The Most Beautiful Suicide
On May Day, just after leaving her fiancé, 23-year-old Evelyn McHale wrote a note. ‘He is much better off without me … I wouldn’t make a good wife for anybody,’ … Then she crossed it out. She went to the observation platform of the Empire State Building. Through the mist she gazed at the street, 86 floors below. Then she jumped. In her desperate determination she leaped clear of the setbacks and hit a United Nations limousine parked at the curb. Across the street photography student Robert Wiles heard an explosive crash. Just four minutes after Evelyn McHale’s death Wiles got this picture of death’s violence and its composure. The serenity of McHale’s body amidst the crumpled wreckage it caused is astounding. Years later, Andy Warhol appropriated Wiles’ photography for a print called Suicide (Fallen Body).
(Source: addicted-to-dopamine, via highwayaisle)
"If I commit suicide, it will not be to destroy myself but to put myself back together again. Suicide will be for me only one means of violently reconquering myself, of brutally invading my being, of anticipating the unpredictable approaches of God. By suicide, I reintroduce my design in nature, I shall for the first time give things the shape of my will."
Antonin Artaud, On Suicide
(Source: depressionparty, via highwayaisle)
Exit Strategies
Hwang Sang-min, a professor of psychology at Yonsei University in Seoul, argues that Korean society’s strong focus on appearances—having the right education, job or perceived level of success—is a big factor in the high suicide rate. “Koreans always want to show their best image to other people,” he notes, but when this cannot be maintained, it can lead to a desire simply to “give up”.
The focus on appearances is not unique to South Korea, and many blame the country’s media for helping build a “suicide myth”. Famous people who take their own lives become the focus of sensationalised reporting. Mr Hwang believes this can “provide a framework” for the vulnerable. A journalist in Seoul says there are guidelines for press coverage of suicide. The exact details of the manner of death, for instance, should not be reported. But he says the guidelines are often flouted.
(Via The Economist)
Jumpers: The Fatal Grandeur of the Golden Gate Bridge
Survivors often regret their decision in midair, if not before. Ken Baldwin and Kevin Hines both say they hurdled over the railing, afraid that if they stood on the chord they might lose their courage. Baldwin was twenty-eight and severely depressed on the August day in 1985 when he told his wife not to expect him home till late. “I wanted to disappear,” he said. “So the Golden Gate was the spot. I’d heard that the water just sweeps you under.” On the bridge, Baldwin counted to ten and stayed frozen. He counted to ten again, then vaulted over. “I still see my hands coming off the railing,” he said. As he crossed the chord in flight, Baldwin recalls, “I instantly realized that everything in my life that I’d thought was unfixable was totally fixable—except for having just jumped.”
(Via The New Yorker)
