The most surreal funeral I have attended

[MikeWaters]

I was in Chuuk, back in 1999.

Funerals are common, and have ritualized customs. Many involving food.

Context: this was on a small island (uman) without running water or electricity, or any of the common conveniences of American life. With people living in poverty.

However the part that made the funeral surreal was the oratory given by the head person. It was life's lessons, in the context of this dead individual on this small isolated island in the Pacific Ocean, a veritable speck, as through the prism of Jack and Rose in "Titanic." I thought, am I really in this place hearing a treatise about "Titanic", in Chuukese, with the words "Jack" and "Rose" peppered through the oratory? Grave heads nodded in agreement with the pastor, who was using grand formal language.

The power of art. Or something approximating it.

[Levin]

Paglia thinks Winslet's performance in Titanic is something magnificent.