Pedro - Choice 1
How does the chapter "The Terror of Death" apply to your personal outlook/upbringing?
posted by Mrzhire at
1:44 PM
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Previous Posts
- Extra Credit!!!!
- GOOD GATSBY RESEARCH
- GG Chapter 2
- GG Chapter 1
- Ted Hughes Timeline
- Plath Homework
- Convince me...
- The Penelopiad
- Homework following the poetry shuffle
- WOW!
Subscribe to
Comments [Atom]
16 Comments:
the reading was interesting and went a lot with my life. The part in the middle that described how we as humans supress the idea of death and try not to think about death sounded about my outlook on the subject. The thought is in the back of my mind but it is there giving us the will to live.when you are driving and there is that instant where you believe you might die this instinct takes the initiative and comes to the front of our minds. For the rest of the time I prefer not to think about death because it is a bit morbid. Just as the article said we cannot live our lives in fear of dying or we cannot really live. And with that mentality is how I live my life thus the article is quite relevant to my life as it explains how I approach and deal with the fear of death. I do not however believe that I have a terror of death, just the desire to live.
I'm a morbidly-minded individual based on the catagories "The Denial of Death" gave. It has a bad label but I agree with the philosophy behind it. The philosophy says, "the fear of death if natural and present in everyone." It also suggests that we must have a sense of fear "to be armed toward self-preservation." If you look at the animal kingdom, every animal has fear instincts; they have a fear of something unknown. They are afriad of anything new that might hurt them. They have a fear of death that keeps them alive.
Nice Nick; I especially like the last quote you threw out there: "I [don't] have a terror of death, just the desire to live." I think some of the ideas suggested in the chapter certainly apply to my childhood in terms why I was afraid of the dark (you could argue that this was due to the fear of the unknown, but the fear of the unknown arises from the fear that the unknown can kill you). There is one major thing I disagree with in the article though. It's the idea that if parents essentially spoil their children, they will grow up better and less afraid of death. I believe that this type of cajoling will only result in a large hubris and an authoritative complex.
I really liked the reading! It was very interesting and made me think. Well it definitely does relate to me in a way. I am not super paranoid about dying but the thought of it just really creeps me out. I mean sure the spirit may live on but the idea of being outside of my physical body is just way too complicated to even imagine. Anyways, I would have to say that I definitely agree with the article when it says that “ the fear of death is natural.” Like Sara B. mentioned, its like instinct to be afraid of death. If we weren’t afraid of death then I am sure that a lot of us would take more risks and a lot more of us wouldn’t be here today. I am not going to lie, whenever I think of doing something daring I go back to my fear of death and usually whimp out. Maybe it is instinct or maybe I am just a whimp, either way its interesting to think about. I guess to an extent I am afraid of death but more than anything I am afraid of losing the ones I love. Now that is one of my biggest fears!! Especially when I know that they are aging and getting to the point where their body is starting to let go, its just petrifying! I don’t remember the chapter talking about having a fear of others dying but it all still falls under the same category of the fear of death and I guess I am someone who is definitely afraid of death then.
I prefer to think I am healthy minded. (at least most days) I try not to think about death a whole lot. I thought this was a crazy article (the other chapters in the book are just as morbid/weird/cool too). The idea that as children are exposed to death they slowly start to realize the whole extent/concept of death. Ok, so my freshman are reading Of Mice and Men...and remember how Lennie doesn't understand the concept of death. He kills the mice, puppy, Curley's wife and recognizes it as "a bad thing" but the only consequence of his actions he thinks is not getting to "tend the rabbits." It also reminds me of Vardaman in As I Lay Dying who is this little kid who has been told that dying = "going to town." Then, when they have to actually go to town he is all freaked out. haha.
I like what Nick said about the "desire to live" which the chapter also talks about...this makes me think of Waiting for Godot and how the terror of death and the desire to live contradict each other and these two guys end up doing absolutely nothing because of it! Ok...that was just a lot of intertextuality.
I enjoyed the reading as I realized how closely my life follows the ideas explained in it. Though I am just as scared of dying as other people, it isn't one of my frequent thoughts. I felt the reading explained this well in stating we tend to brush off our thoughts of death and carry on with our lives. We try not to think about death since it makes us depressed, however our instinctual fear of death keeps us alive as Sara said. I found this interesting as we give such little thought to death, even though it is such a big part of all life.
The reading was not too my liking at all. I found the writer presumptuous of anything concerning death and it really annoyed me. The writing talked about how the fear of death was the true source of all other fears and was inherent to every sentient being. I do not agree with this. The article mentioned the idea of self preservation. Fear of death is not the quickest way to achieve self preservation and often inhibits it entirely. Awareness of death and caution would better serve to self preserve better than the fear of death would. Also, once something has become too afraid, it become paralyzed and cannot escape the thing it fears, including death. This is why I do not agree with the article on it's stances (morbid or healthy) about the fear of death. Self preservation is more about the what it sounds like, preserving ones self as long as possible. That is why some cultures, who do not see death as a threat to self preservation do not fear it. It seems to me that the fear of death is common to so many people because it is not known and therefore people have begun to associate it as the couplet for self preservation. I believe that the death is only one thing that could inhibit self preservation, and that there are many others. The one that people deal with most commonly is death, and that is why it has become a common fear among so many people, not because death itself is the root of anti-self preservation. So the article does not really relate to my life, and if it does it's not in the way that the pompous author believes it does. :-)
I don't really agree with some of the things mentioned in the article, but its not that they don't seem to make sense, but they don't really fit into the way I see things. I mean it discussed the two concepts of essentially nature vs. nurture (inherent since birth fear of death vs. learned fear of death). The issue I have with this though is that I don't necessary fear death, but I fear dying. It's hard for me to imagine exactly how I could even fear death because I don't even really know what death entails. The way I imagine "death" is in the images of car crashes and heart attacks, but again that's dying. I can understand dying because that's what I so often see in the world today. So when we talk about "self-preservation" I think it's the attempt to avoid the "dying" which can take part in our "pre-death" state of life, the one we are currently in (Or maybe for some we aren't...hmm). At least for me, I think that I like to protect myself from what I can at least somewhat understand than from something that I don't even know the details about (Is it good or bad? I don't know).
I thought the article was really interesting, the part that probably caught my attention the most was the section where the author talked about people that 'accepted' death and i felt that i connected most with this, i like the whole live for the moment philosophy and although kinda morbid it think that its probably best as we could all kick the bucket at any moment, on that note have you (anyone) seen the bucket list with jack nicholson and morgan freeman? i would highly recommend it. possible field trip? yes?
While the article did have some valid points, I tended to disagree with the majority of them. I don’t believe you can separate human ideology into the two categories of “Healthy-Minded” and “Morbidly-Minded”; there needs to be a “grey” category. I certainly do not fit into the “Healthy-Minded” category; I had long accepted “death” as an essential characteristic of humanity. I also believe I do not reside in the “Morbidly-Minded” category; I do not restrict my actions to solely self-preservation, rather occasionally committing an act that would go against this innate “fear of death”. So, I believe there should be a third category, an “Apathetically-Minded” category, if you will, where one ‘accepts’ the concept of death, but does not spend every waking moment determining how to avoid death at all costs. I also disagreed with Becker’s statements on repression: I am hardly convinced that this “fear” of death is an omnipresent force, merely lying in wait for some jarring event; rather I believe that it is possible to come completely to terms, or at least a sufficient partial understanding of “death” (which, having not undergone the experience, would be impossible to entirely comprehend). Like Publilius Syrus once said, “The fear of death is more to be dreaded than death itself”. What should really inspire fear and be avoided is not death (after all, who really wants to be burdened with immortality?) but instead this unnatural horror at a perfectly natural phenomenon.
I definetely agree wtih Sam on the field trip thing...for sure. But anyways, I thought the article was really interesting, especially when it was talking about the fear that comes with death. When I was 7 years old, my mother passed away. It was a really hard to go through, and really scary too. I just remember how hard it was to picture myself growing up without my mother, and it was really difficult to picture my family without her. It was really scary just because death seems so untangible and it's something you can't do anything about. It was hard just to have to sit back and watch everything happen, like it is so surreal. So...I would definetely agree with the fear that comes with death, not only the fear of dying, but all of the things that death entails.
I absolutely agree with Chelsea. An "apathetically minded" category is perfectly logical here, as I accept death as a part of life, but I don't look around my shoulder at every turn for some freak occurrence. I also agree with Nick's distinction that it's not so much a "terror" of the concept of death, but the will to live that provides strength.
The reading was too close to my train of thought, however there were things I did disagree with.
I do agree as some people on here that I do not have a fear of death itself, being nothingness, however, there was a time I did fear that. But the fear of dying did reside in me. But that would have to be before I was 6 years old because right then nearly everyone on my dad's side of the family died, even my father. Along with my mother's step father committing suicide. After that death itself became a part of my life. It could be considered through the reading that I am certainly morbid, granted over the last several years, I have grown to accept death and dying as a part of life. This is where I would agree with Chelsea, that there needs to be a grey area between the fear of death and the suppression of the thoughts of death.
My mom raised me with the idea that I will always have to fear death and that I have to do everything to prevent it. I think that the fear of death puts people into a bubble that is as constricting or loose as our parents make it. While it is present in everyone, as we grow older, that bubble gets tighter or looser depending on how you are brought up. If you have a need for "self preservation," then your bubble is probably looser, simply because you are taking steps to keep yourself alive (although in most cases, you are probably killing yourself faster). But if you just live in complete fear, your bubble is tiny.
I'm a healthy-minded individual based on the options in "The Denial of Death." Becker talks about how a child who has had good maternal experiences develops a basic sense of security and is less likely to be subject to morbid fears. I agree with this because my relationship with my mom is grounded and I'm not a negative person. However, I think a majority of the population is evolving under the "morbidly minded" persona in that they are suffering from "immature egos" in where the child has trouble differentiating between his perceptions and his reality. This leads to a weak ego that produces exaggerated stories and fears. I can honestly say this is a fair and rather just observations judging from the people who I have known who feed off of the attention of others because they are insecure or manifest false fears and insecurities. I don't suffer from the fear of death because it is such an abstract concept. We don't know much about it so instead we need to harness initiative to live our lives and not wallow in self doubt and fear.
As Kara said, the "terror of death" doesn't just encompass the possibility of personal death, but also the overwhelming surrounding presence of death, in both loved ones and complete strangers. Someone, somewhere, dies every second. We buckle our seatbelts, eat our meals, and take our medicine to avoid death. Biologically, we live so that we don't die... Our very functions are designed to ensure self-preservation. Socially, we fear death as well, perhaps as something metaphorical. We fear the lack of power and standing. We fear the reality of poverty. We fear insignificance. All of these concepts are related with social death, psychological death. Perhaps the notion of "death" encourages us to redefine or reexamine our definition of "life" itself. As Nick said, the presence of the "terror of death" wills us to live, demonstrated in the popular sayings "live in the moment" or "live everyday as if it were your last". We shouldn't live to avoid death, but avoid death to live.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home