Thinkin' My Thoughts About Death Fic

[rubberbutton]

Why, oh why, do I love death fic like I do? Nothing makes me quite as happy (or sad, in a happy way) when my favorite characters bite the big one it, hopefully in as tragic and devastating a method as possible, leaving the survivors bereft and reeling.

Is it my psyche's way of dealing with my own anxiety about death? Trying to answer the big questions about why we're born, why we die and, hey, isn't this digital watch pretty neat?  Perhaps it's the catharsis? Or maybe I'm a closet sadist?

These are the questions that I'm not sure I want answers to.

Comments

[purridot.livejournal.com]

It is a perplexing problem! But an irresistible one. I am also tempted to think it is something to do with catharsis... and appreciating life while you have it. I will have to think about it some more (with chocolate). Thing is, I couldn't bear death!fics in some fandoms. I don't know if I want Ray to die, for example! (But if you have a rec I could try it out ;-)

I always remember a "Peanuts" strip where Schroeder and Lucy are discussing something like this :-)

Schroeder: That composer had a tragic life.
Lucy: But it was romantic...
Schroeder: How can you say that?
Lucy: A tragic life is romantic when it happens to somebody else.

[silja-b.livejournal.com]

Karen Blixen, who had a fondness for giving her characters a grand send-off and wrote at great length about death, had a theory on what makes for a good story, and by extension, one assumes, a good life - or rather a good death.

She believed that Fate is not a constant, written at birth, but claimed. One can claim Fate by living life as a grand gesture and being true to one's nature. Her example was that of the lion, which certainly is true to no nature but its own and is one of the grandest creatures – existing constantly in the struggle between life and death.

I suspect our occasional penchant for maiming and killing our characters stem from something similar. We get to write the last line of a life as a grand gesture. We control Fate – if only by proxy.