Death Studies

I confess I was puzzled by the inclusion of Yoko Ono's book Grapefruit in a discussion about death. So I googled to find an explanation of the book and I tried to grasp why it is part of the seminar for discussion. So I will compare the academic journal article about the Ars Moriendi manual and Ono's Grapefruit to see if I can make sense of this.

The researchers who wrote the article on Ars Moriendi explained that this manual was designed to help the dying in the Middle Ages to come to terms with their impending demise and to face it with hope and courage. The friars who attended to the dying could use the book to guide the moribund to achieving the proper frame of mind in their final hours that would ensure eternal salvation. According to the journal article, the inevitability of death in a world that had lived through the black plague and the pervasive fear and dread that lingered, coupled with the fear of hell, made such a manual especially useful and helpful in that era. An important feature of the manual was the information on the five sins the moribund would encounter in their dying hours, and the instructions on how to surmount those temptations so as to achieve salvation. The art work in the Ars Moriendi and the imagery conjured up by the text, including demons tempting the dying, convey the sense of helplessness and dread the dying struggled with at the end.

How does this relate to Ono's Grapefruit. First of all, it is important to note the description of her text as being conceptual art, or, another term used, instruction art. Ono lived through World War II and she is recorded as saying that her first experience of conceptual (instruction) art was when she attempted to comfort her brother when they were very hungry. She created an imaginary ice-cream dinner, using words and instructions alone, to assuage their hunger and distress. While at college, she said she frequently felt she was going insane and that it was conceptual art that allowed her to find a measure of relief. Ono seems to be especially well-known for her conceptual art that was mainly created using text. Her husband John Lennon made the (to my mind) overblown statement that Grapefruit offers as much relief and strength as the Bible does.

My interpretation: It seems the two texts share the following aspects:

1/ They are designed to support those struggling with extremely painful circumstances from which they cannot escape, as a means to help them cope successfully.

2/ They rely on words and spoken instructions to paint images intended to offer the sufferers a means of escape from their temporal torment.

3/ The instructions are all designed to impart agency to the sufferer even in his seemingly impossible circumstances and since the timeframe necessary to fulfil each instruction is very short in duration, it is expected the moribund can successfully carry them out and find hope.

My conclusions as to their effectiveness: Neither text offers much in the way of real hope. As an avid Bible reader myself, I consider its teachings a far more reliable basis for facing death with courage. Neither Medieval religious ideas nor modern philosophy have proved equal to the challenge of giving meaning to life and hope in the face of despair. Consequently, I agree with the closing comments of the researchers of the Ars Moriendi article, where they state "that a secular society may lack the proper elements to cope with death anxiety, which results in denial of death at an almost delusional level" (Becker, 1973).

I also appreciate their observations with regard to dignity therapy and the usefulness of helping the dying find meaning. Can Ono's art do that?