The Black Mirror: Fragments of an Obituary for Life
Inspired by E. M. Forster's thought that 'Death destroys a man but the idea of it saves him', The Black Mirror takes death as an external viewpoint from which we may see our lives more clearly.
Raymond Tallis looks back on his world from the standpoint of his future corpse. He reflects on the senses that opened up his late world, the elements they reveal, the distances, divisions and intimacies of space, the multifarious activities that occupied his days, his possessions, his utterances, his relationship to others, the extinguished flame that was his self, his journey towards the end, and his after-life either side of the grave.
Raymond Tallis trained as a doctor before going on to become Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester. He was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences for his research in clinical neuroscience. He retired from medicine in 2006 to become a full-time writer and has written over a dozen books including, most recently, The Kingdom of Infinite Space, Michelangelo's Finger, Aping Mankind and In Defence of Wonder. In 2009, The Economist's Intelligent Life magazine named him as one of the top living polymaths in the world.
Author: Raymond Tallis
Format: Paperback, 352 pages, 129mm x 198mm, 262 g
Published: 2016, Atlantic Books, United Kingdom
Genre: Philosophy
Inspired by E. M. Forster's thought that 'Death destroys a man but the idea of it saves him', The Black Mirror takes death as an external viewpoint from which we may see our lives more clearly.
Raymond Tallis looks back on his world from the standpoint of his future corpse. He reflects on the senses that opened up his late world, the elements they reveal, the distances, divisions and intimacies of space, the multifarious activities that occupied his days, his possessions, his utterances, his relationship to others, the extinguished flame that was his self, his journey towards the end, and his after-life either side of the grave.
Raymond Tallis trained as a doctor before going on to become Professor of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Manchester. He was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences for his research in clinical neuroscience. He retired from medicine in 2006 to become a full-time writer and has written over a dozen books including, most recently, The Kingdom of Infinite Space, Michelangelo's Finger, Aping Mankind and In Defence of Wonder. In 2009, The Economist's Intelligent Life magazine named him as one of the top living polymaths in the world.