One sentence in particular always struck me:Īn is first and foremost an animal moving about on a planet shining in the sun. Every now and then I would come across it, open it up, read it, and put it back in its place. Without knowing who Ernest Becker was - without ever seeking out another page of his writing until now - I kept this essay, with my marginal notes, folded up in a jewelry box on my dresser as I moved from room to room, city to city. Nonetheless, this introduction had a profound effect when it was given to me in a literature class, by a professor who I’ve often credited for leading me into the writing life. One that Becker didn’t live to see published, as he died only a few months before his 1974 magnum opus, The Denial of Death, won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. Until tonight, however, I didn’t appreciate its ironic duality: the beginning of a larger work, but at the same time, the last of a man’s life’s work. Triptych image: Lera Nikulina, “Grinberg Method”įOR THE LAST SIX YEARS, I’ve been carrying around a tattered copy of the introduction to Ernest Becker’s Escape from Evil.
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