Читать книгу Writers on... Death (A Book of Quotes, Poems and Literary Reflections) - Amelia Carruthers - Страница 6
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unavoidable gravitas associated with death, and when expressed in literature, it provides a fascinating window into human conventions and society.
Although it may seem morbid and depressing, writing about death is not really about death at all – it is about life. It focuses the mind on what we expect from our short-run of mortality, how we cope with loss and empathise with pain, and how we understand this most essential of fates. The most striking aspect of literary depictions of death, is the ability to 'bring to life' (as it were), an essentially empty concept. We all know what death means, or at least, what it signifies to the living – but having no knowledge of the entity involved, it can only be depicted metaphorically. Death has been varyingly described as a deep sleep, an awakening, a climax, a void, a door, a gift, a wall, a judgement or merely as 'the end.' This lack of direct knowledge leads to some interesting conclusions however. If we can only see death happening to other people, and death – to one's self, means the end of your 'future', then one can never experience death. As close as one gets to death, it will recede out into the distance – death, in itself, can never happen to you. It can only happen to other people, and can only be approached from the perspective of the living. As Epicurus once wrote:
Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not.Why should I fear that which cannot exist when I do?
