Update & Contacting the Funeral Industry

    Well, I went from struggling to find things to write about to having too much.  There is simply so much I need to get out before December.  Too much in fact that I will fall behind if I do not start posting more often.

    My essays have just fallen so far behind to the point that I haven't even started one which was meant to be finished by now.  I wanted to write about our fetishism and bondage to the dead body as part of my goal to define The Dead Body in society.  How we emphasise The Dead Body, it becomes more than just A dead body.  I also wanted to explore my concept of Social Sanitation and InvoCarenisation this month.  So much for that!

    From now on I'll be posting randomly, about once a day (maybe more), at least until I reach a certain point.  So get ready!

    I'll take this opportunity to discuss my results (if they can be called such) of contacting the funeral industry.  Over a two week span I rang 20 funeral homes.  As there are so many funeral homes I had to limit my search somehow, so I only contacted those I could easily find on google maps.  I will also include Lady Anne Funerals in this count, even though I contacted them a while ago I think they count.

    Of these 20 funeral homes 2 said yes, Lady Anne and Walter Carter.  All other 18 said "no" or "we will call you back".  Mostly I spoke with middle management, such as location managers and such.  In almost every case they thought it was a very good idea and were very positive.  One or two even sounded excited by the prospect of a study.  Unfortunately these people were not high enough or the right people to green light a study.  Instead they told me they would suggest it to the right person and get back to me.

    In the cases where I did get the boss or owner almost everyone said no or that they would call me back.  I found these people to come in one of two types (broadly speaking).  Either they were incredibly positive and informative, talking with me for quite a while in some cases.  Or they simply said no, not interested, not possible or not practical.  Every one of these people I spoke with was very polite, some even sounded guilty or bad when they said no.

    Other times (although not too often thankfully) I would get an 'abrupt' person.  One funeral home in particular stood out like this.  As soon as I said what I wanted the person had lost interest, clearly I was not a customer thus not on their radar.  They didn't even ask for my details, such as name or contact info.  I had to 'emphasise' this in the hope they wrote it down and would pass it on.  But I have no doubt this never happened.

    In almost every case when I contacted a funeral home and explained my intent (to study them) I was faced by an awkward silence.  It became quite funny and predictable actually.  I would ring the funeral home, tell them how I wanted to do a study and have a strange silence await me.  They were unsure what to say, if it was a prank, or even what I meant.  It was obviously a rather unusual question.  I became quite amused by it after a while, it was just such a predictable and strange thing.  The silence would even last about the same length every time, about 5 seconds.

    After this I contacted two cemeteries/crematoriums.  The first was Macquarie Park, who have been more than positive.  In fact we have developed a nice relationship in a relatively short time and looks like we might be working together quite a bit in the future.  The other crematorium I talked with was Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park at their open day.  We have yet to take it further, but it's only early days.  The staff there were incredibly open and friendly, so I have high hopes for ESMP.

    This is where it stands currently.  I plan on contacting various religious orders and other similar groups who have a special relationship with the industry.  But I intend to study the funeral homes with or without their help.  It's quite easy, been done by others in the past and might have to be done by me. I will do two main things: the first is attend funerals as a mourner and observe staff and how they work.  The second is pretend to plan funerals, ring up for quotes and advice as well as get friends to also do this.  I would much rather study the industry from within, and let companies have an input.  But either way I do intend to study the industry.

An~~