Grave Desire: A Cultural History of Necrophilia

by Steve Finbow

Grave Desire is an analysis of the occasions of necrophilia throughout history, literature and the arts. It is an examination of the breaking of taboos and the metastasizing of fetishes in individuals and cultures using the works of Richard von Krafft-Ebing, Sigmund Freud, Georges Bataille, Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, Slavoj Žižek and others to explore the biographies of known necrophiles such as Carl von Cosel, Karen Greenlee and Ed Gein, and to analyze the cultures of Ancient Egypt, Greece, Troy, Victorian England and the first to eighth century CE civilization of the Moche people in northern Peru who used necrophilia as a means of religious time travel. Throughout the book, examples from the works of Herodotus, the Metaphysical poets, the Marquis de Sade, Cormac McCarthy, Poppie Z Brite, Jorg Buttgereit and more are used for illustration."

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Cultural Studies, Sexuality

213 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 2014

Reviews

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd have liked this better if the author weren't so keen to show off his academic cred by quoting Freud, Lacan, Zizek, and Bataille at every chance, and if he didn't attribute ridiculous Freudian motivations to the necrophiliacs discussed in the book. Like the kids say, it ain't that deep. Unforgivable copy errors, and lots of them. Commits the crime of using obscure words when a better-known word would do. Algolagnia? Dude... just say "masochism." Stuff like this is ALL OVER the place. I shouldn't have to run to the dictionary every few pages because some faux philosopher writing about corpse-fucking couldn't take his dick out of his thesaurus. It quotes extensively from fiction books, particularly American Psycho, for no apparent reason; first we're reading a real-life narrative, and then suddenly I'm reading an extract of Patrick Bateman's inner monologue. It's pretty jarring. It sucked me in with its cool title and did not deliver the goods.

[Annabelle Higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una mirada filosófica e histórica al tema de la necrofilia. Me pareció muy interesante y por momentos chocante (no es queja!), además de que terminé con ganas de leerme casi todos los libros que menciona el autor como sus fuentes.
El único problema son algunas citas. Otros lectores aquí mencionan que no les gusta tanta cita pero a mí no me molesta la cantidad sino el hecho de que así como el autor cita a Foucault o a Zizek, también cita personajes de ficción, y eso me confundía mucho. Digo, está hablando sobre Ted Bundy y transcribe algo que Bundy dijo en una entrevista y dos párrafos después, así sin más, inserta una cita súper impactante que, al menos yo entiendo, también es de Bundy, pero te vas al pie de página y resulta que es una frase del protagonista de American Psycho. Me confundo :/

[Bill reilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steve Finbow promises to cover necrophilia from ancient Egypt to modern times in the first chapter. Ted Bundy and Gary Ridgway are two of the subjects from the present.
A previous book brought me here with a California embalmer named Karen Greenlee. She was arrested for stealing a corpse, taking it home and because the state had no laws regarding necrophilia, only paid a fine for illegal removal of a corpse. Ms. Greenlee admitted to relations with between twenty and forty men, preferring the "cowgirl" style of intercourse. She deserves an entire book.
The star of the book is Francois Bertrand, a man in France at the time of the Revolution who, at first, had sexual contact with animals, but later moved on up the food chain to dead women. He dug them up and after being caught confessed to the nasty deeds. At least he never killed anyone.
Norman Bates and Leatherface are cinematic legends based on Ed Gein. The farm boy lived with his mother and after her death, the now adult man kept her corpse as company. He removed a few women from their graves and skinned them. When arrested for murder, the sheriff found human torsos and various body parts, some in pickle jars. Gein was put away and died in a nut house.
Chapter nine, "The NecroSuperstar" is devoted to Ted Bundy. The man needs no introduction. Teddy murdered at least thirty women while sexually assaulting them. His encounters occurred during and after the events, keeping him in the necrophile category. The author speculates on Bundy's bipolar diagnosis and partially puts the blame on his confusing family background. In early childhood, he was led to believe that his mother was his sister. The killer was fried in Old Sparky in 1989.
Jeffrey Dahmer and Dennis Nilsen are profiled next. The American and man from Scotland shared similar traits as homosexual necrophiles. Both kept their victims in the fridge and Jeff took it one step further by cooking and consuming a few of his prey. Dennis was jailed and Jeff killed in prison by a fellow inmate.
Jerry Brudos had a fetish for women's shoes. He also stored their body parts in a basement freezer, much to the surprise of his wife and children. He died in prison.
Laura Tennessen died in a motorcycle accident and the twenty-year-old's obituary photograph inspired three young men to rob her grave for a foursome. They were captured by the police and two of them were sent to jail. Wisconsin then heavily criminalized necrophilia. Dahmer and Gein were also cheese state residents.
Grave Desire is a good but disturbing read.

[Adam Hudson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gore hotel

[Sean P. Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book on a whim; I wanted to read a book about necrophilia; it had popped into my head, and I ran to the reference librarian, and he found this book for me. I had to wait a couple of days, and I got this slim volume, and I read it in a matter of hours, and I loved it.

I have read a few reviews, and they either complained about how dry the work was, or, about how the book failed to deliver what had been promised, a fair and balanced look at necrophilia.

Well, I don't go into a book with a whole lot of expectations, and if I start reading, and I don't like the book, then I'll put the bloody thing down, but this book read like a magazine article, and it's length was deceptive. I read it, quickly, and I feel I came away with a clear picture, via case studies, of the people who participate in this sort of behavior.

I found it interesting that many places did not have a law against necrophilia, or sex with a dead body, until recently.

I'd recommend this book to anyone that isn't bothered by big words, and also those that do not feel the compulsion to look up every unfamiliar word. If you can't just read and enjoy a book, then don't give this one a shot.

But, if like me, you have the desire and curiosity which is imperative for one who loves to learn, then pick up this book, and read it in an afternoon. (The gory details didn't bother me, but if you are squeamish, then don't pick it up. It's graphic, but not needlessly so.)

It was thoroughly researched and well-written.

I commend the writer for such a coherent piece on a subject most people know about, but don't really 'know about'. This book functions as a primer for necrophilia. If I was a college professor teaching a class on this, I would be sure to use this book as a source.

[Jeremy Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book, definitely as disturbing as the title suggests. Admittedly, it is not for everyone, but if you like true crime stories and cultural histories of serial killers and perverts within a backdrop of contemporary theory and aesthetics, I couldn't recommend it more highly. Personally for me, as a Canadian, it seemed especially prescient given that - as I was reading it - a nationally famous necrophile and murderer - Jeremy Skibicki - was standing trial and, thankfully, convicted for the murder of 3 women.

Actually, I read the 2nd edition of this book published by Infinity Land Press in 2024 (the 2014 ZerO books edition has long been out of print). The 2nd edition has an added interview with Martin Bladh as a kind of introduction, an afterword by Stephen Marshall, as well as other additions and revisions. Most notably though, the Infinity Land Press edition is filled with beautiful and creepy artworks by Karolina Urbaniak.

It is available here: https://www.infinitylandpress.com/pro...

So, again, if you like stories of Ed Gein and Jeffery Dahmer (as well as many other examples), combined with Freud, Foucault, J.G. Ballard, Hans Bellmer and other peaks of high modernism, check it out! Steve Finbow is a brilliant writer!

[Piratedessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This started off fairly interesting, but very quickly became some irritating pseudo-poetic soliloquy masquerading as psychoanalysis. I’m uncertain if the author ran out of new information or was attempting to to show how clever he is. If he was, I’m not overly impressed. First, and this is important for any work of non fiction, please be sure to fact check. That whole business with Egypt legalizing “farewell necrophilia” is untrue, as a cursory google search can show. Second, I really didn’t feel the addition of poetry, stretched out and placed between paragraphs was really an engaging way to detail various cases. The format reminded me of those song-fic fan fictions I used to read back when I was a preteen.

[Kit · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m going to go ahead and say skip this one. It is less a “cultural history” of anything than it is a meandering wank with the fanboy format of scattered quoting of American Psycho at random and throwing in psychobabble that may or may not actually relate to the topic at hand. Repetitive in many ways with little actually explored beyond the author’s own academic self-indulgence. Bummer. I thought I was getting some analysis of the cultures and beliefs that lend to this phenomenon, but I guess the title wasn’t representative of the content.

[Samantha Vinci · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the chapters are recaps of killers that have been covered more thoroughly in other books. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting exactly, but I was hoping for more obscure true crime stories and more about sex and death in different cultures through out time.

It was very well written though.

[Aaron Schuschu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm.

[Ryō Nagafuji · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic book for what can be considered "the ultimate taboo", yet seemingly very few dare to properly look into and attend to both scientifically and culturally. So, thank goodness there's this book to do just that! A really good read, and definitely has a very wide range of possibilities and theories concerning necrophilia. Very profound, can't complain!