I don't wanna live forever- Death With Interruptions

When I started reading Death with Interruptions, I was thrown off by the lack of proper grammar  The style of the novel largely ignores traditional rules of grammar, discusses punctuation in most sentences and quotations for speech, and reads more as a stream-of-consciousness (super summary). 

The story starts with the government of the unnamed country the story takes place, announcing zero deaths "for a whole day to go by, with its generous allowance of twenty-four hours, diurnal and nocturnal, matutinal and vespertine, without one death from an illness, a fatal fall, or a successful suicide, not one, not a single one." (P.1) The citizens of the country were left dumbfounded and confused, seemingly happy which is a reasonable response to finding out you can't die, then they get hit with reality and the problems that come with immortality. The Injured, sick, and old are left to suffer without being able to die. This causes a nationwide crisis as hospitals are overflown with people. Eventually a pharma company "Maphia" "maphia, with a ph, Why the ph, To distinguish us from the original mafia" (p.46). Maphia is an outlaw group that smuggles the elderly, injured, and sick out of the country so they can die. 

Around here is when I got confused reading this book. "death" took the form of a young lady who lives and falls for a cellist and doesn't die. She met with the country's prime minister where she pled for death to return. eventually, death returns to the country and the citizens have a newfound love and appreciation for the one thing everyone once dreaded- death For the first time, death knew what it felt like to have a dog on her lap” (p.172) This shows how death is now appreciated and not dreaded from anymore.  

I enjoyed this book and found it thought-provoking. I've thought about immortality before, but I've never truly sat back and thought of what immortality could look like in such detail as Saramago did. The story gives a realistic and hard look at what immortality looks like and all the problems that arise with it. I felt like he covered everything that could've and did go wrong and it gave a very dystopian feel. 

I leave you with this great and peak song by Zayn & Taylor Swift. I don't wanna live forever

"I don't wanna live forever cuz I know I'd be living in pain" lyric from the tune, although Zayn is talking about pain from a breakup, the lyric really hits home for this book and is something that came to mind while I was reading Death with Interruptions.

Question: Would you rather die tomorrow or live forever?

Comments

  1. Tesi26 March 2024 at 10:33

    Alex, I am happy to see it looks like you did the reading this week. You also did a great job of including quotes that substantially support your points. However, I’m a little confused as to where you found that the maphia was a a Pharma company? It seems like the quote you chose and the sentence that follows is more in line with the book so I understand the honest mistake! I hadn’t heard that song in a minute, great choice for comparison with the novel.

    Confusions are understandable! I’ll make sure we clarify that part of the book in class :)

    Keep up the good work we know you can do!

    Thanks for your comment!
    - Tesi

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