An Overview of Chapter 14
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| Human skull-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death |
"We mask our fears about our own mortality in the importance we place on the death of celebrities"- ( Janero & Altshuler , The Art of Being Human: The Humanities as a technique for living, 2011, p.448)
Death has been portrayed in a variety of ways. Some popular ways is the grim reaper, skulls, or an unexpected serial killer. These images of death can be viewed as terrifying to exciting and thrilling. Death can also be seen in more mild terms and honourable. An example of honourable ways of portraying death is holidays like Day of the Dead , or Dias de los Muertos, in hispanic cultures.
As stated before, death can also be portrayed as thrilling and even as entertainment. Pulp fiction is one example of death being portayed in an heart-pumping action. Things that would be considered as morbid by the general public is seen as entertainment in terms of fiction with horror tales and terrifying scenes. Disaster movies about a catostrophe are popular for the exact reason that it's about people trying to overcome the seemingly unavoidable death looming on the actors. Spectacles bring about a similiar feeling of excitement. Rodeos, circuses, and performers alike that relish in being involved in dangerous acts brings about a crowd that are fascinated by it. The thought of impending doom is glamorized in a way that excites an audience and brings about an illusion of fearlessness to some.
How some people deal or react with death can differ greatly. Avoidance of the talk of death is one of these ways. Death being spoken openly can be a bit off to some, expecially if it's not in exaggerated terms. Some people want to avoid the serious talk of death until it's eventually unavoidable. Younger audiences are often the ones who the general public avoid to bring death up around, hence why certain movies that contain death in adult ways are 18+ in nature. Another way of dealing with death is humor. This is one I feel like identify with the most. Humor is a way to turn a bad situation into a slightly more bearable one and in these terms, the talk of death. Yes, there is always a time and place for humor in the talk of death though. The magnifying and beautifying of death is one I find the most fascinating becuase I find it to be one relevant in this generation. Many of us want to be recognized and remembered for our achievements after death-we want our exitence to mean something in this greater world. The quote above from the text describes how we identify ourselves in place of celebrities or notable figures deaths. We see their deaths as a homage and our even moved by it. Their death can give some hope in having a similiar death where we are beloved. This helps us mask our momentary fear of it if only for a bit.
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" I covered my face and wept, not for him, but at the thought of my own calamity in having to part from such a friend"- Plato (on the death of Socrates)
A few humanities death has been expressed in is literature, music, and philosophy. Death in literature explores characters and how they react to death- related scenarios. Although just being words on paper compared to actors, literature can bring a detailed insight into human nature in death and how people react to it in interesting ways. Death in music can express mourning nature. Examples of this are the accompanying music at funerals that are composed of organs and slow hymns. Death in music can also be a composer expressing their views on death and with their views with coming to accept death. Death in philosophy can be with how individuals come in terms of their views on death aswell. It also includes how people around the loss one reacts and whether this feeling of loss is drowned in own self-interest or selflessness. The quote above is how Plato feels about the death of his friend Socrates. Interestingly enough about the quote is how it's almost selfish in a way. Plato cries because he lost a good friend no because of Socrates demise persay. This can be debated that his selfishness in Socrates death is because Socrate died not really having any regrets so there would be no point in crying for Plato to cry for Socrates since he gladly accepted death. It was Plato who could ot come to terms with the loss and was ultimately the most hurt by it.
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| Joshua Blake / Vetta / Getty Images- https://www.verywellmind.com/symptoms-of-bipolar-depression-379840 |
"You only live once, and usually not even then"- Michael O'Donoghue
One way of interpreting death is in symbolic terms rather than biological. What I refer to by this is death on a mental basis. A few ways of symbolic death is unworth, symbolic suicide, and symbolic death. With unworth, a person feels an overwhelming lack of self worth and questions their use, This can effect a person's body and appearance and deteriorate them. This symbolic death is usually experienced due to envy of others and paranoia. Symbolic suicide is one who punish themselves in harmful ways and even long for social or physical death. This is likely the cause of unworth due to the quality of a person's life. As the quote above states, one only lives once but the quality of life isn't same for everyone. This sentiment relates to symbolic suicide since those who fall under symbolic suicide quality of life is usually poor and they don't believe or want to fix it. They beautify the thought of death in a way.The last one, symbolic murder,is verbally harming others emotionally. Unlike symbolic suicide, symbolic murder is how one goes about harming others or 'killing' them with their actions and words. They take the roll as a killer to knock people down.
Conclusion
In conclusion, life-affirmation is how we as humans go about expressing what makes life worth living and deals with the concepts of death while doing so. This ideal of life-affirmation in terms of death is expressed in a variety of ways whether philosphically, emotionally, symbolically, etc.
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