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December 11, 2009

Death and the Panopticon

Filed under: Academic — Jed @ 11:24 pm

Quick and crazy factoid for the night:

Upon his death, Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) (of Panopticon fame) asked to be permanently embalmed and kept at the University of London, where his corpse “now fitted with a head made of wax, is regularly wheeled into college meetings, where it is duly recorded in the minutes as ‘present, but not voting’” (Hijiya, 1983, p. 356)

Talk about persistence. A-mazing.


3 Responses to “Death and the Panopticon”

  1. boo Says:

    …ensuring that he is always watching and being watched. brilliant!

  2. David Says:

    especially in the double sense of “brilliant” in current UK English, equivalent to unusually intelligent and way cool. The UK is weird and whacky. I love it.

  3. Kimberly Says:

    That is funny!

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