MADreads

Ninety seconds of consciousness

July 20th, 2007 Molly - Central

“After decapitation, the human head is believed to remain in the state of consciousness for one and one-half minutes.”  - Dr. Dassy D’Estaing, 1883

Now, imagine a collection of short stories that fill in that space of time for famous and infamous victims of beheading.  From John the Baptist to Marie Antoinette to Nicole Brown Simpson, Robert Olen Butler creates beautiful, poetic, last streams of consciousness in Severance:  Stories that tell the tale of the sufferer without being completely gruesome or crass.

Serving as a sort of portrait through time, all of the stories are in chronological order and each story is exactly 240 words in length.  Many of the characters are mythological (a dragon, the Lady of the Lake) or imagined (caveman, chicken) but all reflect what we have been led to believe is true through recorded history, folklore or the media.

I happened across this book when I was putting together a book display about the French Revolution (the guillotine makes an appearance in quite a few entries in this book), and was surprised at the theme and format.  Definitely unusual in topic and tone, Butler provides the reader a glimpse into the last moments of consciousness in a most peaceful, lyrical way.

Entry Filed under: Nonfiction, Short Stories