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Bezig met laden... Sterfelijk (2012)door Christopher Hitchens
Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. This book was not "dark", as I would expect from the title. One of the memorable quotes from this book: “It’s probably a merciful thing that pain is impossible to describe from memory”. pg 67 Does it frighten me to be reading such material? Well, no, not frightening - but it some way it elevates my consciousness, my awareness, that this fate awaits me as well. And I wish I could have known Hitchens, even attended one of his eight hour dinner parties. It seems to me that this book is Hitchen’s attempt to let us know what dying is like, how it happens. And it is a testament to his will to keep living to the end. “Living dyingily” he called it.
The book takes us on the journey from June of 2010 (when Hitchens was diagnosed) to December of 2011 (when he died). What a beautiful, awful journey it was. Samuel Johnson said that "The prospect of being hanged focuses the mind wonderfully." Hitchens was not being hanged, unless you mean that metaphorically, but his literate mind stayed focused and articulate. He goes into the rich detail of his body becoming a "reservoir of pain," meditates on the old wheeze that pain makes us better people, offers thoughts on whether the phrase "the war on cancer" is appropriate, and reveals that near the end he became a willing morphine junky: "How happily I measured off my day as I saw the injection being readied." Being in Christopher’s company was rarely sobering, but always exhilarating. It is, however, sobering and grief-inducing to read this brave and harrowing account of his “year of living dyingly” in the grip of the alien that succeeded where none of his debate opponents had in bringing him down. PrijzenOnderscheidingenErelijsten
Tijdens zijn Amerikaanse boektournee ontdekte Hitchens dat hij slokdarmkanker heeft. Hij onderging allerlei soorten van behandeling en verloor zijn spraakvermogen. Hij beschrijft zijn emoties, zijn verlies en de reacties van zijn omgeving. Hij vertelt hoe de ziekte zijn kijk op het leven veranderde. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)304.6Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Factors affecting social behavior PopulationLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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Eppure riesco a pensare a poche cose che tirino fuori la nostra umanità come vedere una persona che sta morendo, con le sue debolezze esposte, e provare compassione per tutto il male fatto e ricevuto, del tutto insensato visto il poco tempo che passiamo in vita, e per tutto il bene fatto e ricevuto, che rischia in gran parte di andare perduto; e poi finire per estendere quella compassione a noi stessə, fragili e umanə, proprio come chi sta morendo, raggiungendo una vicinanza con gli altri esseri umani che prescinde qualsiasi religione o differenza.
Hitchens avrebbe odiato questo discorso smielatissimo. Magari avrebbe detto che lui non voleva nessuna vicinanza con unə qualunque stronzə fondamentalista di una qualunque religione. Difficile dargli torto: i cancri, che siano tumori del corpo o ideologie autoritarie, non possono che suscitare il nostro ribrezzo, dato tutto il carico di sofferenza che portano con loro.
Sono in disaccordo con diverse posizioni di Hitchens (e la noncuranza con la quale parla di cure all’avanguardia in un Paese, gli USA, dove parecchia gente non può permettersi nemmeno quelle standard, è piuttosto raccapricciante), ma Mortalità è un libriccino da leggere per ricordarci che, nel bene e nel male, siamo soprattutto – se non soltanto – un corpo mortale. ( )