When I first read about Jack and Babette's fears about who would die first, I thought it was sort of charming and incidental -- just another layer of proof about how much they loved each other. I missed the boat that the fear of death could be called the theme of the book. (Would you agree?)
The Murray-Jack exchange on death made up all of chapter 37. To sum up, here were Murray's suggestions to "beat the system" as I understood them:
1. Put your faith in technology ("lust removed from nature"). It can prolong life and the quality of it.
2. Concentrate on the life beyond (or faith?). Reincarnation, heaven, etc.
3. Have a near-death experience
4. Become a killer, not a dier. "Think how exciting it is, in theory, to kill a person in direct confrontation. If he dies, you cannot. To kill him is to gain life credit."
Anyone have any thought about this? I think this was the summary of the book -- that Jack would try all of these options to overcome his fears. I have been thinking since whether it's human nature to embrace some or all four of these ideas with different label. Yes, even number four ... maybe people aren't taking actual lives, but if materialism or one-upping their neighbors is buying them the life credits in a way that society deems more acceptable.
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OK, this — the difficult, lovely questions you ask! — is why I'm in a book club: to have to actually think about a book rather than breezing through it and tossing it on the "read" pile.
But damn you still!
I think, yes, the fear of death is the theme of the book. He even speculates somewhere that death might be white noise. Jack and Babette have this conversation:
"What if death is nothing but sound?"
"Electrical noise."
"You hear it forever. Sound all around. How awful."
"Uniform, white."
And then after this conversation they have rather desperate sex, and he describes this as "asserting our root desires against the chaos in our souls."
One of my favorite moments in the book is when they're at the shelter — Murray has found a carload of sex workers, Jack has been told of his "terminal illness" — and Murray says to Jack: "Maybe when we die, the first thing we'll say is, 'I know this feeling. I was here before.'"
And your summary of the four options is superb.
I don't know if this is related, exactly, but I loved the part where Heinrich was talking about how technology and modernity are really irrelevant to us as individual creatures because who among us, if flung back to the Stone Age because of a toxic event, could make a refrigerator "or even explain how it works." He says, "Name one thing you could make. Could you make a simple wooden match?" ... What could you tell an ancient greek that he couldn't say, 'Big deal.'"
Awhile back in the Atlantic magazine there was an article called "Is Google making us stupid?" and I think it makes the same point Heinrich makes when he says: "What good is knowledge if it just floats in the air? It goes from computer to computer. It changes and grows every second of every day. But nobody actually knows anything."
We are just as close to death and primal fears as the ancients were; we just have a tissue-thin layer of "modern progress" to give us the illusion that we are not. And sometimes this tissue gets torn by something like a toxic event or a marital infidelity and the "savage man" reappears.
Great question! And thank you, kc, for bringing up that passage with Heinrich talking about technological advances. I loved that bit. I had never thought of that before. Yes, "society" has advanced and developed innovations, but each one of us individually is as clueless as ever.
This made me think, too, of how absurd Babette and Jack's fears seem in comparison to ancient man or even modern third-world countries. Even with their high mortality rates, those people don't obsess over death, staring hopelessly out of windows or lying in bed all day listening to the radio. This is really a first-world problem. All the technology and conveniences leave people with too much time on their hands.
What if death is nothing but sound?
Oh, how did I miss that? Thanks for pointing out that line.
I would love to read that Atlantic article.
A first-world problem -- what a good way to put that, Erin. They're not fighting for survival; they're not even fighting for food or shelter. They're spoiled and lucky, and they know it, and there's nothing to do but watch the clock tick until it finally washes out.
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