Escape Artists
PodCastle => Fantasy Discussion => Topic started by: deflective on February 01, 2010, 06:09:51 AM
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bbc article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8490062.stm)
he wants to break ground by being a subject for a 'suicide tribunal' that will decide whether or not he is mentally fit to decide to legally end their own life. so he's not looking to die soon, just lay the groundwork so that the option is open to him later.
this was not a headline i was ready to see but, even so, i feel some weird sort of pride as well. this is exactly how i would expect the creator of Granny Weatherwax to approach the end of his life. acceptance and dignity. even now he's thinking about how to meet the end on his own terms and spends time considering other people, making sure that friends & family wont have legal problems and using what influence he has to make things easier for other people in his situation in the future.
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I don't believe it's the first time he's said he wants to commit suicide when his mind's closer to gone, but it's a blow each time I see it.
It's a good fight to have, and not on where there are a lot of good options. Of course, if this was Discworld Weatherwax would be able to browbeat Death into a reprieve.
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To be fair, it's not imminent Death that's the problem, really. Alzheimer's is not a cool way to go.
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i know it's not fair of me but i can't help but expect that he will release a book that will somehow cap off the whole series. he's done it so many time in so many books, resolved huge problems with a twist of perception. all of a sudden the big bad isn't invincible anymore and it's the simple things like how you live your life that's important.
terribly unfair, i know. he faces a personal battle that i have a hard time imagining and all i want is for him to write something that somehow makes it all better. some book that draws the curtain on discworld the way that only Pratchett draws a curtain and still finds room to make an analogy to his personal situation and show that he's found a way to come to peace with it.
a tall order that i wouldn't expect from anybody else but after hundreds of hours spent with dozens of his books i find that i just can't lower my expectations to something realistic.
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To be fair, it's not imminent Death that's the problem, really. Alzheimer's is not a cool way to go.
No way to go is a cool way to go....
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To be fair, it's not imminent Death that's the problem, really. Alzheimer's is not a cool way to go.
No way to go is a cool way to go....
Yes, and to Scattercat's original point the scene I was referencing had Death not taking a sick child. Obviously Alzheimer's does not quickly stop hearts, but it is a death of personality. And to whatever sliver of Death that takes the mind and not the heartbeat I would direct my chessboard.
ETA: He published a piece in the Guardian today on it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/01/terry-pratchett-alzheimer-assisted-suicide
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To be fair, it's not imminent Death that's the problem, really. Alzheimer's is not a cool way to go.
No way to go is a cool way to go....
Given that we all have to go someday, one can at least rank some as less awful than others. A slow slumber after a small injection versus having your mind sizzle away like butter on a skillet?
I watched my grandfather die with Alzheimer's. I cannot think of a more appalling situation. (The "good" days were the worst; he knew what was happening, then, saw himself soiling his bed and helpless. He said something once that has always struck a chord of utter desolation inside me. He looked up at my aunt and said, "I never thought it would end like this." Next minute he was gone again, sucked back beneath the whirlpool.) I would personally prefer total-body paralysis to that paralysis of the mind, that death of personality. To be trapped in a disintegrating castle, every day the rooms a little smaller, the corridors more jumbled... to me, that is one of the most horrible things I can imagine. And I get to know that I've got a far higher-than-normal chance of ending up with the disease myself, if I live long enough.
I'd rather go out as myself, not as a drooling husk with my face. I am normally virulently anti-suicide, but in this sort of situation it's more like conceding the game once the checkmate is inevitable.
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I think...that the law needs to be changed. People who are ill like this and terminally ill should have the right to end their lives on their own terms. I've seen both grandfathers die of cancer, one mercifully quick over the course of a week, the other slowly over the course of months. The law needs to change.
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I'm all for this too, but personally, when I die via sane suicide, I want it to be incredibly cool and memorable. I want to freak some people out.
I've decided that when I get to about 80, unless I have some kind of awesome reason to keep living, I'm gonna jump off a building, wraped in chicken wire and strapped with explosives. I'll blow up mid-air. It'll be awesome.
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I'm all for this too, but personally, when I die via sane suicide, I want it to be incredibly cool and memorable. I want to freak some people out.
I've decided that when I get to about 80, unless I have some kind of awesome reason to keep living, I'm gonna jump off a building, wraped in chicken wire and strapped with explosives. I'll blow up mid-air. It'll be awesome.
Except for, you know, anyone below you that gets hit by the chicken wire/you.
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I'm all for this too, but personally, when I die via sane suicide, I want it to be incredibly cool and memorable. I want to freak some people out.
I've decided that when I get to about 80, unless I have some kind of awesome reason to keep living, I'm gonna jump off a building, wraped in chicken wire and strapped with explosives. I'll blow up mid-air. It'll be awesome.
Except for, you know, anyone below you that gets hit by the chicken wire/you.
yeah, remind me to take an umbrella that day.
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you don't need chickenwire/explosives, just nail the landing. (http://www.kottke.org/08/07/the-most-beautiful-suicide)
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I'm all for this too, but personally, when I die via sane suicide, I want it to be incredibly cool and memorable. I want to freak some people out.
I've decided that when I get to about 80, unless I have some kind of awesome reason to keep living, I'm gonna jump off a building, wraped in chicken wire and strapped with explosives. I'll blow up mid-air. It'll be awesome.
Except for, you know, anyone below you that gets hit by the chicken wire/you.
yeah that's the point :D
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I'm all for this too, but personally, when I die via sane suicide, I want it to be incredibly cool and memorable. I want to freak some people out.
I've decided that when I get to about 80, unless I have some kind of awesome reason to keep living, I'm gonna jump off a building, wraped in chicken wire and strapped with explosives. I'll blow up mid-air. It'll be awesome.
I decided years ago, if I knew I was dying of a terminal disease or something similar, I'd go skydiving without a parachute, and take some kind of chemical that would render me unconcious before I hit the ground. But I would do it far away from any city or population.
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I decided years ago, if I knew I was dying of a terminal disease or something similar, I'd go skydiving without a parachute, and take some kind of chemical that would render me unconcious before I hit the ground.
Why? I'm sure it would only hurt for a brief moment.
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I decided years ago, if I knew I was dying of a terminal disease or something similar, I'd go skydiving without a parachute, and take some kind of chemical that would render me unconcious before I hit the ground.
Why? I'm sure it would only hurt for a brief moment.
Cus its a long time to think about whats going to happen, I would assume.