# Anyone ever read the book, "Wisconsin Death Trip"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 30, 2003, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546 "2003-01-30T04:43:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![fishcrawford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/85f322/32.png) [@fishcrawford](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishcrawford)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546/1 "2003-01-30T04:43:54Z")
If so, what did you think? ---
**Author:** ![j\_kat\_251](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/71c47a/32.png) [@j\_kat\_251](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_kat_251)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546/2 "2003-01-30T05:23:17Z")
I thought it was a heavy metal album. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546/3 "2003-01-30T06:36:14Z")
All I know is that it’s always hard to find at the library where I work. We have two copies: one circulates and the other cannot be checked even if you bribe me with $1000. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546/4 "2003-01-30T07:29:35Z")
I’ve read it. The thesis, whether it is stated or implied (I forget), is that there was a hidden culture of death and violence in late 19th century small town America, of which Black River Falls, Wisconsin, is used as an example. The inspiration of the book was, I believe, the finding of a complete cache of a photographer’s output in Black River Falls from the late 19th century. The author of _Wisconsin Death Trip_ uncovers latent surrealism and grotesquery by his choice of photos and how they are juxtaposed. E.g., a horse with very long, braided hair. Dead children in coffins. A back view of a nude man flexing his muscles atop a hill. The author’s point as a sociologist seems to be twofold: to flesh out Thoreau’s thought about men leading lives of quiet desperation; and to counter the nostalgic idea of idyllic small-town life. But in a way it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. There is nothing peculiar to Black Rvier Falls, small towns in Wisconsin, or the late 19th century that generated such anomie. You could comb the popular press of New York City in the same era and find similar newspaper accounts of death and violence. You could probably find bizarre photographs taken by provicinal photoraphers in France, Russia, or Mexico in that same era too. But what’s the point? Really, little changes in the human condition. If you look for tragedy, you’ll find it. That’s what news usually is – the unexpected, the unusual. ---
**Author:** ![Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myron_Van_Horowitzski)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546/5 "2003-01-30T18:24:53Z")
Wow, **fishcrawford**! I was just reading that last night! Cosmic. I agree with you, **Walloon**. And although things were worse then than they are now (good ol’ days, hah) you could easily make the same kind of book using the last decade, too. Easier, because now we have photojournalists all over the world. I guess the main thing that struck me bizarre in the book itself was the incredible number of people who got their kicks burning down buildings. They had fires up the wazoo, and the great percentage were caused by arsonists. What was up with that? Cool book anyway. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546/6 "2003-01-30T18:29:26Z")
I see now that the book was republished in 2000. ---
**Author:** ![Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myron_Van_Horowitzski)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546/7 "2003-01-30T18:48:26Z")
Yep, that’s the [one](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0826321933/103-5384545-9980664?v=glance) I have. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546/8 "2003-01-30T19:23:28Z")
Has anyone seen the movie version? [http://us.imdb.com/Title?0210389](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0210389) BTW - I’ve heard a lot of Wisconsinites refer to Black River Falls as “Barf” (BRF). The usual Wisconsin weirdness seems to be particulary concentrated in its west central quarter. I remember seeing plenty of mandelias over the front doors of houses in Eau Claire. I thought it was some Norwegian thing, but a homeowner told me it was dead seriously to ward off evil spirits. ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546/9 "2003-01-30T20:24:37Z")
Walloon, I think the point of the book is exactly what you say–to counter the nostalgic, idyllic view of small town life. But that’s a necessary task! Lots of people are eager to idealize both the past and small town life. ---
**Author:** ![ratty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ccd318/32.png) [@ratty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratty)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546/10 "2003-01-30T22:26:01Z")
**Walloon** , excellent review. I agree completely. I also think part of it was the author’s desire to portray the small-town version of the Victorian “cult of death”. Mortuary photographs, culturally-enforced periods of mourning, an obsession with memorials and cemeteries, and a religious revival that began in the late 1870’s in the US all enforced this sort of cultural mindset. Remember also that these people were living in a pre-antiobotic area, with usually poor sanitation, and were used to life on farms. What we consider morbid today was simply a fact of life to people in the 19th century. As for the arson fires, I think it’s kind of like this: typical rural small town problems arise between neighbors. But how to get revenge on the Larssons for moving their property line some 100 yards? You _could_ drag them through the courts, which is how people handle things today. But back then, it was easier and more satisfying to simply burn down their house and/or barn. Most people’s money in those days was tied up in real estate and goods, not sitting in banks or stocks. Destroying their barn, and thus the source of their income, was hitting them where it would really hurt. Also, vagrancy was just as much of a problem in urban areas in the late 1800’s as it is today, and there were no social programs in place to deal with it, nor were there any real methods for dealing with the usual crop of wayward teens that spring up in every generation. Combine this with easier access to alcohol and accelerants, and you’ve got yourself a big arson problem. Not to mention catching criminals was no easy thing then- as long as nobody actually saw you setting the fire, it would be difficult to prove you actually did it. Not to say that no one ever got caught, but it was probably easier to get away with things in those days, especially in more rural areas. ---
**Author:** ![sjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@sjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjc)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546/11 "2003-01-31T00:57:20Z")
Saw the movie, didn’t read the book. My friend from Wisconsin laughed uproariously through most of it. ---
**Author:** ![fishcrawford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/85f322/32.png) [@fishcrawford](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishcrawford)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546/12 "2003-01-31T02:03:36Z")
I don’t understand, is it non-fiction? Or some kind of cheap version of non-fiction that the author spices up with speculation? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546/13 "2003-01-31T03:17:38Z")
**fishcrawford** , the text of the book is a collection of actual articles from small town newspapers in Wisconsin in the late 19th century, most of the articles dealing with criminal behavior, illness, violence, and death. These are supplemented with oral history anecdotes, on the same topics, that the author gathered from many of the same small towns. The illustrations in the book come from an extensive collection of photographs taken by a commercial photographer in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, in the late 19th century. Some of the photographs are published “as is”, while for others the author uses them for photo-montages. The author writes directly only the introduction, and lets the material speak for itself in the remainder of the book. ---
**Author:** ![fishcrawford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/85f322/32.png) [@fishcrawford](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishcrawford)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546/14 "2003-01-31T04:11:32Z")
Thanks a lot Walloon. The book is impossible to get your hands on unless you want to go through amazon. I’ve tried the library (where it is ALWAYS checked out) and Barnes and Noble, where they never seem to have it in stock. I’ve never really read any photo-essay books; anyone have more recommendations besides this one? ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546/15 "2003-01-31T05:13:59Z")
Yeah, whenever some dolt tells you that the world is going to hell, recommend that book. The news clippings are overwhelming in totality: murder, murder, gunfight, suicide, murder, arson, gunfight, gunfight, murder, missing person, arson, arson, arson, and on and on and on. Recall that with the poor markets for capital & risk, arson was a very big deal. Everyone should take a look at that book just to realize that _these_ are the good old days. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546/16 "2003-01-31T06:13:41Z")
The U.S. in the 1890s was suffering from the worst [economic depression](http://iberia.vassar.edu/1896/depression.html) in its history; only the Great Depression of the 1930s would it exceed it. These hard times were probably a factor in some of the everyday tragedies depicted in the book _Wisconsin Death Trip_. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546/17 "2003-01-31T15:33:16Z")
Wow - my hometown is tiny little Durand, WI, about 35ish miles from Black River Falls, and I’ve _never_ heard it referred to as “Barf.” Granted - I’m not a native (we moved to Durand in 1983 when I was 5, so I don’t have older relatives there either) and the last time I permanently lived in Durand was 1995 (although I visit regularly). I’ve also never heard anything about mandelias (are these a type of flower?) hanging anywhere near doorways to keep out evil spirits. (Durand’s 30 miles from Eau Claire, too). All that said, I lived in WI from 1983 - 2001. It’s a good state (aside from that Tommy Thompson business). Trust me, people - Wisconsin’s no different or no more or less superstitious than anywhere else. **Walloon’s** got it right - you could find the same sorts of stories anywhere if you searched. It’s all about finding what you’re looking for. Leave off my cheese state! Go bother the people in Iowa, who are seriously creepy. Kidding! Snicks ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-read-the-book-wisconsin-death-trip/151546/18 "2003-01-31T19:23:33Z")
What Tommy Thompson business?