Nothing to be frightened of

"Mr Barnes, we've examined your condition, and we conclude that your fear of death is intimately connected to your literary habits, which are, as for many in your profession, merely a trivial response to mortality.

You make up stories so that your name, and some indefinable percentage of your individuality, will continue after your physical death, and anticipation of this brings you some kind of consolation. And although you have intellectually grasped that might well be forgotten before you die, or if not, shortly afterwards, and that all writers will eventually be forgotten, as will the entire human race, even so it seems to you worth doing.

Whether writing is for you a visceral response to the rational, or a rational response to the visceral, we cannot be sure.

But here's something for you to consider. We have devised a new brain operation which takes away the fear of death. It's a straightforward procedure which doesn't require general anaesthetic -- indeed you can watch its progress on-screen. Just keep an eye on this fiery orange locus ad watch its colour gradually fade.

Of course, you'll find that the operation will take away your desire to write, but many of your colleagues have opted for this treatment and found it most beneficial. Nor has society at large complained about there being fewer writers."

Julian Barnes

Nothing to be frightened of