“The Violet Hour” examines five (six, actually, if you
include the epilogue) writers and how they faced their impending deaths. The
author not only examined biographies but source materials and when possible,
interviewed friends and family members. Susan Sontag, Sigmund Freud, John
Updike, Dylan Thomas, and Maurice Sendak have their last
years/months/days/hours examined. John Salter, in the epilogue, she actually
interviews a while before he quite unexpectedly and suddenly dies- they talk of
death and how to face it but of course he had no idea he was soon to die.
Susan Sontag, who had survived two bouts with cancer that
were supposed to kill her seemed to think she could beat the third one, too.
She tried everything, including a bone marrow transplant which was experimental
in those days. She worked until the end, writing in her hospital bed.
Freud also worked until the end; he also, despite having extensive
oral cancers, continued to smoke his cigars. To keep his head clear, he
eschewed painkillers except for aspirin; when the pain finally becomes
unbearable, he asked for terminal sedation. No in-between measures for him.
While all their deaths are different in both cause and
course, and they didn’t all accept their dying to the same degree, they all
worked right up until the end- although admittedly Dylan did as much drinking
and having sex with people not his wife as he did working. These people all had
the benefit of knowing that their work would live on after they died; they knew
that they had not lived meaningless lives (not that you have to be an artist to
have a meaningful life; it’s just that I know one of the questions dying people
ask themselves is whether their lives have had meaning and if anyone will
remember them). Did that make it easier for them to face death? Perhaps. Or did
working keep their minds off their impending demises? It seems most likely that
they just had so much more to say that they had to race and try and beat the
clock.
It’s a very interesting book; I’ve read a number of books
about the end of life but never one that focused on writers. I wonder if visual
artists have the same irrepressible urge to create to the end as writers do, or
if musicians do- although David Bowie’s recent death would seem to point to
that. I have to think that this makes death a little easier.
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Interesting topic for a book. I think reading about death is, or can be, helpful. It is something we all face and is rarely talked about.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Death is a taboo subject, which leads to families not knowing what their loved ones want; heck, often the person dying doesn't know what they want or what their options are. Death denial.
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