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Death in literature: Can you really prepare for it or even understand it? Ten suggested books from Ted Gioia
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- Title
- Death: A Literary Guide
- Authors
- Ted Gioia
- Word count
- 1528 words
It's not "literature" in the same sense as the article means it, but it is literature in that they're books, but I've found myself pondering Death more in relation to Pratchett's Discworld and Gaiman's Sandman. What is the purpose of life, what is after it, does that matter? Will I matter?
But I read almost exclusively genre fiction and it's rarely considered Important™ even though it has spurred far deeper thoughts in me on the purpose of humanity and my place in the world.
I am also a Discworld fan and I find Sir Terry both thoughtful as an author and thought provoking as a writer. Mort and the following books that focus on death are excellent imho. Making death a point of view character allowed for some very interesting exploration of death and what it means.
I second the Sandman by Neil Gaiman! It completely changed how I looked at death.
I would also add the The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. I read it around the same time as when I lost someone close to me and it changed my perspective on how people truly pass away. I like how the book says people only truly die when they are forgotten. There was also a part in the sandman comic that touched on this. It's the part where the soul chained to the rock disappears after being told no one remembers him, where his country used to be, or the awful things he's done. It was pretty eye opening for me.
If I could choose, I'd have Death of the Endless take me home at the end.
The Things They Carried is a great book.
For some, it's Gaimen and Prachett. For me, it was Stephen King and Douglas Adams.
I never really thought of Stephen King as "literary genius" myself despite him being my favorite author. Then I re-read The Dark Tower with The Kingslingers podcast and it was like reading a whole new set of novels, despite having read them several times before.
I learned more about literary analysis from that podcast than in all of my formal schooling. And it kinda opened my eyes to the levels of....prudishness in the literary community. And that good books will still be dismissed as "not literature" for many arbitrary reasons that have little to do with how good of a book or how much they make you think.
Adams is great too. Never been a King fan but I respect it. I've been reading a lot for T Kingfisher lately as she hits some really poignant notes with still a touch of humor regardless of which genre she's writing in that day. Idk about genius, but she's wonderful.
Becky Chambers is another author that makes me think about the meaning of life and my place in the world.
I grew up with Stephen King being popular but I never read him much and I never saw him as different than say Tom Clancy or any other author who writes the kind of popular books you find in airport bookstores. Today the users of r/books discuss him with a lot of respect. I actually have a couple of his books in my to be read pile because I want to see what I missed. Some classic authors like Dickens and Twain were very popular but are also excellent and have rightly survived over time. Maybe King is another one like that.
I have to add to this discussion, When Breath Becomes Air, the memoir of a young doctor with cancer and war novels such as All Quiet on the Western Front. I definitely second Death of Ivan Illych as a recommendation. Grief Observed I also found highly moving.
What are your thoughts about this subject in literature, about Gioa's recommendations, and can you add any books to the list?
fyi, you posted twice.