Name: Mortality
Rating: 4.3 (96 reviews)
Author: Christopher Hitchens

What’s in it for me? Explore Christopher Hitchens’s reflections on life and mortality.

Life is a great gift, one we are fortunate to enjoy. Yet we also know that this gift is given to us for a limited period – we grow up, we grow older and eventually, we die.

But often, it seems we forget just how fleeting life is unless we are reminded of its transience.

Author Christopher Hitchens was given his “reminder” when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2010 and was told he had less than a year to live. In the year between this event and his death in December 2011, Hitchen’s explored, at length, the question: How does living feel when you know the end is so near?

In these blinks, you’ll read the reflections of a man for whom life was cut short by disease. You’ll explore what it feels like to be confronted with one’s mortality, how to handle severe pain and how cancer affects the body and mind.

In these blinks, you’ll also learn

what you truly lose when you lose your voice;
how religion hinders groundbreaking cancer research; and
why Nietzsche’s glib phrase on suffering is wrong.

When he was diagnosed with cancer, Hitchens saw how uncomfortable people are with the idea of death.

British-American journalist, writer and literary critic Christopher Hitchens was on a book tour in 2010 when he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. There he was forced to confront the weight of his mortality, after doctors diagnosed him with esophageal cancer.

Hitchens was overwhelmed by the idea of his death; it’s true that most people don’t think about mortality until they absolutely must. Hitchens’s terminal diagnosis made him realize how many life milestones he would miss, such as his children getting married, or the birth of grandchildren.

Even though the concept of mortality was difficult to grasp, the reality of death became part of daily life as Hitchens suffered through the pain of his disease and extensive cancer treatments.

Hitchens also realized how awkward people became when interacting with a terminal patient. Some of his friends didn’t know what to say, other than recounting “motivational” stories of people who had survived the disease.

For some, such stories might be comforting ‒ but Hitchens didn’t find them helpful as the stories offered no practical information on how he could cheat death.

Other friends avoided the topic of mortality altogether, telling him instead to fight on. This made Hitchens feel as if he would be a failure if he were to die.

All these experiences made him realize just how uncomfortable most people are with the idea of death.

Hitchens eventually came up with a set of rules aimed at making his friends more comfortable. When people inquired as to his health, Hitchens tried to be honest. If being honest was difficult, he told jokes.

If a friend asked how he was feeling, for example, he might answer, “Well, I feel like cancer.”

Mortality forced Hitchens to reevaluate his life and change the way he related to other people.

After Hitchens’s diagnosis, he explored his convictions about atheism in the face of death.

Hitchens valued his commitment to the concept of atheism. And despite outside pressure, he stuck by his beliefs through his illness until the very end.

Many friends and companions pressured Hitchens to find faith as he neared death. Although he appreciated his friends praying for him, he didn’t believe it would make a difference to his situation.

Hitchens realized just how important communication is when his illness took away his voice.

Hitchens lost a lot of weight during treatment. He also suffered through several rounds of chemotherapy, feeling each time as if poison was being injected into his body.

While living through the pain, however, Hitchens could at least joke verbally about the situation with friends and family. This situation changed when he lost his voice.

Cancer treatment is still primitive, and religious interests hinder modern research.

Once a person is diagnosed with cancer, his only hope of survival is to get quality treatment, and fast. Cancer treatment technology is still primitive, however, and much research needs to be done.

Thousands of cancer patients still die each year after having undergone treatment. Chemotherapy, one of the most common cancer treatments, essentially kills a patient as much as do cancer cells.

Kernaussagen in Mortality