Death, Personified (Feat. Lindsay Ellis) | It’s Lit! | PBS Digital Studios
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- čas přidán 23. 01. 2019
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Death as a character reveals how we process one of life’s greatest mysteries, and there’s a lot more breadth to how the grim reaper is depicted than you might think.
It's Lit! is part of THE GREAT AMERICAN READ, a eight-part series that explores and celebrates the power of reading.
Interested in using this video as a teaching resource? Check it out on PBS LearningMedia: to.pbs.org/359Vs5v
Written by Lindsay Ellis, Angelina Meehan, Elisa Hansen, & Antonella Inserra
Directed by Andrew Matthews
Animation by Dano Johnson
Fact Checked by Elisa Hansen
Produced by Amanda Fox
Executive in Charge (PBS): Adam Dylewski
Looking for more It's Lit? You can find the latest season on Storied, PBS's home for arts and humanities content here on CZcams. Subscribe to Storied for the latest episodes of It's Lit and get your folklore fix with Monstrum while you're there! czcams.com/channels/O6nDCimkF79NZRRb8YiDcA.html
I love Lindsey Ellis! Give her a channel on just about anything and I'll watch 😄
This is a strange remake of the Loose Canon episode
Ya, not complaining though.
@@MooCartoon Heaven forbid, not complaining
Moo Cartoon same 😂 I love me some Linsday content
When I saw this pop up, I thought the same thing! I miss Loose Canon. WTB MORE, PST!
Yep, but I'm ok with that...
"Yep, it's time to talk about Terry Pratchett."
Bless her for knowing we were all waiting for this
That seems statistically unlikely.
@@HereComesPopoBawa Yep you're right, that's not all truth... I was there to hear about Gaiman's Death also. But man, I love Pratchett's Death too.
Oh man, I was like "If she's not gonna mention Pratchett, I will riot"
IT WAS ... INEVITABLE.
GNU Sir Terry ❤
This is just giving me flashbacks to her Loose Canon episode on Death. I miss that series.
And Terry Pratchett.
honestly, I'm preparing for a second lil' cry for Pratchett's Death again
It's like the CliffsNotes version of her Loose Canon episode.
@@batti591 Me too.
I agree. HashtagYoloCry
"Dont cry at work. Dont cry at work. Dont cry at work." Goddamn it, still havent grieved yet.
I was going to make a joke about how Lindsay already covered Death in her Loose Canon series but at the end when she started talking about Terry Pratchett and the kids who would send him letters I almost started to cry. So here's a wholesome comment instead wishing you all well lived and satisfying lives.
stormcrown They weren’t kids, those were adults
"... I _almost_ started to cry." Almost? You inhuman bastard.
I mean, ill take a book version of that loose canon episode
Now I need to see taxes personified.
That would be the State of New Jersey...
I'd eat up a book series of awful billionares doing everything they can to avoid Taxes, but lose everything in the end due to their greediness amd lack if empathy. That'd be great 😊
Cheddars Salad czcams.com/video/l0zaebtU-CA/video.html
@@xRaiofSunshine Great idea!
Well, the Internal Revenue Service is definitely a thing...which isn't quite a proper personification, but more than close enough for my taste.
Did you . . . consciously do a Velma cosplay for this episode?
Velma cosplayed as Lindsay
All iterations of Death should have a skateboard tucked in one hand and a scythe in the other
how are you doin' senpai!? it's me, UNCLE DEATH!
you forgot the scythe must fold into a golf club.
thats a great idea for a movie, but what should it be called?
@@15clank Let it Die
But he mall grabs the skateboard.
Couple of things on Death in Terry's books; he was able to prevent his daughter's death, she and Mort refused his offer of immortality. Also he does know what happens after SOME deaths; he knows when people are going to be reincarnated or ghosts but he doesn't know what lies beyond the black desert that serves as Pratchett's representation of purgatory, which people cross to reach the other side.
It's a 9 minute video on the literary portrayal of the grip reaper, don't sweat the minutiae.
I did NOT tear up seeing the last tweets on Terry Pratchett's account.
Not at all.
Excuse me, I have to go remove a twig that was thrown into my eye by a ninja wearing onions
Same here, its way more common than people would think it is.
Thank you for the warning, I better keep a sharp eye out in case any more of them are around.
The Onion Fairy can be a bitch.
@@tarmaque Glingle glingle glingle.
@@qwertyTRiG Dangit!
"LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?"
I'm not having a particularly good day, and then Lindsay descends from the clouds in her critical godliness to bestow unto me this gift.
And what a happy subject too…?
Flashes back to when Lindsey did a loose canon on death. I like that she added more on that topic in literature.
I just read The Book Thief last month. Such a damn good book.
I'm glad you didn't gloss over Neil Gaiman's version of Death. Comics mostly aren't but have the ability to be literature.
I actually liked that Death. reminded me a lot of that one Twilight Zone episode where Death just wants to help an old lady, and she's scared stiff of him (of course, he was trying to help her pass on).
Mictlan - Meek-tlan - one of the underworlds.
Mictlantecuhtli - Meek-Tlan-Te-ku-(asperation h)-tlee - Male personified ruler of the underworld.
Mictecacihuatl - Meek-te-ka-see-watl - Female personified ruler of the underworld.
Nahuatl - Na-watl
I have tons of videos that I make Nahuatl easy. I usually overstress my lips when I pronounce it since many native speakers don't do that, but hard for a non-native speaker to pick up the sound.
Update: I uploaded on how to pronounce them on my CZcams channel.
Thanks!
I uploaded a video on my channel on how to pronounce the terms.
And for other languages, "Bürger" is pronounced more "Bier-gehr", not "Byooger". :-D
@@snorpenbass4196 ?
Gracias por instruirlos, ya estaba buscando si alguien lo habia puesto en los comentarios sino para ponerlo
I'm so glad Lenore got a mention! I spent a period of my early adolescence slightly obsessed with that poem, and almost nobody knows about it.
Like...I memorized it.
In two languages.
True confession: I spent the entire video waiting for the mention of Pratchett's Death.
Me too.
Me too.
GNU Terry Pratchett.
Me too.
GNU
Speak his name.
this and Gaiman's Death
Oh God. I never saw that Twitter feed. That legit made me cry. Because it was only recently that I decided to take the plunge and fell in love with Discworld. And the first book I bought, was the Hogfather. Because the idea of Death, a being who “takes”, giving something to humans instead was such a novelty for me, I couldn’t put it down in the book store. The pretty cover illustration by Joe McClaren didnt help either
You might not be aware, but the BBC has done adaptations, both animated and live-action, of several of the Discworld novels, including Hogfather as one of the live-action ones (Lindsey shows a still from it with Susan here at 7:32). You should check it out; it's online, and one of my family's favourite Christma--er, Hogswatchnight films. :)
Welcome to Discworld. The books are amazing.
My favorite one and I've read them all. I also recommend Reaper Man, Death gets retired.
@@giladpellaeon1691 Reaper Man, Nation, and the Tiffany novels are Pratchett's most poetic writing.
@@qwertyTRiG I'd also say Hogfather, Deaths speech at the end about why humans need to believe in things that don't exist, that's some of his most poetic stuff right there.
@@101Mant You're right. It's a great moment.
Honestly, I think one of the reasons Book Thief ended up being my favorite book is because I love that particular personification of Death so much.
I'm not sure if there is an english translation. But in Jose Saramago's "Las intermitencias de la muerte", a country suffers a great problem when death just decides to stop working and in the end becomes a woman. It's one of my favorite books ever.
Death is trans? :D
@Have An Ice Day Yeah there is an English version! I read it and it was pretty good. It's called "Death with Interruptions"
That sounds wild. I'm definitely going to try to find a copy.
@@xRaiofSunshine Maybe this version of death is already feminine. "The Book of Life" is not really mythology but it did portray La Muerte as a sassy death lady.
In southern Europe, death personification is always a female
Death in Discworld was my favorite. R.I.P. Terry, I hope you and Death are having a good time full of laughs together :)
Reincarnation has shown up in his books, so I like to imagine there's some cheeky four year-old out there with a bloody sharp sense of humor and a fondness for wide-brimmed hats.
Its weird for me to see death being refered to as a He, because in Portuguese, Death is a female noun.
In latin literature, death is almost always portraited as a woman, usually sometimes seductive, like in Marvel and DC comics.
That's really interesting to me.
So interesting!
@Mullerornis Hela isn't the goddess of death. She's the goddess of the dead. Specifically, the dead that are not claimed by the Aesir, Vanir, or anyone else.
I never noticed that the two most mainstream interpretations of death in comics are female. There is probably an essay in that somewhere
@Mullerornis Hel is more akin to Hades than Death, as the video mentions. She rules the (non-warrior) dead when they're in hell but she does not guide the dying nor cause death itself.
one day I’ll stop tearing up every time someone mentions Terry Pratchett but today is not the day
This was freaking delightful. I really enjoy how she casually throws out phrases like "Edgar Allen Poe's Big Mood". PBS, you did real good by hiring Lindsay.
I've really come to love the Discworld's Death. I'm agnostic but I dearly hope that if there is an afterlife it's as comforting as I find Pratchett's black sand walk with such a delightfully odd fellow. We could talk cats . I'm always pro personifications who love cats!
"Come on say it come on say iiiit..."
"Yep, it's time to talk about Terry Pratchett."
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS QUEEN!"
"Edgar Allen Poe, and his big mood"
Did you just-? I give up. I'll never write anything as brilliant as that one line
"Lenore inspires the likes of Edgar Allen Poe and his big mood..." [3:54]
I immediately paused the video to click the 'like' button.
Something that took me multiple readings of Pratchett to get was that in the Death focused books the main antagonists were beings described as "those who see to it that gravity operates and that time stays separate from space. Call them auditors. Auditors of reality.".
Without ever saying it out loud, Sir Terry had multiple books that were Death Vs Taxes.
Also I'm going for Immortality. 100% success rate so far.
Keep up the great work!
Sssh, don't jinx it, he's got a good thing going!
Best depiction not listed: Der Tod (literally “The Death”) in Michael Kunze’s German-language musical Elizabeth, which follows the eponymous empress of Austria through the mid-to-late 19th century, whom she has a literal affair. He also interacts with the other characters, such as her son Rudolf.
Lindsay, it makes me unreasonably happy that you co-wrote this episode with Lisa and Nella. I know you're distancing yourself from your old NC videos, but you three always did great and solid work together. Add Angelina to that mix and you've got an amazing collaborative team!
Persephone is hands down my favorite of the greek pantheon. A lovely flower maiden who is the personification of spring time itself and also the queen of death and whose job it is to make all curses made by any man's dieing breath come to pass. Don't let anyone put you in a box children. Shoot for the stars
And don't forget, guys, Maven of the Eventide aka Elisa Hansen has her new novel The Company of Death coming out soon! Check out her CZcams channel for more info!
Where death is a main character.
Always felt Dicken's Ghost of Christmas Yet-to-Come was actually Death.
Another favorite of mine is Pier's Anthony's "On a Pale Horse".
I love Incarnations of Immortality. Death (and the other incarnations) were interesting in that they weren't characters so much as stations.
@@lotus-prince On a Pale Horse was really good, by far my favorite of the series. The only one that even came close to being as good was For Love of Evil. I too liked that the Incarnations were more jobs that somebody had to do, rather than personifications.
@@charlesajones77 For Love of Evil was brilliant, for sure.
Came to the comments for On a Pale Horse. Easily my favorite book by Anthony, inside the series or out, and a very interesting take on the office of death, as well as heaven and hell.
Such a good series. I've worn out multiple copies of all 8 books.
The Terry Pratchett thing made me tear up.
Pratchett’s iteration of Death is one of my favorites, though I do also enjoy Piers Anthony’s take on Death in his book On a Pale Horse. It’s similar to A Dirty Job where Death is an occupation that anybody can conceivably step into, but the catch is that you have to kill the previous Death. A man named Zane is done with life and resolved to kill himself, Death shows up just as he’s about to, Zane then freaks out and ends up shooting Death in the head instead of taking his own life, effectively taking up the occupation of Death in the process. The story is basically about him figuring out how to be Death while also thwarting the machinations of Satan, the incarnation of Evil (who also gets his own book much later in the 8-part series).
Excellent timing on this video, as I'd just started reading Pratchett's Reaper Man. I've recently been reading through the series (roughly in publication order) and it's cool how, even though the stories are largely independent, there's still a sense of character progression even for Death.
bless you for referencing "the book of revelation," Singular. every time someone talks about "the book of revelationS," i die a little inside.
"A Dirty Job"" sounds pretty similar to the TV Show Dead Like Me, which I hope someone will eventually reboot since apparently EVERYTHING gets rebooted nowadays.
Reboot got a reboot. Its getting very meta, but not that good.
That and Pushing Daisies were two of my favorite shows when I was a teenager.
Dead Like Me/Six Feet Under crossover reboot
It was somewhat similar in the fact that it's ordinary people who are sort of ferrying souls but it differs in several ways. I loved both. I didn't care for the sequel book as much though. Sadly Moore hasn't done many good follow up books to his stand alone works since his vampire series imo. The follow up to his book Fool was equally poor.
Preach!
Showing those Pratchett tweets again definitely DIDN'T make me tear up.
Of course it didn't. It was the onion fairies.
ALWAYS HERE TO TALK ABOUT TERRY PRATCHETT
4:01 that story aged so well!
Not going to lie, the Terry Pratchett tweet got me crying.
As one of the many fans who openly weeped at Terry's death, magnified by the poignancy of the Twitter announcement, I always appreciate Discworld analysis, and have always loved your spreading the world about probably the best portrayal of Death in fiction.
LINDSAY ELLIS ON PBS IS THE BEST THING EVER.... now I have a reason to live.
The Book Theif was one of my favorite novels!
WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?
Der Brandner Kaspar is a story that I always felt to be one of the most Bavarian stories ever with one of the most Bavarian sounding titles and the author has just a typical Bavarian name. But I have never heard a non-german speaking person try to pronounce its title and author. You did your best and I am impressed you made it seem so effortless, but it was still very funny :-D
Lindsay is a national treasure. I'm only subbed because of this series honestly.
I remember watching Jim Henson’s “the storyteller” when death was captured. People were miserable because they could not die and eventually death had to be freed. One of the scariest things I saw as a kid.
That "Ahem" had me rolling! Oh Lindsay , don't ever change :D
Lindsay you're killing it.
I love "the kindered" from "LoL" as a death concept. Death grew lonely for everyone feared them, so they split themselfs in half to never be alone again. Now they are the wolf and the lamb, opposite but the same, the brutal death you fight and the peaceful one you embrace. Everyone will meet them, but one can chose which one of them takes you.
My favourite literary Death is definitely Sir Terry’s.
But my favourite film/tv death is the Death on Supernatural. “I’m old, Dean, very old.” He loves fried foods, and he has the best character introduction of all characters ever put on film. Ever.
The Twilight Zone had an episode where Death was a nice young man played by Robert Redford, helping an elderly lady cope with her upcoming death and stop being afraid.
Death from the Discworld novels is exactly how the reaper should be to me.
Daaamn Lindsey, you really pulled off that German pronunciation for Der Brandner Kaspar's author. Nice job 👌
Love Lindsay watch all her videos
The interpretation here of Poe's 'The Masque of the Red Death', maybe the most spectacularly terrifying thing I've yet seen on CZcams. !
It's so funny that this comes out today; I just got Elisa Hansen's novel "The Company of Death", which has a personified Death in it!
Since she and Elisa Hansen are friends, I wonder if this is more than just coincidence.
@@davidwit7749 According to the credits, Elisa was one of the writers and the fact checker for this video, so probably.
The timing is coincidence, but the subject matter is something always near and dear to my heart ;)
Lindsay on PBS, this is amazing! GO LINDSAY!
How many writers do you have working on a single video? The number of references per episode is really impressive
In the credits at the end it listed four writers.
Credits are also in the description under the video
I should not feel spoiled but the realization of "people die when they are killed" is still rather strange at times when talkng aobut literally works
Warhammer 40.000 gave us the stunning idea that all depictions of death in various cultures and species are an imprint left by a mighty alien being known as the Nightbringer, an entity that consumes individuals and entire civilations and even suns with ease
Loving this series. Keep Lindsay around!
You have a miraculous talent for summating such a grand concept in 9 minutes, completely amazing Lindsay
Another book for anyone in a Grim Reaper-sorta mood has to be Piers Anthony's "On A Pale Horse", book one of the Incarnations of Immortality series.
In Spanish, I read a book called "la ciudad de los tisicos" which means "the city of the ill" and there is an interesting desceiption of the types of personified death. The andean death is a strong man with a drum. He is gentile and he takes the souls as old friends. I like that idea too.
Imagine: when you're born you're given a death doll that's identified to you but instead of your face it has a skull mask and your last words imprinted on their skin. Their main purpose is to serve as your own personal grim reaper when you die and escort your soul to the appropriate afterlife. Their secondary purpose is to serve as a guardian angel of first while you're alive. They function similarly to a ghost or an imaginary friend where only you and possibly a medium can truly see them but they are fully aware you and each other and have a society that's almost near identical to ours. They are fully sentient and have their own personalities that usually compliment their assignments and have almost full autonomy with the only limitation being that they can't physically harm you. It is possible to fall in love with a death doll (I'll just call then Grims because it sounds better and I need to justify my channel name) and hybrids do exist but they are largely treated as outcasts due to their innate ability to completely transcend the boundaries of life and death (they're basically sentient zombies).
I let out an audible yay when Terry Pratchett's Death was mentioned. I now realize I was waiting the entire video for it.
One of my favorite current YA book series is the Arc of the Scythe, which takes place in a future where people can no longer die naturally. In order to keep the population under control there are Scythes, who were once regular people but now have the job of having to kill people in order to maintain the population. It is really interesting because it explores how our mortality shapes us and takes a critical look at technology without being like "hurr durr technology bad". It also sheds light on the problem of people just blindly accepting things at face value instead of thinking critically.
An old Loose Canon episode got… reincarnated.
I can't wait for the It's Lit version of Moulin Rouge
@@culwin There's a novel based on Toulouse-Lautrec called Moulin Rouge, so never say never.
This was really great Lindsay! just wonderful work
Need more Lindsay Ellis! PBS Digital Studios take note!
Great episode, keep em coming Lindsay!
I always get excited when there is a HP reference
Lindsay Ellis is a treasure!
It's great you're working for PBS. You really deserve it.
My favorite representation of death is the Lone Power from The Young Wizard series by Diane Duane. Complex and scary.
"It's time to talk about Terry Pratchett" [distant cheering]
I was getting close to the end and was wondering, "are we really going to talk about Death and not Terry Pratchett???" Thank you, this was lovely.
Does anyone else watch all of these twice? Once just to enjoy the video and the second time to note down books to add to your "to read" list... :)
One of my favorite Books with a protagonist Death is Piers Anthony's "On A Pale Horse" Where the main character is about to commit suicide, but then Death appears (that Death got sloppy) and instead turns the gun on Death. Killing Death. And in doing so, he becomes the new Death Incarnation.
This is a sequel to the Loose Canon episode I didn't know I needed.
I can't tell you how much I love PBS and their Science/literature shows on youtube...
Lindsay on PBS... That makes my OCD purr.
I simply love Lindsey
I kind of live under a rock and I had no idea Lindsey Ellis was doing stuff with PBS. Pretty damn cool
Piers Anthony also has a heroic depiction of Death in his book, On a Pale Horse.
See, now I just want to see a collab with Caitlin Doughty. Your respective presentation pacing is similar in a way that would fit together really well.
HERE FOR THIS
YES PLEASE
Well-played on the "Paul is dead" joke buried in there
Sad that José Saramago's Death from "Death with Interruptions" didn't make the cut, she's one of the best ones!
Still a lovely video though, thanks!
I had it in our draft for this video, but it sadly got cut for time.
@@MavenoftheEventide ooooh. Great video still :)
My absolutely favourite (short) story about death is "Death and the Ugly Woman" by Bruce D. Arthurs in the 1987 "Sword and Sorceress IV" Anthology presented by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I've read it so many times - and it always sends shivers down my spine and moves me deeply. Thank you for a very informative and well edited video!
:eyeroll:When I got youtube to finally STOP showing me suggestions to watch her channel, you hire her.
Another great video! Thank you!
Years after my first encounters with Sir Terry Pratchett's work, I still feel comforted when I think of Death as just Bill Door.
Isn’t the point of the game of chess in the seventh seal that Antonius can’t win the game, only stall the inevitable. So I’d argue that the seventh seal might be the inspiration to, but isn’t the origin of the game-playing/gambling reaper trope since the game is lost before it’s even begun, the outcome inescapable.
That last one made me cry