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Mortalism: Readings on the Meaning of Life
by (Editor: Peter Heinegg)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Prometheus Books (2003-05)
ISBN: 1591020425
EAN: 9781591020424
Dewy Decimal #: 128.5
Paperback: 213 pages
SKU: 071222021
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comments: This copy is in excellent condition. No visible markings, highlights, underlining, tears. Tight spine. No Dust Jacket. Clean Soft Cover with light shelf/edge wear. Great spiritual copy, worth having at an affordable price. (K3-105)
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
The inevitability and finality of death have prompted some of the world's most poignant and memorable literature, from the Epic of Gilgamesh of ancient Babylon to the works of contemporary poets and novelists. The conviction that death means everlasting extinction, with no possibility of an afterlife, is described by Peter Heinegg as 'mortalism'. In this unique anthology, he has collected more than fifty selections of poetry and prose that reflect this view. In perusing this intriguing volume, the reader will find that mortalism was the viewpoint shared by many of the most profound and creative minds in history.
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Customer Reviews
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Table of Contents
Rating  (3)
Date: 2004-04-18
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I. Introduction p. 9
Why I Am a Mortalist p. 11 II. The Texts p. 15
1. The Epic of Gilgamesh (ca. 2000 B.C.E.) p. 15
2. The Bible (Job - Ecclesiastes [dates unknown]) p. 17
3. Homer (eighth century B.C.E.) p. 22
4. Sophocles (496?-406 B.C.E.) p. 31
5. Other Greek Poets p. 33
6. Plato (428-348 B.C.E.) p. 36
7. Epicurus (342?-270 B.C.E.) p. 39
8. Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus, 96?-55 B.C.E.) p. 41
9. Catullus (Gaius Valerius Catullus, 84-54 B.C.E.) p. 50
10. Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 B.C.E.) p. 51
11. Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca, 4 B.C.E.-65 C.E.) p. 55
12. Hadrian (Publius Aelius Hadrianus, 76-138 C.E.) p. 56
13. Marcus Aurelius (121-180 C.E.) p. 57
14. Bede the Venerable (673?-735 C.E.) p. 61
15. Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) p. 62
16. Chidiock Tichborne (d. 1586) p. 69
17. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) p. 70
18. Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) p. 75
19. David Hume (1711-1776) p. 77
20. Hume and Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) p. 84
21. Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) p. 87
22. Marquis de Sade (1740-1814) p. 91
23. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) p. 94
24. Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) p. 96
25. William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) p. 101
26. Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) p. 104
27. Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) p. 106
28. Edward FitzGerald (1809-1883) p. 112
29. Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) p. 117
30. Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) p. 118
31. Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) p. 121
32. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) p. 127
33. Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) p. 130
34. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) p. 137
35. William James (1843-1910) and Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) p. 141
36. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) p. 143
37. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) p. 149
38. George Santayana (1863-1952) p. 151
39. Miguel de Unamuno (1863-1936) p. 152
40. Marcel Proust (1871-1922) p. 159
41. Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) p. 161
42. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) p. 165
43. James Joyce (1882-1941) p. 168
44. D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930) p. 172
45. Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) p. 177
46. Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) p. 178
47. Philip Larkin (1922-1985) p. 180
48. L. E. Sissman (1928-1976) p. 187
49. Richard Selzer (1938-) p. 193
50. Margaret Atwood (1939-) p. 202
51. James Fenton (1949-) p. 204
52. Gjertrud Schnackenberg (1953-) p. 206
53. Epilogue: William R. Clark (1938-) p. 210
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Not Respectable
Rating  (2)
Date: 2003-12-05
1 out of 9 customers found this reveiw helpful
No matter what you think about whether there is an after-life, for the author to claim that it IS "reality" or even the "most logical" approach, is stretching his credibility too much. In fact, many of the most "logical" people in history HAVE believed in an after-life. Go figure.As you might guess, I disagree with the author. HOWEVER, I make it a habit to read works of those who disagree with me. When I read a logical, informed, balanced viewpoint that I disagree with, I can respect it (even if I still disagree). This particular book, though, is none of those. The author's expertise apparently is in comparitive English, but he seems to miss the point completely of many of the referenced works. Some of the references made to Bible excerpts are taken out of concept and abused (typical straw-man argument). My biggest disappointment was the treatment of Emily Dickinson. She is my favorite poet and I have read all of her poems (in fact, I manually typed ALL of them for archiving) and done studies on many of them (in specialized college courses and such). Now, the author is nearly right when discussing Emily's beliefs. But his selection was poor and not wholly representative of her poems or her life. The whole book seems to be a push for "my viewpoint is right", which is somewhat to be expected from its title and cover. However, the author adds little or no substance, making this a disappointing read.
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Heinegg (and friends) tells it like it is
Rating  (5)
Date: 2003-11-18
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Its about time someone gleaned from the best authors a collection dealing with the importance of life seen from the "other side" : that is, the fact that no after life can be used to excuse the difficulties of life and soften the blow of death.
Each of Heinegg's choices is masterful. The selection of pieces is carefully balanced between poetry and prose, negative and positive thoughts, personal and prophetic.
It is not a book to read through at a sitting, although once begun it is hard to put down. Rather the reader should think of it as one would a CD to be put on when the mood requires it. Picking it up at the end of hard day, might even give you a reason to improve your state of mind, if not your life. After all, if there is no shiny gilded palace awaiting us at the end of the long climb, perhaps the comforts of home will seem more palatial.
I won't list the sources chosen except to say that they range chronologically from Before the Christian Era up to the 20th century. Humor is often available to help the reader accept the certitude of a dark conclusion.
Send for a copy. You wont be disappointed even if its not a book to die for.
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provocative choice of testimony
Rating (5)
Date: 2003-09-02
3 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
"Mortalism" traces the idea that the soul is not immortal as far back as human literature extends, to ancient Mesopotamia, and as far forward as modern biological science. Peter Heinegg has chosen a stimulating of texts, each of which is worth reading in its own right, but which, taken together, make an excellent argument for the central idea: life makes more sense if one accepts the fact that it will end, that once the body dies, the soul dies, too.
Especially impressive is the wide range of translations by Heinegg himself, from Latin, Russian, French, Spanish, and other languages. His translations of Tolstoy and Flaubert are particularly admirable, as are the passages that he has chosen to translated.
Perhaps mortalism is less comforting a notion than the belief that the soul is immortal - but if you think you might be up for eternal punishment, maybe it would be comforting to think that your agony will end when you perish. In any event, Heinegg doesn't belittle the horror of death. He just advises us not to take false comfort in a belief for which we have absolutely no empirical evidence.
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The Ultimacy of Death
Rating (5)
Date: 2003-06-27
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
The myth of the immortality of the soul and of reward or punishment in an afterlife has haunted human culture for millenia. Despite the comfort of this vision and its usefulness in creating sanctions for ethical values, many thinkers have denounced it down the ages, often in opposition to prevailing social and religious mores. In this book, editor Peter Heinegg gathers some of the more poignant and forceful of these voices into a collection of accessible readings well suited for literature or philosophy courses covering the theme of death, or the nature of the self. The texts cover the span of western culture from Gilgamesh to Nietzsche and beyond to a contemporary DNA researcher (William R. Clark)and include readings from philosophy (Plato, Epicurus, Lucretius, Marcus Aurelius, Pascal, Hume, Schopenhauer, William James,and more), as well as literature (Shakespeare, Emily Dickenson, DH Lawrence, Tolstoy, Proust, and more), and even the Bible. Heinegg, who teaches comparative literature, gives brief introductions to the authors that whet our appetites for the readings and situate them nicely in historical context. While the book offers little consolation for those who grieve, it does cultivate a heightened sense of the importance of our brief moment in the sun, or as Heinegg says of the poet Wallace Stevens' work, it reflects "the paradoxical fact that death is "the mother of beauty," since it alone gives shape and intensity to the pleasures of the world."
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