Gazing at a dead parent’s face feels like violation yet demands continuation

Evidence

The idea that I could scrutinise this face unhindered for the first time was almost unbearable. It felt like an act of violation. At the same time I sensed a hunger, an insatiability that demanded I keep looking at him, at this dead body that a few days earlier had been my father. — Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family, 1210

Categorization

• SEED: Material for a meditation on the ethics and psychology of looking at corpses — why the openness of the dead face is both forbidden and compelling.
• XREF: connects to: A mother’s unconditional care for her abandoner overrides even the threat of death — , A Year of World Stories, 8422; The presence of a deceased loved one can feel real during mourning. — Hamlin Garland Munseys, A Daughter of the Middle Border, 1059

Broader Connections

• The presence of a deceased loved one can feel real during mourning. #expands (0.50) — Hamlin Garland Munseys, A Daughter of the Middle Border, 1059