Home > Author > Becky Cooper
21 " All archaeology is the re-enactment of past thought in the archaeologist’s own mind.” Scholars of history don’t uncover the past; they create it. "
― Becky Cooper , We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half Century of Silence
22 " Filing a complaint, [Terry Karl] would write later, 'pits a person against an institution that is predisposed to defend the accused.' [She] felt she had no choice but to leave. It was the same pattern that Iva Houston had identified all those years ago: The women disappear, and the men get to stay "
23 " I said that it was amazing to me that a group of anthropologists wouldn’t recognize the biases that they were perpetuating themselves. "
24 " I said that it was amazing to me that a group of anthropologists wouldn’t recognize the biases that they were perpetuating themselves. She laughed at me: “Of course they recognize them! But they wanted to perpetuate them.” “Why?” “Because it solidified their positions of power. "
25 " Back then, I was blind to the idea that an institution could still be destructive even if its members were good people. "
26 " the way we relate to our dead is the oldest mark of our humanity. "
27 " At nearly seventy-five, he was barely diminished by age. "
28 " I know even less about whether telling a responsible story of the past is possible, having learned all too well how the act of interpretation molds the facts in service of the storyteller. I have been burned enough times to know: There are no true stories; there are only facts, and the stories we tell ourselves about those facts. "
29 " The very things that made me love Harvard—its seductiveness, its limitlessness—also made it a very convincing villain. Harvard felt omnipotent. "
30 " ...she did not need a man to feel complete, but she could still long to be loved. It was a fragile stance that put independence at odds with itself. "
31 " ...Jane’s story functioned as a kind of cautionary tale, then perhaps it was less about the literal truth of what happened to Jane than it was an allegory about the dangers that faced women in academia. "
32 " Jane was known for her morbid humor and for her disappearing spells––the kind of girl to blurt out in the middle of a perfectly happy get-together, “Christ, the only reason I get up in the morning is because I hope a truck will run over me. "
33 " that people can cushion themselves from the reality of their experience by living inside narrative. "
34 " The culture of true-crime fandom felt like it flattened crime into entertainment, using other people’s fear and trauma to deal with a sense of bodily vulnerability. I understood the power that comes from bringing yourself to the edge of what you’re most afraid of, but I worried that inhaling stories about death at that clip required a detachment from the people who were killed and the families that were grieving. There’s a responsibility to the dead as well as the living. "