NYT has an interesting Overlooked Obituary series wherein they try to correct the omissions of history and news reporting by running in present time the obituaries of notable figures missing from their past pages. We shared elements of the film with the obit author, Dan Saltzstein, so he would get a good sense of Cha as an artist for the article.
It was interesting to experience this flurry of attention as the obit landed and then then dissipate, and the attention quickly turned elsewhere. Here and gone within a twenty-four hour news cycle, or even sooner. For a brief moment, the article landed in NYT’s digital front page.
Our editor accidentally discovered the print copy of the article while gathering scraps of paper in her pottery studio. I am embarrassed to confessed that I haven’t yet read the obit. It took me over a year to read Cathy Hong Park’s Minor Feelings, despite several people prodding me to do so and the seemingly constant google alerts about the book.
In this digital age, I think I will enjoy reading the paper copy of the obituary, feeling the materiality of the paper between my fingers and reading the article with my full attention taking it all in.
