Zetageist, the one and only Zetageist. Supreme bean. Succulent connoisseur. Best swordsman in all of Morrowind. Wastelander. Known to scribble and ramble so check out my links.
Five miles on the dot, in the middle of nowhere, was a nostalgic desert oasis. The googie sign caught his eye first, sun-faded and buzzing red starbursts and a blue arrow declared it as advertised, Hell’s Half-Acre Diner and Motel. An upswept and devilishly sharp chrome roof shaded a row of sleek motorcycles kissing the curb underneath. Sun-bathing cars watched the highway, glinting proudly and begging for their sharp tailfins and pastel shades to be admired for enduring the centuries out here untouched. Across the dirt lot, was the motel; a lengthy two-story teal and white trimmed building lacking the diner’s hubbub. Desert wind chipped away the white trim of wood eaves. Rust devoured iron rails gating the balcony and stairs. Faded verdigris and white circles sticking out of its slanted roof hinted it may have had its own name in its hey-day but now it stood there in the shadow of the diner like a red-headed step-child.
This is one of several illustrations I made for Hell's Bells, a New Vegas fanfic that got a little weird.
DevArt for full size and quality.
I had fun with this painting as it was quite different and experimental than anything else I had done. Landscapes, architecture, and vehicles are particularly challenging as I mainly do character art. I think the perspective of the vehicles looks a little wonky and visually too close to the references I used, but still love this one. The architecture of the building is based on the Union 76 gas station Crescent Drive and Little Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills, CA.
Red. The corridor before them blazed red—not the warm red of sunset or the deep crimson of wine, but something violent and wrong. The walls seemed to pulse with it, like the inside of some vast, living thing. The carpet beneath his feet writhed with patterns that shouldn't exist. Abstract shapes hurt his eyes to look at directly and seemed to change when he looked away. Vincent's boots sank into the pile, each step meeting resistance as if the floor itself was trying to hold him back.
Horror | Elsewhere | Drama | karma's a bitch, but I'm the devil
This is an excerpt from a essay on the ethics of private ownership of human remains not for educational, conservation ship, or cultural practices.
The ethical dilemmas surrounding ownership of human remains primarily stem from the lack of informed consent and the exploitation of marginalized communities. Remains were collected from grave robbing or exploited poor families who could not afford to bury their deceased loved ones, usually under the guise of scientific inquiry to further our understanding of the human condition (Potter 2023). One major institution, the National Museum of Natural History, holds over 30,000 human remains, many of which lack clear documentation of their origins (Potter 2023). Poor record keeping and high personnel turnover contribute to the difficulty of addressing the origins of these remains, complicating efforts to ensure ethical stewardship (Licata et al. 2020).
While some of these specimens can be repatriated to living descendants through the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), others, regardless of ancestry, will eventually be de-accessioned from institutions and change ownership through various means. For those who do not want skeletal specimens second hand, a thriving online market persists. Websites like Skulls Unlimited and JonsBones will sell to anyone while other platforms like eBay and Instagram host anonymous sales or advertisements of online stores to buy skeletal material, ranging from teaching specimens to “tribal” artifacts (Licata et al. 2020). Skulls Unlimited claims “commitment to ethical sourcing” but does not specify if this applies to their human or animal collections and does not go into further detail on their products’ respective pages. JonsBones admonishes the notion of ethical sourcing as being too vague of a concept, so they invented their own vague concept of “responsible sourcing”. It is somehow better because “our bones are certified bones from the medical trade.” (Ferry, Jon). If this is the same “medical trade” that benefited from 18th and 19th century antiquarianism, grave robbing, and before India’s ban of trading human remains is unclear.
What happens to these remains once in the hands of private ownership is dubious at best. Some people collect “oddities” that range from skeletal remains belonging to humans, non-humans, to the stereotypical specimen in a jar of formaldehyde for their display. This ethically dubious enterprise does not stop at home and office décor. Simply searching the terms “real human bone jewelry” or a similar combination, will lead to online stores selling such items. Curiosities from the 5th Corner, sells a variety of items made from modified human remains, allegedly from remains “over 100 years old”. However, if institutions like the National Museum of Natural History or numerous universities have trouble keeping track of their specimens’ provenance, why should I trust this website? Not to mention remains this old, if they are, should be in an archaeological collection supervised and conserved by competent professionals educated and trained to do so.
There is no shortage of cadaver capers. Southern Nevada Donor Services offers free cremation for families in exchange for donating their deceased loved one under the guise of “advanced medical studies.” However, in 2015 complaints of smells, bloody boxes in dumpsters, and one employee thawing out a frozen human torso with a garden hose (Grow and Shiffman, 2017) reveals the heinous origin of some of these contemporary skeletons.
A recurring theme of apathy stands at the forefront of this issue. These sellers all push a specific narrative to justify their businesses. Curiosities from the 5th Corner responds to the question of if this practice is disrespectful with: “My personal opinion is that you can only disrespect the living.” I find this disingenuous as with the rest of the FAQ this quote is taken from. A similar store, Death Isn’t the End, discusses the origin of their skeletons and other opinions; “I have come across skulls over the years that have been grossly mistreated and damaged, whether it be from accidental drops, occult type ceremony or even malicious intent. These pieces are sometimes very old or some are new and vary in history from museum or private collections to medical schools or colleges and high school science classes and they always made me sad for the destruction of a wonderful thing and for the disrespect of the person it once was.” Somehow creating jewelry from these acquired specimens isn’t a destructive nor disrespectful process, but the most revealing and audacious quote in their about me page is: “I felt that I had found a way to take this neglected and broken skull and give it back respect.”
JonsBones takes this presumptuous attitude farther by disguising their enterprise as educational and equitable because “not everyone has the same access to museums, medical collections, or artifacts that explain and cultivate the science behind bones” and “we actively bridge the gap between the anthropological community and the general public to make osteology more approachable.” The applied anthropological thing to do, in my undergrad opinion, is to indeed give equitable access. However, JonsBones is a store that sells items at price tags equitable only to the wealthy, a demographic that has no shortage of educational access. Certainly, with the profits gained from sales of these items and admission to The Bone Museum, JonsBones could donate to chronically underfunded school districts or fund scholarships for students pursuing biological anthropology, forensics, and fields that utilize human osteology. Unfortunately, this will not happen because it is more profitable to sell and display “responsibly sourced” human remains.
To respond to Curiosities from the 5th Corner’s opinion, this does disrespect the living. It disrespects living descendants, marginalized populations, and continues to feed a market with already dubious tactics and precarious origins as discussed previously. In a majority capitalist world that pushes boundaries in the pursuit of profit with little to no oversight, the commodification of the human body will not stop with one’s bones at the end of a natural lifespan. This fact has already played out historically with the 19th century duo William Burke and William Hare who murdered an estimated sixteen people to sell their bodies to Dr. Robert Knox’s anatomy school (University of Edinburgh).
Licata, Marta et al. “Study, conservation and exhibition of human remains: the need of a bioethical perspective.” Acta bio-medica : Atenei Parmensis vol. 91,4 e2020110. 7 Oct. 2020, doi:10.23750/abm.v91i4.9674
Potter, Lisa. “Ethical Considerations for Human Remains.” https://attheu.utah.edu, University of Utah, 15 May 2023, https://attheu.utah.edu/facultystaff/ethical-considerations-for-human-remains/.
“Burke and Hare.” The University of Edinburgh, https://medicine-vet-medicine.ed.ac.uk/about/history/burke-and-hare. Accessed 27 Nov. 2024.
"Sorry, hon," Ruby whispered. Her graveled voice cracked when the long column of ash on her wasted cigarette drifted to the counter. "This isn't one you're gonna win."
Horror | Elsewhere | Drama | karma's a bitch, but I'm the devil
The world no longer existed beyond the purple-red hue chilling the glass. Its unnatural color was a constant reminder that he wasn't in Vegas anymore. He was beginning to think he wasn't even on Earth. But for now, in this moment of fleeting peace, he did what he always did. The only thing he could do as an impotent sack of flesh at the mercy of everything that could possibly go wrong—be determined to survive no matter the odds.
Horror | Elsewhere | Drama | karma's a bitch, but I'm the devil
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