Life

The Danger of Disengagement

For me, one of the most disturbing phenomena of contemporary society is the disengagement of intellectuals and artists from public affairs, their absolute contempt for political life, which they see as dirty, ignoble and corrupt, something they must turn their back on if they are to remain uncontaminated. How can a democratic society survive in(…)

Mario Vargas Llosa

Life Everlasting; the Animal Way of Death

As short a book as it is, Life Everlasting is a lively collection of stories, investigations, reflections, and musings all joined together by a central theme – that of not just how the remains of the dead are reincorporated into the cycle of life but, perhaps more importantly, why they are.

On Herman Melville’s “Mardi” (I)

Only a few pages into Melville’s Mardi and he’s already sailing across some mighty deep waters: And truly, who may call to mind when he was not? To ourselves, we all seem coeval with creation. Whence it comes, that it is so hard to die, ere the world itself is departed. (p. 672)