Jacob’s Reviews > Death with Interruptions > Status Update

I really like how Saramago takes this scenario and creates this level of detail. So lucid, so creative. It's definitely taxing, but I enjoy how he takes a hypothetical that I have considered, and put his full weight into it.

"One cannot be too careful with words, they change their minds just like people do."

In this story, the narrator corrects his initial view of "poor country folk". The narrator is omniscient, yet aware of his imperfections. It's a trick done in other forms of fiction, sure, but I am drawn by Saramago's use of the term.

"That's how life is, what it gives with one hand one day, it takes away with the other."

"Because philosophy needs death as much as religions do, if we philosophize it's in order to know that we will die, as monsieur montaigne said, to philosophize is to learn how to die."

"Whether we like it or not, the one justification for the existence of all religions is death, they need death as much as we need bread to eat."

It is interesting that this satire on the pause of death is a satire on our current medical/life extension in the West and the consequences.