Abstract

We once took death to be a permanent part of human experience. This is no longer the case. As death, and its allies pain and suffering, have increasingly become subject to medical treatment and social control, we think of them in new ways. However, as important as this fundamental transformation is, I have chosen to discuss something entirely different in this essay: I contend here that death has a particular sting for us of the contemporary world since we lack stories and metaphors to talk about it.