
What Neapolitans understand about death (better than most) - Vigier
https://lithub.com/what-neapolitans-understand-about-death-better-than-most/
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Dansvidania
I am from Naples, and we do have a bit of a thing for death, but I doubt the
average Neapolitan knows any more than any other average citizen anywhere
else.

I think people in Naples might, if anything, care and think less about death
than your average person.

Neapolitan people, for better or for worse, tend to have a "day to day"
attitude to life (which contributes to what makes the city a mess)

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gregorygoc
Doesn’t a mess come from mafia controlling dumpster companies or something
like that? By the way, I love this place called pizzeria da Michele. Best
pizza in the world.

~~~
Dansvidania
Oh and Michele makes hands down the most representative pizza of the
Neapolitan style. It happens to be my personal favorite too :D

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simonebrunozzi
Obligatory mention: "'A Livella" is the most famous poem on death by one of
the most well known Neapolitan actor, Totò. [0]

[0]:
[https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27A_livella](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27A_livella)

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occamrazor
Death announcements on the walls are common everywhere in Italy, not just in
Naples. They are a very effective way to let people know when and where the
funeral is, better than obituaries in newspapers.

~~~
anthk
That's is the same in all of the Southern Europe, not just Italy. Odd coming
from a Spaniard when for sure she saw literally thousands in her life.

~~~
pjmlp
Indeed, confirming the Portugal and Greece inclusion on the "all".

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EugenioPerea
_Mexicans slightly raise one eyebrow._

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Deukhoofd
Having driven in Naples, I'm not surprised Neapolitans are intimately familiar
with death...

~~~
twunde
To be fair, for Italians to get a driving license they need to go through a
fairly intense driving school (much more intense than in the US). As such,
you'll regularly see Italians drive in a "risky" manner because they know the
other drivers on the road are more competent AND because their driving skills
are actually better

~~~
agumonkey
I've always wondered if more skilled drivers would equate to low
accident/death rates or not.

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RickJWagner
What is the user experience after you die?

Ah, that's probably the greatest question of all time.

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DrNuke
You just go into some deeeeep sleep and never wake up again?

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scoutt
Some say you reboot and a new instance of yourself is generated inside another
type of container.

~~~
DrNuke
Not so sure I want to try that, which is exactly the most fundamental
conundrum I wanted naughtily to downplay here... ehehe...

~~~
aruggirello
The manual states that only a clean exit may result in a new instance. Any
core dumps will surely piss off the Great Maintainer.

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viggity
This is related to the topic, but not this specific article. I used to have a
really, really, really tough time with death. I spent far too much time
thinking about it, trying to avoid it. There was a show on showtime called
"Dead Like Me" (its available for free on prime). It had a profound effect on
me, I don't obsess over death anymore and that is a gigantic relief. Hell, I
only watched one season 10 years ago, but its stuck with me. I hope this helps
anyone that has gone through something similar.

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cathyreisenwitz
Reminds me of this [http://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/resources/death-
positive-...](http://www.orderofthegooddeath.com/resources/death-positive-
movement)

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natmaka
The bibliography cannot be complete without C. Malaparte 'La pelle' ('The
Skin') book.

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david927
_In both, visitors can see the skulls and bones of people who died in the
1600s—a century full of devastations, including the Black Plague and the
eruption of the Vesuvius volcano—and didn’t receive a proper burial._

The Black Plague was in the mid-1300s. There was a bubonic plague outbreak
there in the 1600s, though, which probably caused the confusion.

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EdwardDiego
I read the article, never found the bit about what Neapolitans understand
about death better than most. If they're trying to say that Neapolitans
understand better than most that death is always near, and is an integral part
of the human experience, may I recommend travelling further afield and
broadening one's experiences? Then you'd find that Neapolitans aren't overly
special at all, and that the author is a little excitable.

~~~
inciampati
The only particularity of Napoli might be the incredible depth of historical
detritus that covers it and fills the caverns beneath the historic center.
Death is ever present because dead things (and people) tend to hang around a
long time.

I don't know where the habit comes from, but there just isn't the same kind of
intense urge to clean and purify public space as in other European and western
cities. But it's not that people aren't careful about cleanliness. Rather,
that energy is spent inside the house.

Then there are the active volcanoes in, under, and around the city. Every day
you see Vesuvius. And frequently, you think about the supervolcanic complex at
Campi Flegrei, whose last major eruption is sometimes credited with wiping out
a hominid subspecies. These really twist your perception of the future and the
possibility of destruction. Maybe this effect has diminished because Vesuvius
has been quiet, but it seems to rest on in the culture. I'd say this is much
more important than any cave full of bones.

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pjlegato
> there just isn't the same kind of intense urge to clean and purify public
> space as in other European and western cities

This is rather a gross romanticization of the situation. It's not at all that
the exotic people of Naples are somehow essentially different and just don't
feel a squeamish need to clean public spaces, as in other cities. Most
Neapolitans strongly wish the city was much cleaner.

An ongoing dispute between the local government and organized crime has
resulted in minimal trash collection since the 1980s, as part of efforts to
pressure the city government.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naples_waste_management_crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naples_waste_management_crisis)

