Marauders #11: To Live and Die on Krakoa

[superboyprime]

'But more significant to me is that image of Kate’s cremation, her body set to sea, engulfed in fire. Engulfed, yes, but destined to rise again. Kate will return to us in a way that her family, and my family, and six million others could not. She is the Jewish woman who will not perish in the flames, the bush that burns but is not consumed. She will not be obliterated from the history of her people. “Never say that there is only death for you,” begin the lyrics of the old Polish partisan song, sung by Jewish resistors in the darkest days of the war. On Krakoa, death is not the end. It cannot be. Kate, Jewish, mutant, will endure. To life, indeed.' - Zach Rabiroff, Kate Pryde, Peoplehood, And Surviving The Flames

Comments

[jlbarnett]

metaphors as storytelling devices so rarely work for me.

I can understand what he's trying to do with her surviving the flames, but to do that requires her loved ones to choose to cremate her.

And Judaism is pretty against cremation as I understand

[akodo_rokku]

I feel like the Jewish author of that article might have the best take.

[jlbarnett]

Sorry. I pay very little attention to comic book writers if I can help it so I thought that quote was by the writer of the story

[akodo_rokku]

No problem. I'd recommend giving the article a read though!

I'm not Jewish myself, but I know from at least one very good Jewish friend that views on things like tattoos and cremation can vary greatly by sect.

[alicemacher]

Jewish person here. I can confirm cremation is forbidden by traditional Jewish law, which stipulates the integrity of the human body is to be respected. Even among non-religious Jewish families the practice is rare in comparison to non-Jewish families. While some rabbis of the more liberal denominations do choose to officiate at the funeral of someone who's been cremated, to the best of my knowledge no denomination actively encourages cremation.

That said, I just now did a quick Google search (keywords: judaism, cremation), and the first sponsored result is for a Long Island Jewish funeral home which has a page giving a long explanation of why cremation is strongly discouraged -- yet they offer it as a service anyway. Heh.

[angelophile]

That is one take.

Others do not share their sentiment.

[deh_tommy]

Given Krakoa’s shunning/mockery of almost anything culturally human and how Nightcrawler’s gone off to make his own religion with blackjack and hookers, I’d honestly be surprised if they remembered Kitty’s meant to be Jewish or if they don’t have her do something accidentally offensive.

Speaking of X-Men and human culture, where’s Dust in all this?

[aperturedreams]

Her Judaisim has actually been a semi-significant part of the run and especially the issue, with the star of david making an appearance, and right in these scans the emphasis on the number Eighteen refers to the number's importance in Judasism

[deh_tommy]

Colour me surprised, then (though I’m a bit iffy on the whole cremation thing).

[aperturedreams]

Yeah, I feel that way too myself.

[miramira]

I am deeply distracted by how little that subway scene resembles the DC Metro.

[sabertoothlotus]

Oh, good. It isn't just me, then.

[jlbarnett]

yeah, the DC Metro looks nothing like a New York subway

[shakalooloo]

So did Krakoa grow back a copy of her coat as well, given that they burned it with her body?

[donnblake]

Probably- they've got enough reality warpers, matter re-arrangers, and fashion designers (if he's not busy facing off against Callisto in mutant fight club) that they probably could produce a coat in fairly short order.

I mean, arguably it wouldn't be the *same* coat that Kitty lost, but if you're going to start worrying about those questions on Krakoa, you probably don't start with the wardrobe.