Since yesterday’s topic dealt with the walking dead, I thought this a fitting post to draw attention to a special report on Death. Hey, lots of characters die all the time (just read G.R.R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice series for some of the most ruthless killing-off of core characters you’ve ever seen), and it’s not like you as the author have actually gone through any kind of death/resurrection experience in order to fully understand what it must be like (though, if anyone has some near-death experiences, I’d love to hear).
Not only did New Scientist magazine produce this article on How does it feel to die?, but they put together an entire special report on all aspects of death, including:
How to become an instant expert on death.
And even info on people’s less-than-successful attempts to find out what’s waiting for us in the afterlife. (Note to self, don’t hire a psychic to try and contact me from beyond the grave.)
There are all sorts of issues surrounding death, from our questionable ability to actually determine whether or not someone is truly dead to our being the only beings on the planet that is self-aware of our impending demise. We also are having to deal with how technology is extending life artificially, and so we might have to make that tough choice on either prolonging physical existence, or letting the body expire naturally. Tough thoughts and choices that many people are being faced with.
Maybe this comes across as morbid, but death is a big deal that we all have to experience sooner or later. As I said yesterday, you can never be too prepared for the walking dead to come stalking after your brains, so why not brush up on all the issues surrounding death, and thus make it a significant topic for your characters? Death can be feared or accepted. What would a character be like who is indifferent to death, or studies it with simple curiosity? What would prompt that kind of perspective and how would it fit into whatever world you are creating?
I see that smile.
*scrunches nose* I’m not smiling.. because that is a little morbid.
Okay.. now I’m smiling (haven’t I told you I’m slow?).
Very interesting blog post today!
killing major characters is fun…i do that all the time…gives the whole work an interesting take!
Great post!
N
Though it often leaves the reader hating you if you kill off a favorite of theirs. The thing I dislike, though, is when an author has a big scene where a major character dies, only to resurrect them in some melodramatic way later on just to satisfy the readers.
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Sorry for offtopic