[One Thousand Characters a Day] 'Sentences of Mourning' for the End of Life <5>

Editor's NoteFive hundred years ago, when the Black Death swept across the continent and fear made the weak its scapegoats, the French philosopher Montaigne said, "Ultimately, what matters is living true to oneself, and philosophy is learning how to die." The greatest lesson that writer Kim Yi-kyung, author of Sentences of Mourning, learned through long contemplation and study of the end is that life, even if meaningless, is immensely precious. Meaning belongs to human affairs, while life belongs to nature. Death strips away human arrogance and places us before nature. Thus, it humbly compels us to accept the preciousness of life. Word count: 975.

Whether it is making friends or studying, the beginning is always difficult. You are curious and want to know more, but you don’t know where to start or whether you are doing it right, and it feels overwhelming. About 20 years ago, when I first became interested in death and started studying it, I felt the same way. I didn’t even know there were study groups like “Meetings to Think About Life and Death,” so I struggled alone, reading every book with “death” in the title that I could find. Nowadays, there are many well-dying education programs and more people studying than before, so it’s easier to approach. Still, I’m introducing a few books worth reading in case there are others like me who go through trial and error. New books continue to be published, so this list is just for reference, but I hope it helps even a little.

Even if you become interested in death, many people find reading books on the subject burdensome because it is a heavy topic. For beginners like these, it’s best to start with literary works about death or essays that calmly recount personal experiences.

A representative example is Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air (translated by Lee Jong-in, Flow Publishing, 2016). It is one of the few death-related books that gained popularity in Korea. The lyrical title, the poignant story of a young neurosurgeon’s final record, and the calm yet moving depiction of his own approach to death captivated readers’ hearts. It does not approach the subject only emotionally but also contains medical expertise, making it very suitable for beginners.

When it comes to literature about death, one cannot overlook the works of Lev Tolstoy. Many writers and intellectuals have discussed death, but few have dealt with the subject as honestly and persistently as Tolstoy. His sentences lack the abstraction, exaggeration, and vanity often seen in death-related writing. Representative works include Anna Karenina (1877) and The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886). The former records death from the external perspective of those observing the dying, while the latter portrays death from the internal perspective of the dying person. Though old, it is still hard to find works that match these.

－Kim Yi-kyung, Sentences of Mourning, Seohae Munjip, 14,000 KRW