“Mourn” is a powerful word and evokes images of great sadness and loss. Oftentimes, someone who keeps a blog may be mourning for his or her own life (or lack thereof) or the death of a family member or friend. Mourning a change in a relationship, whether internally due to change or externally due to a romantic break-up or death is something just about every culture has some experience with.
The title of the blog “Mourn for YeYe” is subtitled with the following: “A time has passed since former “YeYe” died, leaving Tantiratapong family to ponder the man and his legacy. But YeYe (Mr. Serm) has not faded into the historical shadows, and the family’s heart is still with him.”
Our author has set up a blogspot site to commemorate the life of “YeYe,” or Mr. Serm. I presume this is a family member. But that is never explained through the “about” page, or through any of the entries. The very first entry in October of 2006 features a photograph of Mr. Serm. But the author does not say “My grandfather just passed away” or “My uncle has died…” so we as readers are left to wonder the nature of the relationship. Suffice to say, someone passed on and the keeper of the blog has decided to set up a memorial to the individual.
Sounds nice. But it isn’t really. This isn’t a loving tribute to a dead relative, unless your idea of “loving tribute” means plagiarized content dumped into a blog. What we have here is a collection of text culled from many different sources across the internet, from wikipedia to poemhunter.com, outlining the process of disposal of human bodies and traditions surrounding the handling of the dead. Each entry is embellished with a photograph (or photographs) taken from the web.
We can tell pretty much immediately by reading that the writer is simply cutting and pasting content into one this one location, and the lack of proper (or any) sourcing is disturbing. My high school English teacher, J.J. MacGillicuddy, is rolling in his grave right now.
Traditions of Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism are outlined in one entry, and then “what happens when your body is cremated” follows. Different options of what to do with the ashes, from burial at sea to creating a “diamond” from the remains are outlined.
There is one entry where the writer wishes us a happy new year. Aside from the first entry where the name of the deceased is written out, this seems to be the only entry written by the blog author.
While it is educational and interesting to read all about what happens to a body during his or her cremation process, I hardly think that copying and pasting content about funerary processes is necessary. I fail to see the point and fail to understand exactly how the Tantiratapong family is dealing with the loss of YeYe. We all deal with mourning in our own way. My heart goes out to anyone who has lost a relative and tries to find ways to properly deal with the loss. So it is difficult for me to really thrash this blog and the writer. I see no purpose in this blog, or a future for it once all of the sources on the web have been cut, and pasted, and improperly sourced. I see no future for its existence, unless the writer plans to write about YeYe and his thoughts and feelings surrounding the loss.
The entire thing reads like a research paper done for a 10th grade science class, and that is sad. I would have rather known more about YeYe so I can also join in mourning him. I give a rating of 2.25, and wish the blog owner well in his mourning process. NULL