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424th out of 3,882 books
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4,067 voters
Severance: Stories
The human head is believed to remain in a state of consciousness for one and one-half minutes after decapitation. In a heightened state of emotion, people speak at the rate of 160 words per minute. Inspired by the intersection of these two seemingly unrelated concepts, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler wrote sixty-two stories, each exactly 240 words in lengt...more
Hardcover, 264 pages
Published
August 10th 2006
by Chronicle Books
(first published 2006)
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My book cover blurb: "The decapitation one is better than the sex one."
I didn't exactly walk away from reading Butler's similarly structured book, Intercourse, with much love in my heart, so I felt like I could go into this one and out the other end with a similar outcome. This was actually the one that caught my attention first and interested me more than the one in which we read the one-page of thought from a person as they get know someone else, Biblically. At the time that I first stumbled u...more
I didn't exactly walk away from reading Butler's similarly structured book, Intercourse, with much love in my heart, so I felt like I could go into this one and out the other end with a similar outcome. This was actually the one that caught my attention first and interested me more than the one in which we read the one-page of thought from a person as they get know someone else, Biblically. At the time that I first stumbled u...more
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Whether or not this is deserved, I associate Chronicle Books with titles like "Photographs of Kitschy 1970s-Era Cartoon Themed Garden Implements" and "Naughty Ilustrated Haiku By Cheesecake Models of the Mid-Fifties." This book is kind of in that vein, except the theme here is decapitation (and there are, thankfully, no pictures).
This here, consistent with my stereotype of Chronicle Books, is a gimmick. The gimmick is the idea that a person remains conscious for a minute and half after being beh...more
This here, consistent with my stereotype of Chronicle Books, is a gimmick. The gimmick is the idea that a person remains conscious for a minute and half after being beh...more
Sep 17, 2007
Darga
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
morbids, poetry lovers, history buffs who like poetry a little, agnostics
Shelves:
how-to-be-human
a collection of "short stories" from variously famous and unknown victims of decapitation in the moments after they've lost their heads.
he calls them short stories but i say they're poetry. they each follow a structure (a set amount of words which he estimates a person could think in the amount of time which people are estimated to be able to think after decapitation), and the imagery is often intense and beautiful.
i found the best way to read this was one or a few of these per night, so as to...more
he calls them short stories but i say they're poetry. they each follow a structure (a set amount of words which he estimates a person could think in the amount of time which people are estimated to be able to think after decapitation), and the imagery is often intense and beautiful.
i found the best way to read this was one or a few of these per night, so as to...more
When this works, it works very well. When it doesn't, it is still a good read. It is a gimmick that only sometimes works, to be honest. Too often the recollections, though beautifully rendered in a mostly punctuation-less run-on, are merely accounts of how the person got to where they were, leading up to the moment of beheading. It doesn't shine, it doesn't illuminate, it doesn't philosophize or ruminate or make wonder: it renders. Butler is a wonderfully talented writer and has exploited the gi...more
"After decapitation, the human head is believed to remain in a state of consciousness for one and one-half minutes."
"In a heightened state of emotion, people speak at the rate of 160 words per minute."
Pulitzer Prize-winning Robert Olen Butler has written 62 stories of 240 words in length, each about some decapitated figure (legendary, canonical, historical, zoological). These stories are insightful and ecstatic - I literally could not put this book down. I just sank into a chair and turned from...more
"In a heightened state of emotion, people speak at the rate of 160 words per minute."
Pulitzer Prize-winning Robert Olen Butler has written 62 stories of 240 words in length, each about some decapitated figure (legendary, canonical, historical, zoological). These stories are insightful and ecstatic - I literally could not put this book down. I just sank into a chair and turned from...more
Most reviews refer to this series as "gimmicky," but upon reading I feel the exact opposite. The theme of this book is the final thoughts upon being decapitated/beheaded/hed kut off. The gimmick would be if Butler used the occasion to bring about some sort of macabre second-by-second first hand account of a head rolling off the gallows. This...it is not. It is rather poetic, and geared more towards the author's perception of the situation, whether real or imagined, and what could have been the l...more
In Severance, Robert Olen Butler combines two seemingly unrelated ideas: first, that consciousness lasts for one and a half minutes after decapitation, and second, that people speak at a rate of 160 words per minute when in a heightened state of emotion. Since people are likely pretty emotional once they've been decapitated, Butler figured that their final thoughts would run precisely 240 words -- the length of each of the book's 62 pieces, which seek to "capture the flow of thoughts and feeling...more
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The best that science knows about life after death is that the head retains consciousness for about 90 seconds after a decapitation. Since it is generally accepted that a person can utter about 160 words per minute when agitated and doing the math, we come up with 240 words a severed head can say.
So Severance: Stories is just that - Sixty two 240 word "monologues" by severed heads of mostly famous historical characters that suffered beheading - ranging from executions to ritual suicides to accid...more
So Severance: Stories is just that - Sixty two 240 word "monologues" by severed heads of mostly famous historical characters that suffered beheading - ranging from executions to ritual suicides to accid...more
A high concept collection of vignettes, each exactly 240 words in length, about what passes through different people's minds during the one and a half minutes of consciousness after decapitation. It's interesting how Butler develops his themes-- sex and death, language and identity, God and country, etc.-- throughout the collection to give it a sense of unity. A few of the vignettes are remarkable for the emotional punch Butler packs into such a small space, but most of them are not. I recommend...more
Robert Olen Butler was one of my professors at Florida State University and I have always enjoyed reading his work. This little book is unique and worthy of a read. Butler tells the tale of what goes through the mind of a person between the moment thier head is severed to death. He tells the reader that the head remains conscious for one and a half minutes after severance and that in a hightened state of emotion, we speak at the rate of 160 words per minute. From there, he tells a 240-word story...more
This weird book is based on two observations: after decapitation, the human head is conscious for 90 seconds; and in a heightened emotional state, people speak at a rate of 160 words/minute. So Butler takes a tour of all human history, creating 62 reflections, each exactly 240 words long, that represent the stream-of-consciousness thoughts of a decapitated head in that 90 seconds before it loses consciousness. With examples from John the Baptist & Paul the Apostle through Thomas More, Marie...more
While it would be easy to write this book off as a gimmick or publicity stunt, I think this collection deserves a bit more thought. In an age where death is increasingly a spectacle (beheadings on youtube, the deaths of Iranian protesters caught on cellphone cameras,and the all important mass death exercise of September 11th, Severance causes us to question our assumptions about gruesome death. By putting words in the heads of the dying, I think he is effective in showing that even the most grue...more
I was so excited to read this book, based on the premise. I was expecting way more than what I got out of it. I didn't even waste time reading all the accounts. For characters that people are familiar with, the idea works. The general reader knows enough about Anne Boleyn or Nicole Brown Simpson to appreciate Butler's attempt at greatness, but with random, unknowns that were beheaded I was left wondering how the actual act happened. I didn't know enough about the circumstances to like the accoun...more
i love the conceit of this book - it is genius. and the design is glorious, down to the smallest details like endpaper color. that being said, some of these work better than others. but some are truly great - especially when there are unexpected connections. i would be interested to know how much research went into this book, especially with the more contemporary "characters". this is the second book i have read in as many weeks where the author predicts his own death, and that makes me a little...more
19 likes · like · see review
Under the believe that when decapitated, the human head retains consciousness for up to 90 seconds, and that in instances of extreme agitation a person can speak up to 160 words a minute, each of these short stories are 240 words long and written from the point of view of the beheaded. From the beginning of humanity (a caveman) up to modern day, we enter the last thoughts of 61 humans and 1 chicken, immediately following the separation of their heads from their bodies. I read this all in one sit...more
It took me a long time to get into this book mainly because it took me a long time to get a vibe for the execution of Butler's concept: 240 word stories chronicling a person's last thoughts in the 90 seconds following their beheading. Each story is one run-on sentence without punctuation or paragraph breaks, and the first two stories are so audaciously corny — a caveman beheaded by a sabertooth tiger, and Medusa — that it was a long time before I could move past page 18.
Some of the stories are h...more
Some of the stories are h...more
There are a lot of things to admire about this collection--Butler is very creative with his choices of heads and often tackles the question of what final thoughts may go through a mind in its final 90 seconds between decapitation and death (according to the famous epigram by Dr. Dassy D'Estaing) in intriguing ways . Butler manages to surprise often in this historical sequence, from convicts to unfaithful (maybe) spouses to beasts and myths to royalty. The premise itself is intriguing--a sequence...more
I’ve said this before, but Robert Olen Butler is my favorite writer; I think he’s one of the most gifted writers around in terms of technical prose; and I think no one does stream of consciousness better than him. All that said, his last novel was terrible (Fair Warning), and the novel before that was mediocre (Mr. Spaceman). It’s clear now that he has decided to stick to his strengths – this work is another creative writing exercise for his talents. The premise behind Severance is the combinati...more
Jan 11, 2008
Marjorie Hakala
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
poetry readers, people who like quirk with substance
I'd like to give this book four and a half stars. It's a fascinating experiment, and quite successful in everything except that, for me, it felt like an experiment all the way through. I wasn't counting to make sure every piece was exactly 240 words, but I couldn't completely suspend my disbelief either (mostly, I was bothered by the question of how you would leap directly from the experience of having your head cut off to thinking in a prose poem about things that happened to you years ago).
Sti...more
Sti...more
A really neat premise: a series of flash fictions-- well, probably not even that, more like character sketches-- of the last thoughts of real and imagined characters as they are beheaded. The problem is it wears a little thin by the end, as many of the pieces tread similar ground. Still, the writing is good, with everything delivered in stream-of-consciousness and each piece being exactly 240 words long, and the book comes off as more of an exercise in craft than anything.
Severance combines two theories: that consciousness is retained after decapitation for 90 seconds, and that, in heightened emotional states, people speak 160 words per minute. The book is sixty-two stories, at exactly 240 words each, from the heads of decapitated people: kings, queens, farmers, girls, businessmen, jihadists, authors, and mythological women, men and animals. It’s a fantastic book in its originality, its concept and, yeah, its execution.
I can’t remember the last book of poetry I r...more
I can’t remember the last book of poetry I r...more
This is an incredibly interesting collection of short-short stories based around the idea of what would someone say in the minute-and-a-half of "consciousness" that a head is supposed to retain after beheading. Sounds kind of gruesome, but it's not a horrific collection by any means. Assuming that a person in a heightened state can utter 160 words per minute and applying that to the 1.5 minutes of consciousness, the author tells stories that are all exactly 240 words in length of characters, bot...more
Butler gets a big gold star for a clever idea. This book is a series of essays cataloging the final thoughts of people between beheading and death - roughly two pages per person. The people are interesting (Marie Antoinette, for example), the thoughts intriguing. However. He makes no distinction between people who know that they're going to die and those who don't. I think it's a huge line that must be drawn, and it's a critical error.
Apr 04, 2011
Anna Gibson
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
historical-fiction
An interesting collection of stream-of-conscious stories, all told from people (and one chicken) who have been beheaded - in fights, executions, murders, and accidents. What does one think in the last seconds of their life, after their head has been removed?
Each story is preceded by the person's name, date of death, and a very brief description of the circumstances of their beheading. There is a wide range of people, ranging from someone decapitated during the stone age, Marie Antoinette during...more
Each story is preceded by the person's name, date of death, and a very brief description of the circumstances of their beheading. There is a wide range of people, ranging from someone decapitated during the stone age, Marie Antoinette during...more
I thought these stories were pretty great, although, you have to be willing to look past the gimmicky factor involved. All the stories here are first person narrations of the protagonist's decapitation, and they are all exactly 240 words, his estimate of how long a head could talk before the loss of blood and oxygen kick in. A far fetched conceit, but when it works it works beautifully. Our protagonists range from John the Baptists to a chicken (oh, yes, Butler really couldn't do this collection...more
I had a look at what other people thought of this book & I find it odd that so many people have commented on the theme of this book being a gimmick. I'm a huge fan of short stories & I have found some of my favorite collections are linked stories or are centered around a particular theme. I absolutely agree with the people who've commented that these brief little stories are more akin to poetry than prose. They're so achingly beautiful.
And speaking of beauty, I also appreciated the pres...more
And speaking of beauty, I also appreciated the pres...more
A droll little exercise, more of interest to writers than a good book. It's distinction comes more from the various titles of those beheaded and the fact that no one has really done a book like this before (at least to my knowledge). For an example though of last thoughts, I would recommend the truly extraordinary story "Bullet to the Brain" by Tobias Wolfe.
This book has an absolutely lunatic premise. It is said that a decapitated head can remain in a state of consciousness for 90 seconds. In heightened states of emotion or agitation, people can speak at the rate of 160 words per minute. Combine the two and you have the micro stories in this book. Read the rest of the review here: http://ireadoddbooks.com/?p=231
Ever read something and you think to yourself, wow, wish I had thought of that! Yep, did this the whole time I was reading this book. Very clever and would actually be a great writing exercise.
Butler came up with the idea after learning that the brain may still be aware for up to 180 seconds after decapitation, and figured that in that time, it would comprehend 140 words (I think that's the right number). Each story is the dying thoughts of some famous people, some not, some real, some fictiona...more
Butler came up with the idea after learning that the brain may still be aware for up to 180 seconds after decapitation, and figured that in that time, it would comprehend 140 words (I think that's the right number). Each story is the dying thoughts of some famous people, some not, some real, some fictiona...more
Apr 25, 2008
Kat
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
books-i-was-made-to-read-and-loved
A post-modern post-mortem -- 240 word entries of severed heads last thoughts. It sounds tremendously morbid, but it is a fascinating window into the intimacy of thought made more vivid through the use of truncation. We read a few of these short pieces while reading The Tale of Two Cities and the students I teach were hooked. They what-if and questioned one after another and the tantalizing realization of never knowing the rest of their life or tale was hammered into them in a way I could not hav...more
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“I’ll never stop believing it: Robert Olen Butler is the best living American writer, period.”
– Jeff Guinn, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Robert Olen Butler has published eleven novels which includes The Alleys of Eden, Sun Dogs, Countrymen of Bones, On Distant Ground, Wabash, The Deuce, They Whisper, The Deep Green Sea, Mr. Spaceman, Fair Warning, and Hell, as well as five volumes of short fiction; Tab...more
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– Jeff Guinn, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Robert Olen Butler has published eleven novels which includes The Alleys of Eden, Sun Dogs, Countrymen of Bones, On Distant Ground, Wabash, The Deuce, They Whisper, The Deep Green Sea, Mr. Spaceman, Fair Warning, and Hell, as well as five volumes of short fiction; Tab...more
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