Death with Interruptions – Saramago

Saramago’s book Death with Interruptions gave a new perspective into the topic of death which is refreshing in comparison to the other books we’ve read surrounding these topics. The introduction we received in class last week to this book led me to believe I knew what I was going into but after reading it left me reflecting on the topic of death and the fear surrounding it due to the philosophical nature of the book. Death itself is something natural and expected despite the majority fearing it but when faced with sudden immortality it might seem as if we’re destined for a life of health and happiness. Through Saramago’s book, this is proven not to be the case as shown when a country is suddenly facing immortality over an 8-month timespan where they experience numerous issues due to this. Immortality seemed like a cure at first, but without death, it didn’t mean people still wouldn’t suffer.

The book plays with the idea of how we assume immortality would simply just be living forever, happy and healthy, while in the book it shows how regardless of the newfound immortality we live in a state of dying with no death in sight. Watching your loved ones constantly be on the brink of death but never dying feels like a different kind of torture which led to the solution of bringing bodies across the border into a new country for them to finally rest. This solution brought upon a series of ethical dilemmas where it was seen as immoral and murder to some and a sense of relief to others. Immortality brought upon other issues including how much society relies on death in specific industries like funeral services, insurance companies and healthcare, showing people’s livelihoods would be greatly impacted. These are all topics that aren’t usually discussed when thinking about the topic of immortality and even death itself, it helped put into perspective just how much society needs death to function. One issue that wasn’t discussed but my mind continuously went to was overpopulation as if people continue to reproduce the economy would collapse. It’s also interesting seeing how people react in the face of death, when given the envelope there were a variety of reactions from acting out with illegal acts, acceptance or suicide. As death is natural and a part of life, it’s still different being told when you will die as it produces a new type of fear and paranoia. 

Besides the theme of the book another thing that impacted the reading experience was the author’s particular writing style. The run-on sentences and lack of grammar made me slowly lose interest in reading as the lack of breaks made it almost tiring for me to read and at times it was hard to distinguish the dialogue and who was speaking. What saved it for me was simply the discussion of death as in itself is an interesting topic and Saramago’s approach through satire commentary on society, religion and politics made it more engaging. 

My question for the class would be “Do you think humanizing death rather than having it be this god-like being would make people fear it less or more?”.