At the end of the 1994 film “Legends of the Fall”, Brad Pitt’s tragically heroic character “Tristan” confronts his fate with a massive grizzly bear leading the narrator (”Stab”) to conclude circumspectly: “It was a good death”.
In watching the various reports on the untimely death of Heath Ledger today I noticed a couple interesting facts:
(1) Ledger reported that in preparation for his role as The Joker in the upcoming Batman movie he spent over a month getting the mind-set of the character which Ledger described as a “psychopath, schizophrenic” with a “lack of empathy”–though notably the director reprised his variation of the iconic role as “anarchic”. In any case, the role was (reportedly, apparently) physically and psychologically demanding.
(2) Ledger was reputedly (according to 2 different sources) having trouble sleeping for more than “a few hours a night” after his work on the film and even after “taking Ambien” on one particular occasion was only able to sleep “for an hour” before waking again to a mind “racing with thoughts”. That this was directly correlated with the performance of the role in the upcoming film was implicitly and explicitly alluded to.
(3) Immediately prior to Ledger’s death, he was reportedly ill with pneumonia
Without knowing anything else of the circumstances surrounding his death, it appears plausible that an argument could be made that Ledger’s potentially (we’ll know when the film is released) masterful performance of a potentially seminal movie antagonist is directly correlated with his untimely death (it doesn’t take a stretch to conclude that chronic lack of sleep can easily lead to immune deficiency and resulting illness–which may or may not have directly caused his untimely death)…..
Now that’s what I would call a “good death”. I find it unfortunate that the ancient Greek term for a “good death” (euthanasia) has developed a contemporary referential meaning which is quite far from the one I propose here. Which is not to say that I object to the contemporary practice dubbed “euthanasia”–on the contrary I find it unproblematic (if not downright uninteresting and/or irrelevant). I just think we need to greatly broaden our discussions on the idea of a “good death”–especially in light of all the bemoaning of a particular type of death (i.e. of young, “interesting” people who “burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars” –Keroauc) in the media that is bound to occur following Ledger’s death. As if living a long (80 years) “healthy” life produces an alternative final result or a superior net sum result–my observation of which is not a polemic on the inferiority of the long life, just a rejection of the orthodoxy which reduces the value (relative to the long) of the short life.
Until the film comes out, I can only wonder at this latest reprisal of a character which embodies the most colorful comic-book expression of my hopes for aesthetically amenable post-Enlightenment normative progress.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzHnxkLcQ_w&feature=related (Crimson and Clover is such a lovely song)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p30VYoPP-b8
I suppose it comes down to whether or not one believes, as many do, that life itself is always essentially a good. If it is, and if every good is to be maximized, then life is to be maximized. Therefore one should want to live so long as possible.
Some believe that it may be possible for life to turn from a good to a harm. In which case life (as a harm) is to be minimized. Therefore death would not be such a bad thing.
At any rate, I fail to see how dying as a result of playing an iconic Villain is a “good death” in any sense of the term.
Yes, your assumption on the inherent value of life (as opposed to non-life) and the assumption that life “in general” is always better than non-life (leading to the conclusion that we should generally live as long as possible) is an assumption that is widely held and not discussed, and one that I am highly skeptical of. In fact, I totally fail to see any possibility for a good argument that existence is superior to non-existence, as any argument for existence is necessarily based on the experience of existence and the opposite position cannot be adequately articulated since to not-exist would necessarily prohibit articulation. So, in the debate (existence vs. non-existence) I find it impossible to assert with any confidence that one or the other could be “superior” in some normative sense–since I can only argue from a position of existence and cannot understand or articulate the lack thereof.
It’s a “good death” in the sense that the death (or so I assert) results from self-sacrificial aesthetic creation. It’s the best kind of death for an artist, in the same way that every true warrior (I believe Aristotle argued something similar) happily seeks death on the battlefield insofar as how we die is to be given relevance on par with how we live and that a “good death” reflects the pursuit of that which is our nature…or something like that. I’m asserting that our contemporary debate on life and death has lost (unfortunately I assert) some of these perspectives.
But to answer the utilitarian charge of maximizing longevity = maximizing good consider:
My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends–
It gives a lovely light!
–Edna St. Vincent Millay (A Few Figs from Thistles), 1920
I find that I don’t have much to add beyond agreement Mark. I eagerly anticipate the film to find out how valid your theory just might be…
Aspects of your argument against the valuation of existence vs. non-existence sound a lot like a point I was trying to make in a post from quite a while ago - so here too, I find myself in agreement.
~Q
Also, EDITED to include a cut for the front page.
Quincy,
In reading up on Taoist theory (for War and Peace class), I found this gem:
In the fourth section of “The Great Happiness” (至樂 zhìlè, chapter 18), Zhuangzi expresses pity to a skull he sees lying at the side of the road. Zhuangzi laments that the skull is now dead, but the skull retorts, “How do you know it’s bad to be dead?”