Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Harvard University removes human skin binding from book

library.harvard.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 107 posts

Re: Harvard University removes human skin binding from book

#31

Post by plugin-baby »

ethbr1 wrote: post #22
mjburgess wrote: post #9

I fear we've elevated 'consent' to absurd proportions. Every country in the world was built by those who didn't consent to build it (by serfdom, slavery, ..). I hope this is preserved; what a pointless waste otherwise. How are we to imagine the deceased here? A person outraged at the insult, or one now doubly outraged at the waste?

I don't consider myself much concerned with my body after death. But I'd feel some kind of way if someone flayed my skin off my cadaver to make a book cover. Even being a skeleton in an anatomy class seems more purposeful.

You could do both!

Re: Harvard University removes human skin binding from book

#33

Post by mjburgess »

jwie wrote: post #18

It is a little curious that the skin was applied with consent, but not removed with it. I was lead to believe that Harvard was where smart people were. The simple thing to do would be to remove the book from circulation, not destroy the thing that made it interesting.

I err towards saying that this isn't quite the full story, and the people involved are reasonable and sensitive to issues we aren't privy to.

If not, then it seems that academia has jumped the shark. It was fine, in their own worlds, for academics to turn themselves into reverent peal-clutching guests of the King, pathologically afraid of disputation, insult and offence (or, how extreme: challenging students).

But the world isnt theres...

Re: Harvard University removes human skin binding from book

#34

Post by bxksnche »

ethbr1 wrote: post #22
mjburgess wrote: post #9

I fear we've elevated 'consent' to absurd proportions. Every country in the world was built by those who didn't consent to build it (by serfdom, slavery, ..). I hope this is preserved; what a pointless waste otherwise. How are we to imagine the deceased here? A person outraged at the insult, or one now doubly outraged at the waste?

I don't consider myself much concerned with my body after death. But I'd feel some kind of way if someone flayed my skin off my cadaver to make a book cover. Even being a skeleton in an anatomy class seems more purposeful.

But what about your family? How would they feel about your skin being used as a hazing ritual?

If it hasn’t been donated by the family, what right does the university have over it?

Re: Harvard University removes human skin binding from book

#35

Post by torstenvl »

xattt wrote: post #16
542458 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would hazard a guess that the remains of a mummy still present interesting research opportunities, whereas the skin here is just skin, and there’s no real value in keeping it around other than the sensational. IIRC last time I was at the Museum of History in Ottawa they had noted that many of the indigenous artifacts on display are replicas - for many artifacts where they felt everything that they could learn had b…

A physician binding a book in the skin of his patient seems like a sick psychopathic power move. This is similar to the recent case of a surgeon who branded a transplanted liver with his initials. The removal of the skin binding is symbolic, and is a small initiative in the gestalt of righting historical wrongs and creating a just society.

There is no such thing as a just society that does actions of this type. Destroying evidence of the past to fit your worldview is fundamentally unjust.

Re: Harvard University removes human skin binding from book

#39

Post by isodev »

I don't understand some of the comments wanting to preserve "history". If you read the post you will find that it was the book's first owner who decided to alter the book and it's not the original work.

So what's your point, we should glorify some sick mind who thought it was a good idea to take and use human remains to decorate his library?

Removing the binding from the book was the right decision. Returning the victim's remains to their descendants and trying to find more context on how their loved one perished is also absolutely the right decision.

Re: Harvard University removes human skin binding from book

#40

Post by torstenvl »

isodev wrote: post #39

I don't understand some of the comments wanting to preserve "history". If you read the post you will find that it was the book's first owner who decided to alter the book and it's not the original work. So what's your point, we should glorify some sick mind who thought it was a good idea to take and use human remains to decorate his library? Removing the binding from the book was the right decision. Returning the vic…

Don't make personal attacks on HN. If you have an argument, feel free to voice it, even strenuously, but it's considered gauche here to address people who disagree with you directly and comment on them or their personal motives.
Post reply on HN