Otsuichi

I like it when people who know me recommend things.  I like the fact that they know enough about me, and the thing they're recommending, to put the two of us together.  Recommend a song and I'll take a listen; recommend a film and I'll give it a look.  The only exception to this rule (there has to be one, it's a rule) is when it comes to books.  For some reason, books are so personal (and reading takes up so much precious time) that I'm loathe to take recommendations, although I'm more than happy to dish them out.

The one thing that we all have in common is that one day all of us will wake up for the last time.  When our eyes open that morning, we probably won't know we'll never do that again - although we live with the fact of it, death comes as a surprise to many of us, I think. We are the only thing on the planet, as far as we know, that lives with a knowledge of its own mortality.  Our cat doesn't lay awake at night, wondering if she's wasted her life, feeling every twinge and ache and wondering if it's a symptom of something terrible.

I have no faith, so there's no afterlife for me to look forward to. No one knows what happens when we die - perhaps I'm wrong and there is an afterlife - but I'm pretty certain that we just wink out, cease to exist. Like a candle flame that existed for a brief time, illuminated the small space around it, and was then extinguished.  I'm fascinated by the idea that one day all of this - look around you for what "this" means - will all stop.  There's a lot of talk at the moment about the end of the world and, while it probably won't happen in 2012, the world will end at some point in the next thirty to forty years.  Because I'll die in the next thirty to forty years and the world will end when I die.

The best description I've ever found of this experience comes from a short story by the Japanese writer Otsuichi, called Song of the Sunny Spot.  It's contained in a book of his short stories called Zoo, translated from Japanese by Terry Gallagher.  Perhaps I'm just in an especially reflective mood on a Sunday morning but I highly, highly recommend this book and this story in particular. You can find it on Amazon, here.