Charles Duff (1) (1894–1966)

The other day in the news I heard a story about a dog at a shelter that had been "humanely put to sleep". Only, he wasn't really put to sleep permanently, and woke up in a bin full of his former doggy comrades--all of them indeed corpses. They called it a "miracle" and had him set up for adoption again.

Immediately, A Handbook on Hanging sprang to mind. It's a book I had read nearly a year ago, but had never really left my mind, especially when something like this comes to light; and in fact, when you make the "victim" going to die a cute little dog versus a supposedly guilty criminal, it might seem to take on quite a different light at first.

But I think the basic ideas remain the same--they are facts and ideas that this book had brought together a long, long time ago, in a rather sarcastic "mock-umentary" type format. Duff brings to clear light ideas and misconceptions about the process of dying, particularly when you are supposedly humanely forcing it on another living thing. Whatever the manner of execution, it really can be seen as quite an "art", where specific numbers are to be calculated, and if one is even remotely wrong, things can be disastrous.

Whether you are for the death penalty, against it, or never really thought to question the ideas of your country, it makes you wonder if there is really any humane death at all, and whether our methods of killing aren't as infallible as our justice system may be.… (más)

This book is a real oddity, and one well worth the read. A searing polemic indicting the death penalty in England (which was primarily by hanging, but he also touches on other methods of execution), in the guise of a defense of the executioner. Duff's style makes me think of a mid-20th century British version of Stephen Colbert. The NYRB rerelease will primarily be preaching to the choir, but as the book's description states, no matter what your views on capital punishment, you cannot come away from this book without realizing that no matter what else capital punishment is, "it is certainly killing."… (más)

1862 Six Days To Shake an Empire, by Charles Duff (read 25 Aug 1984) I have long wanted to read a good account of the Easter Rising which began in Dublin on Easter Monday, Apr 24, 1916, and ended the following Saturday. This is an account of that rebellion and its suppression and of the final struggle for self-government--with an Epilogue on the dissolution of the British Empire and the British Commonwealth of Nations. It is a 1966 book written with a sheer pro-Irish bias. It is by no means the definitive history but it tells the story quite well and was worth reading.… (más)