Nothing To Be Frightened Of (Julian Barnes)
OVERVIEW
How much time have you spent contemplating personal extinction? Not as much time as Julian Barnes, I guarantee you. Nothing To Be Frightened Of is an uninterrupted thought-stream of musings on death, leaving no aspect of mortal terror untouched. Dark, irreverent, and deadly funny, this book is basically one long drawn-out scream of terror – and I am totally here for it.
I picked up Nothing To Be Frightened Of because Barnes is an atheist (Barnes says “atheist turned agnostic,” but he’s an atheist and you can fight me on it). He also informs us that he so named his book because there is NOTHING to be frightened of… as in, the nothingness of oblivion is genuine cause for terror.
What an asshole.
You’ll find no comfort or platitudes here, just a British writer’s bleak (but hilarious) reflections on mortality, including:
· what might be the best (and worst) ways to die?
· are illusions about an afterlife more consoling than the finality of atheism?
· is it better to expire in a single go or gradually over time?
· does a “final illness” provide a valuable opportunity?
· plenty of great quotes from contemplative writers, poets, and philosophers who were similarly death-obsessed
To no one’s surprise, I especially loved Barnes’s thoughts on religion as a vehicle for existential comfort:
“It is difficult for us to contemplate, fixedly, the possibility, let alone the certainty, that life is a matter of cosmic hazard, its fundamental purpose mere self-perpetuation, that it unfolds in emptiness, that our planet will one day drift in frozen silence, and that the human species, as it has developed in all its frenzied and over-engineered complexity, will completely disappear and not be missed […] And it is a frightening prospect for a race which has for so long relied upon its own invented gods for explanation and consolation. [Theists say] believe in what I believe – believe in God, and purpose, and the promise of eternal life – because the alternative is f***ing terrifying.”
WHAT NOW? (actions for mortal atheists)
Barnes refers to the death-fearing part of our minds as the “grim cluster of brain cells scaring you shitless until the very end,” and doubts very much it would be in evolution’s best interest to equip us with any perfect tool for ameliorating death anxiety. And thus is the tenor of the book from start to finish – examining mortality and death but offering no counsel or resolution. And so there are no WHAT NOWs, no conclusions or advice to give… for goodness sake, there aren’t even chapters. The value is in the invitation to contemplate; if you are someone who’s been craving a good mortal brainstorm, I suggest you read this cover to cover.
IN SUM:
Is this book entirely secular? Yes, but with heaps of religious sympathy
If you had to describe the book in one sentence? A witty Englishman wrote a dark comedy memoir (that he insists isn’t a memoir) about death, examining every nook and cranny of existential terror
Who should read this book? Anyone similarly death-obsessed and who enjoys wry British humour