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w_timmes's review against another edition
Maybe I’ll finish this book another time. I need to work on reading the books I own.
neonpomegranate's review against another edition
The percentage finished number is inaccurate. Once I started disliking the book I jumped around to a few chapters to see if I could find anything that would
make it worth continuing. I did not.
Becker is truly concerned with what it means to be a man. I don’t mean just the usage of the word man to supposedly mean all people, which is what apologists always say about writing from earlier times. I mean he’s quite concretely interested in what it means to be a man, and only a man:
make it worth continuing. I did not.
Becker is truly concerned with what it means to be a man. I don’t mean just the usage of the word man to supposedly mean all people, which is what apologists always say about writing from earlier times. I mean he’s quite concretely interested in what it means to be a man, and only a man:
The one with the deepest voice, the strongest appearance, the most authority and success, is usually the one who gets our momentary allegiance; and we try to pattern our ideals after him. But as light goes on we get a perspective on this, and all these different versions of truth become a little pathetic. Each person thinks that he has the formula for triumphing over life’s limitations and knows with authority what it means to be a man, and he usually tries to win a following for his particular patent.
(Apparently people didn’t know how to use a semicolon in the seventies either.)
To that project, yuck. I can’t imagine anything I care about less. Plus I hate Kant, who shows up throughout, something I somehow find myself writing in reviews often. I also hate Freud and though Becker is largely disagreeing with Freud, I don’t want to waste any more of my time having to think about Freud at all.
Overall, I regret wasting a precious Libby hold on this book and I regret the time spent reading it; and now even writing this review. The only thing that’s made it worth my time at all was getting to make a semicolon joke.
dalefu's review against another edition
2.0
I went into this hoping to have my views challenged, to be confronted with some uncomfortable ideas that would ultimately be worth considering to anyone willing to face the hard truths. Instead, I either got ideas that were pretty well established by now, or else woefully out of date (mostly the Freudian stuff). Either way, it seems like the age of the book finally caught up with it. I can see how it was a game changer in its day, but it felt antiquated by modern standards.
erikbergstrom's review against another edition
2.0
“We are gods with anuses.”
What IS Death? Are we Death? Is Death... Death?
None of these questions are asked, or answered mind you, in Ernest Becker's book, The Denial of Death. It's just something I wonder about sometimes. I was hoping he'd at least talk a little bit about man's aversion to death, seeing as we're the only species conscious of our own demise. But he didn't... not really. He talked a little bit about it by way of talking about man's many mental illnesses and how they're all derived from our own neuroses. But most of the time he just talked about how he doesn't like Freud, how he does like Otto Rank, who he'd pick to win a Psychology Death Match, and foot fetishes. A lot... lot lot lot about foot fetishes. Ernest Becker isn't hiding that he has a foot fetish, is what I'm saying.
The only good section is the last one, funnily enough titled "Retrospect and Conclusion", because it basically condenses the only interesting stuff into a much more digestible essay while including this boss-level quote, which is the only reason I sought out this book in the first place:
Wow! Where was THIS Ernest for the other 230+ pages??
What IS Death? Are we Death? Is Death... Death?
None of these questions are asked, or answered mind you, in Ernest Becker's book, The Denial of Death. It's just something I wonder about sometimes. I was hoping he'd at least talk a little bit about man's aversion to death, seeing as we're the only species conscious of our own demise. But he didn't... not really. He talked a little bit about it by way of talking about man's many mental illnesses and how they're all derived from our own neuroses. But most of the time he just talked about how he doesn't like Freud, how he does like Otto Rank, who he'd pick to win a Psychology Death Match, and foot fetishes. A lot... lot lot lot about foot fetishes. Ernest Becker isn't hiding that he has a foot fetish, is what I'm saying.
The only good section is the last one, funnily enough titled "Retrospect and Conclusion", because it basically condenses the only interesting stuff into a much more digestible essay while including this boss-level quote, which is the only reason I sought out this book in the first place:
What are we to make of creation in which routine activity is for organisms to be tearing others apart with teeth of all types - biting, grinding flesh, plant stalks, bones between molars, pushing the pulp greedily down the gullet with delight, incorporating its essence into one’s own organization, and then excreting with foul stench and gasses residue. Everyone reaching out to incorporate others who are edible to him. The mosquitoes bloating themselves on blood, the maggots, the killer-bees attacking with a fury and a demonism, sharks continuing to tear and swallow while their own innards are being torn out - not to mention the daily dismemberment and slaughter in “natural” accidents of all types: an earthquake buries alive 70 thousand bodies in Peru, a tidal wave washes over a quarter of a million in the Indian Ocean. Creation is a nightmare spectacular taking place on a planet that has been soaked for hundreds of millions of years in the blood of all creatures. The soberest conclusion that we could make about what has actually been taking place on the planet about three billion years is that it is being turned into a vast pit of fertilizer. But the sun distracts our attention, always baking the blood dry, making things grow over it, and with its warmth giving the hope that comes with the organism’s comfort and expansiveness.
Wow! Where was THIS Ernest for the other 230+ pages??
mahir007's review against another edition
5.0
من بين كل الأشياء التي تحرك الإنسان ، فإن أهم الأسباب هو خوفه من الموت. بعد داروين ، ظهرت مشكلة الموت باعتبارها مشكلة تطورية ، ورأى العديد من المفكرين على الفور أنها مشكلة نفسية كبيرة للإنسان . كما حددوا بسرعة كبيرة ما معنى البطولة الحقيقية ، كما كتب (شالر) في مطلع القرن: البطولة هي قبل كل شيء رد الفعل على رعب الموت. نعجب أكثر بشجاعة من يواجه الموت. نعطي مثل هذه البسالة لدينا أعلى المراتب . إنها تحركنا بعمق في الداخل لأن لدينا شكوك حول مدى شجاعتنا نحن . عندما نرى رجلاً يواجه موته بشجاعة ، نكون أمام أعظم انتصار يمكننا تخيله. وهكذا كان للبطل مركز الشرف والإشادة الإنسانية منذ بداية الإنسان !!
Ernest Becker
The Denial Of Death
ترجمة :#Maher_Razouk
Ernest Becker
The Denial Of Death
ترجمة :#Maher_Razouk