Friday, September 25, 2009

Bookforum - Who is afraid of the reaper?

Bookforum offers a great collection of links on facing our mortality. After all, we are all going to die. So how do you relate to death?

Who is afraid of the reaper?

What happens when you turn forty-five: You realize you will only ever read so many books, there are only so many movies, so many trips, so many new friends — it has always been this way, but at forty-five you realize it. From FT, who is afraid of the reaper? A review of Annihilation: The Sense and Significance of Death by Christopher Belshaw (and more and more); The Philosophy of Death by Steven Luper; Our Stories: Essays on Life, Death and Free Will by John Martin Fischer; and Death by Todd May. A review of Staring at the Sun Overcoming the Terror of Death by Irvin D. Yalom. Facing the End: Mark S. Schantz on death and dying in American culture. A review of Choosing to Die: Elective Death and Multiculturalism by C. G. Prado. Live free, die free: The Final Exit Network, a right-to-die organization, battles government euthanasia accusations. A review of The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia by Neil M. Gorsuch. An article on the case for killing Granny: Rethinking end-of-life care. Ross Douthat on a more perfect death. The great unknown demands faith in something, be it biology or the Bible. A review of Death Becomes Them: Unearthing the Suicides of the Brilliant, the Famous, and the Notorious by Alix Strauss. The Death Guy: Gary Laderman has mixed feelings about becoming the "go to" professor when someone famous dies. An interview with Colin Dickey, author of Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius. Far too often, obituaries are drab and sanitised affairs, so Matthew Reisz asks scholars how they might word their own death notices.


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