As you can tell from reading my blog, I love all things supernatural and have an at times unhealthy love of vampire related things (meaning books, films, not fake fangs or something!) and when you deal with vamps you deal with immortality.
Extract from Emily Dickenson’s Because I Could Not Stop For Death:
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality
(from Penguin’s Poems for Life)
Part of the seductive allure of vampires is their eternal life because everyone is so uncertain of death, some even fear it but immortality allows you to live endlessly, to reinvent your life how you want, to gain immeasurable skills and intellect. And of course if you’re in a paranormal romance, get to spend eternity with your dark and mysterious eternal love.
Thinking about immortality in reality is different. Is it really that seductive? The first consequence is saying goodbye to your loved ones – you will outlive everyone you know and have to roam from place to place every few years to keep your secret. That makes feeling lonely sometimes seem really insignificant.
If you do have someone to share that eternal life, it becomes easier to imagine. You could roam together, never getting old. To me, though all the allure fades when you think about not having children together, hiding your true existence from the rest of the world, relying on each other for everything - imagine how many arguments you could have in eternity!
The intrigue though remains despite all the down sides. Perhaps because we know it is unattainable and not much in our lives is anymore -we have science, medicine, we all live longer than ever yet that tantalising notion of eternal life dangles out of reach. If it was attainable, we might all reconsider.
Given the choice, I don’t think I could choose immortality. Could you?
Immortality – a fate worse than death.
Edgar A. Shoaff
Lindea
/ January 24, 2011I’ve actually been thinking a lot about this subject. Eternal life, or immortality (which is often mistaken for eternal life).
In the term where immortality is eternal life I would say yes. In the term where immortality means what it does: that you cannot die (not subject to death or decay; having perpetual life), I would say no, as eternal life comes with the option that you can die.
vixter2010
/ January 24, 2011Thanks for your comment!
That’s intertesting as I took them to mean the same thing. Why does eternal life have the option to die, how would that happen?
Lindea
/ January 26, 2011In the words “eternal life” it states that the given life is eternal. It doesn’t say anything about not being able to die, it just states that your life lasts forever. Immortality on the other hand states that you can’t possibly die, which means you can be cut in a million pieces and still be alive and attached to all the parts of your body.
vixter2010
/ January 26, 2011Love the distinction, it’s a great debate!