I am lead by Glen's response to think of Orson Scott Card's "Speaker for
the Dead" <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speaker_for_the_Dead>
In Orson Scott Card's "Speaker for the Dead," the main and titular
theme revolves around understanding and compassion through the
truthful telling of one's life. The novel introduces the concept of
a "Speaker for the Dead," someone who tells the unvarnished story of
a person's life at their death in a way that aims to present all
aspects of the individual—their good and bad traits, their successes
and failures—in a balanced and empathetic manner.
This role of the Speaker is designed to allow those who are left
behind to truly understand the deceased, fostering forgiveness and a
more profound comprehension of the complexities of human nature.
This practice contrasts with traditional eulogies that often gloss
over a person’s flaws or reduce their life to a series of highlights.
The theme extends to broader philosophical and ethical questions
about how societies deal with truth and reconciliation, the nature
of forgiveness, and the possibility of understanding different forms
of life. This is particularly explored through the interaction
between humans and the alien species called the Pequeninos on the
planet Lusitania. The novel challenges characters and readers alike
to consider the ways in which understanding and compassion can lead
to healing and peace, even across the divides of culture and species.
"Speaker for the Dead" thus delves into the necessity and challenge
of empathy, advocating for a more comprehensive and compassionate
approach to understanding both the living and the dead. This
thematic focus on empathy and understanding is what drives the
narrative and the development of its characters.
A spiritual woo-woo treatment might imply that a person's soul would not
be fully free to "move on" until such a full accounting was done. In the
book, the "Speaker" would spend a full year fully researching the
person's life and relations to achieve this thorough/blunt eulogy on the
anniversary of the Dead's passing... I don't remember how this was
supported/funded but the idea moved me when I encountered it.
On 4/24/24 8:26 PM, glen wrote:
I could only wish I'd be criticized this well when I die:
"Dennett’s text is full of tirades wrought from petty grievances, is
disorganized to the point of being unreadable, and like the rest of
his books, will undoubtedly not have much influence."
<https://jacobin.com/2024/04/daniel-dennett-social-darwinism-philosophy>
There's this fantastic podcast by Amanda Knox called Labyrinths
(https://antennapod.org/deeplink/subscribe/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.megaphone.fm%2FDONSN6255278021&title=Labyrinths+with+Amanda+Knox
<https://antennapod.org/deeplink/subscribe/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.megaphone.fm%2FDONSN6255278021&title=Labyrinths+with+Amanda+Knox>)
where one episode is about death and things like 'how you want to
die'. My best hope is that all the ppl who think I was a hack, or an
idiot, or whatever would gather to trash me. The milquetoast accolades
we present when a person dies are literally disgusting.
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