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This is an image
of Jeremy Bentham's "auto-icon."
I talk about him in an article I've written, "Divining an Author:
The Idea of Authorship in an Indian Religious Tradition," that
was publishing in the journal History
of Religions in February, which is online through most University
libraries, such as Penn's.
Here is the first
paragraph of that article:
| "No one
quite understands why Jeremy Bentham, the British radical philosopher
and mentor to eminent Orientalist James Mill, would choose a closet
in a hall of University College, London, to be his tomb. The spectacle
of the "auto-icon," as he named the morbid installation
prescribed in his will, puzzles almost anyone who sees it. His cadaver,
as per his directions, was dissected and embalmed; his organs he
donated to science. His vacated body was clad in his favorite suit
and placed in a chair, with a wax replica of his head set atop his
remains and finished with glass eyes. Some legends claim he carried
those ocular marbles around with him in his pockets in the years
before his death in 1832. All that remains now of the auto-icon
is Bentham's skeleton, padded with straw, seated beside his favorite
writing table, and dressed to the nines. Accessorized with cane
and hat, the bones of his lifeless hands rest lightly on his empty
pant legs. It is said that from time to time Bentham's head is removed
and soberly carted into the assembly of the College Council faculty,
where his disembodied presence is dutifully noted in the meeting's
minutes like this: 'Jeremy Bentham-present, but not voting.'"....
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