Mouse
9th May 2008, 05:01 PM
This is part memoir, but mostly a philosophical discussion on death. The author discusses his personal feelings towards death as he passes 60. His own parents deaths are examined and those of writers he admires. Discussions on God, the after life, evolution and Dawkins. He treats the subject with humour, suggesting that despite authors trying to live on after death, all writers will have their last reader as trends change and time passes, and if you are his last reader, why haven't you recommended him to others, You Bastard!
I was quite taken with some of the theories put forward from other theorists eg. the planet has been around for 4.5 billion years and we are the current peak of evolution, but the Sun has another 5 billion years left, so it is very vain to think we will still remain the pinnacle til then - we may be like amoeba to what comes later or it might revert to beetles grazing over long buried layers of human remains...
Personally I don't fear death; I know there is nothing afterwards. You just have to enjoy the time you are given.
Eternal life - the thought of it is enough to drive you to kill yourself.
I was quite taken with some of the theories put forward from other theorists eg. the planet has been around for 4.5 billion years and we are the current peak of evolution, but the Sun has another 5 billion years left, so it is very vain to think we will still remain the pinnacle til then - we may be like amoeba to what comes later or it might revert to beetles grazing over long buried layers of human remains...
Personally I don't fear death; I know there is nothing afterwards. You just have to enjoy the time you are given.
Eternal life - the thought of it is enough to drive you to kill yourself.