. But at deeper fault was my irreverent attitude about spyware: refusing to be one of those paranoid types, I’ve had what I guess is good luck to go with my cavalier attitude about virus infection all of these years of surfing. But now I’ve learned, twice shy. Don’t let it happen to you!

But it does bring to mind the deeper issues about what on your machine is most important, what you’ll miss most when it isn’t available. You can back it all up, but ultimately, you cant take it with you-

I definitely chose this clip because of the classic, 70’s slack ass music-