Of Beautiful Sentences and Death
Beautiful opening sentences from the New York Times Obituary Section
I know the Obituary section is the last place you’d expect/head to to find literary inspiration, but hear me out. The New York Times Obituary writers have turned the writing of Obits into a literary art.
From the documentary ‘Obit’ - I’d recommend you check it out - we see that the NY Times Obit department was where old writers were sent when their careers were on their death beds (hehe). It was where writers on their way to retirement were sent. These writers turned around this department into something aspirational with their research, writing skills and diligence.
Let’s look at some opening paragraphs:
David Foster Wallace, whose prodigiously observant, exuberantly plotted, grammatically and etymologically challenging, philosophically probing and culturally hyper-contemporary novels, stories and essays made him an heir to modern virtuosos like Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo, an experimental contemporary of William T. Vollmann, Mark Leyner and Nicholson Baker and a clear influence on younger tour-de-force stylists like Dave Eggers and Jonathan Safran Foer, died on Friday at his home in Claremont, Calif. He was 46.
Hunter S. Thompson, the anger-driven, drug-fueled writer for Rolling Stone magazine whose obscenity-laced prose broke down the wall between reader and writer, writer and subject, shot and killed himself on Sunday at his home in Woody Creek, Colo. He was 67.
Michael Jackson, whose quintessentially American tale of celebrity and excess took him from musical boy wonder to global pop superstar to sad figure haunted by lawsuits, paparazzi and failed plastic surgery, was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon at U.C.L.A. Medical Center after arriving in a coma, a city official said. Mr. Jackson was 50, having spent 40 of those years in the public eye he loved.
Fidel Castro, the fiery apostle of revolution who brought the Cold War to the Western Hemisphere in 1959 and then defied the United States for nearly half a century as Cuba’s maximum leader, bedeviling 11 American presidents and briefly pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war, died on Friday. He was 90.
Ps: Obits for popular figures in the world are prepared in advance (I know, I know, it is fucked up). For Castro, his obit has been in existence since 1959, with revisions made til he died. 16 New York Times journalists recount their experience here.
Joan Rivers, the raspy loudmouth who pounced on America’s obsessions with flab, face-lifts, body hair and other blemishes of neurotic life, including her own, in five decades of caustic comedy that propelled her from nightclubs to television to international stardom, died on Thursday in Manhattan. She was 81.
Amy Winehouse, the British singer who found worldwide fame with a sassy, hip-hop-inflected take on retro soul, yet became a tabloid fixture as her problems with drugs and alcohol led to a strikingly public career collapse, was found dead on Saturday in her apartment in London, the police said. She was 27.
Kevin Samuels, a YouTube and Instagram personality whose blunt lifestyle advice aimed at Black men and women drew a legion of admiring followers and a chorus of detractors who condemned his views as outdated and cruel, died on Thursday in Atlanta. He was 57.
You can check out more here.
Most of these Obits as prepared in advance and sometimes they get leaked creating uproar online. Is it okay to write someone’s Obit before they die? You decide.
Thank you for reading. You can share some of your favorite Obits in the comments section of send to our socials :).
I think it's necessary even for us 'regular people'. I once attended a writing class where we were asked to write our obituaries, and it was a very reflective moment. If you want to be remembered we'll, don't be an asshole. Part of that comes from realising your conduct and how it affects others. I agree with writing obits before hand