What do we owe the dead?

April 12, 2024 9:08 AM

Voices of Mourning by Hannah Gold. An interesting personal essay on the book About Ed by Robert Glück, exploring grief and mourning. It also raises the question - whose life is allowed to be remembered for the person they were rather than their surrounding political context?
posted by colourlesssleep (3 comments total)

I've never felt it was particularly important to be remembered...maybe for a few days after
my demise of course. We'll be somewhere more vital than this earthly den.
posted by Czjewel at 1:45 PM on April 12 [1 favorite]

Thanks for posting, interesting read, especially the juxtaposition of timeline of the writer of the essay and the book they are reading. The writer is dealing with violent political conflict deaths, a personal death but, still, death; and this book about memory and mourning, and the politics of that particular death overshadowing personal grief. I feel this, I have a friend whose death is always a part of a violent political conflict, and in some ways that has made it much harder for me to simply mourn their loss.
posted by winesong at 4:31 PM on April 12 [1 favorite]

Thank you for posting this.

A minor part of this, but it's rare to read about what it feels like to read challenging writing.. This paragraph felt familiar to reading hard but worthwhile books:
Personally, I have a very low tolerance for reading about dreams. More than forty pages is a lot to ask. I make a concerted effort to read every sentence, rereading when I lose focus. Visions of dragons, frozen corpses, and cameos of Lily the dog. I commit to this concentrated read because I have agreed to a contract with Bob: he has spent his novel imploring me to hold Ed with him, and here is Ed, finally, in his own words, so I allow him a place inside my mind for safe keeping.
posted by latkes at 10:11 PM on April 14