This Mortal Coil

I watched a terrific movie at the weekend: Scoop, made by Woody Allen*. Confusingly, it's not the story of Evelyn Waugh's novel of the same name, (which remains a masterpiece), it's about a young journalism student who's given a tip off about a very wealthy and prominent man. I'm not going to spoil it for you by telling you what happens - except this: the tip-off comes from a dead journalist who manages to reconnect with the living world enough times to point our main character in the right direction. Sort of.

The first time the journo (Ian McShane) does this, he drops off the back of the boat being piloted by the Grim Reaper across a waterway. It's not clear what the waterway is, but it ain't the Murray and if it's the Styx, then Ian McShane is headed for a bit of unpleasantness.

There seems to be more dead in popular culture. Not death in popular culture - there's always been a lot of that - but dead in popular culture. Without thinking about it, Six Feet Under, Shaun of the Dead, even American Beauty, all leap to mind. It isn't just on screens either, a few years ago there was the remarkable The Lovely Bones, the narrator of which is dead from the first pages. More recently there's been Helen Garner's new novel and Mark Wakely's splendid non-fiction effort, Sweet Sorrow, among others.

I have to declare an interest before we go any further - Mark is a colleague and I'm fond of him, but that doesn't stop him producing something rather extraordinary: a beautifully written exploration of death. Friday's Life Matters was given over to a talkback on thinking about death and some of the calls were remarkable. You can listen here.

Today we talked about a more controversial aspect of dying - euthanasia. My guest, Dr Rodney Syme, does not like the word. He prefers 'physician assisted dying' and is upfront about his role in helping some people suffering pain, despair and fear end their lives. The book he's written (this has been a very bookish post) will upset a lot of people, in part because he is not always positive about some who work in palliative care. Hopefully it will be read rather than just ranted about.

*Woody Allen's character comes up with a great line - one that all pessimists (like me) will enjoy. He's just been accused of always seeing the glass as half-empty.
"No, you're wrong. I see the glass half full, but of poison."