I've been thinking recently about death. I just finished a futuristic novel, in which at the very end the main character says of himself and his former lover, "They're dead." Which at first seems to be a lie, neither are, in fact, dead. But the reality is that neither of them survived this traumatic event in history in the sense that once it was all over - the world completely changed and their love destroyed - they were completely different people, unable to quite overcome their past. In some sense their former selves have died.
Also in this same book people are searching for immortality, which in the end is a futile attempt. Everyone trying to achieve permanent youth is completely obsessed with youth. They talk of aging and eventual death (for those not seeking immortality) in a censuring, scornful way, yet in their search for eternal youth, death is all-consuming.
I just read an article in the August issue of National Geographic about robots ("Us. And them.") which brought up this issue of immortality again. The caption below one of photos states that "LifeNaut...is exploring robot-human fusion as a technological path to immortality." This seems to me to be a gross fallacy. Didn't any one of these people read the book Tuck Everlasting in elementary school? I can't imagine being so narcissistic as to want to live forever. (Another great example? Let's take a brief look at Exhibit A: Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter. The list goes on and on and on...)
Death will always be the great unknown, but it is a journey that we must all take. And that is really what makes life worth living isn't it? The ever-present threat of death? Knowing that you won't alway be around makes you savour the present ever more.
I hope that wasn't too depressing, I've had the perfect trifecta of events leading up to this, and I had to get it off my mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment